1 THE CASE AGAINST FREE MARKET ENVIRONMENTALISM Tony Smith Department of Philosophy Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 Introduction There are certain social tasks which the market generally tends to fulfill. It co-ordinates decisions of widely dispersed individuals and enterprises without demanding endless hours of negotiations. It provides individuals with the opportunity to express their economic preferences in a direct fashion (subject, of course, to income constraints). It provides enterprises with incentives to produce quality goods at low costs, and to search for new innovations. Defenders of free market environmentalism (henceforth "FME") hold that it fulfills one further task as well. In their view unregulated free markets provide the best hope for avoiding environmental crises. Before we turn to the arguments for and against this position, we should take a moment to consider the policy implications of FME in order to find out exactly what is at stake. I have handed out a sheet consisting of some of the regulations and programs that are ruled out by FME. If you believe that any of the sorts of things listed on this sheet are good ideas, then you cannot accept FME. I. The General Libertarian Argument for FME Libertarianism is the social philosophy that holds that the best society is one where state activity is limited to protecting against force and fraud, with all other matters left to voluntary agreements in the marketplace. If one holds this general view, then FME follows at once. And so any argument for libertarianism provides an argument for FME as well. The standard argument for libertarianism begins with the claim that the negative right to liberty, that is the right to do as we wish as long as we do not engage in force or fraud against others, is a moral absolute. From this the conclusion is derived that the right to use our property as we wish