Why too much market-based regulation or reliance on the free markets is not the answer in preventing and reversing environmental degradation

I want to make some notes regarding this post from The Daily Dish. First, although the post isn’t claiming so, I believe it is important to understand that using “the power of the marketplace” isn’t a new idea invented by green conservatives. Conservationists and environmentalists support using the power of markets or market-based regulation to meet environmental goals. My issue with market-based regulation is that as an environmental management tool, it isn’t the magic bullet that solves environmental degradation.  If fact, market-based regulation should exist under a strong regulatory framework, because people cheat.

Using “the power of the marketplace” too much or relying solely on market-based regulation to manage the environment without government oversight can be disastrous in my opinion. Market-based regulation can work, but it must exist under a regulatory framework to ensure ethics, goals, and targets are being met. There needs to be a holistic approach employed when trying to meet environmental goals, so I do not agree with reliance on just command-and-control mechanisms either. However, I do believe great environmental regulation does exist, such as the controversial and sometimes misunderstood Endangered Species Act (ESA). The markets could never produce the services provided under the ESA.

Furthermore, the supreme Law of Nature—the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which even markets and profits must submit to, binds us all.  Metabolizing resources at an unsustainable rate will not support a healthy society.

It should be noted that voluntary regulation or self-regulation can at times be a powerful tool in fighting environmental degradation as well.  However, self-regulation only works when the entity doing the self-regulating is altruistic or mindful of conservation and environmental goals.

Given the recent woes of the run-amuck free market housing sector, how the neoconservatives have poorly managed the environment, and knowing that sportspersons do support Rooseveltian-style conservation, I do not believe market-based regulation is the answer to the dilemma of a growing population and limited resources (much less climate change), nor do I believe hunters and fishers will buy into it as the sole answer to environmental degradation or conservation needs.

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