By Ganon Evans
If I could summarize the American spirit with one word, it would be “triumph.” To be triumphant requires achieving glorious victory in the face of seemingly unconquerable challenges. Pictures from Iwo Jima, the March on Washington, and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing symbolize Americans’ ability to rise above the political, social, and scientific challenges of their time. Looking at the great challenges of the 21st century, there is one particularly one where America’s future depends upon and where the U.S. should strive for greatness: saving the environment.
My partner at the American Conservation Coalition, Carter Harrison, and I were fortunate enough to work with the British Conservation Alliance and the Austrian Economics Center on a chapter in the upcoming book Green Market Revolution in which we discuss America’s free market environmental possibilities. Jobs and the economic well-being of millions of citizens are threatened by climate change’s consequences on agriculture, housing, and transportation, as well as upcoming changes in America’s energy future. Pollution poisons our landscapes, making people sick and killing the amber waves of grain across America. With these confounding environmental issues stacking up, it’s time for the American government to enact definitive policies to protect America’s land, water, air, and people.
As of June 2020, the Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act with a bipartisan 73-25 margin, paving the way for billions of dollars to alleviate deferred maintenance costs currently affecting our hundreds of national parks. Natural parks not only provide refuge for wildlife to prosper, but are important scientific research grounds for understanding climate change and its consequences. Furthermore, these parks provide over $40 billion in tourism revenue annually. Passing the Great American Outdoors Act was a huge accomplishment in both environmental conservation and fiscal responsibility and provides a strong example for future U.S. environmental policy. In recent years, ideological disputes about the Green New Deal have made the environment a politicized issue more prone to bickering than actual resolution. However, there exists a plethora of bipartisan opportunities addressing climate change. Sure, they may be small steps individually, but they are targeted, actionable solutions that will make progress on specific challenges. America’s tradition of pioneering free market solutions will transition beautifully into the environmental engagements of the near future.
One of the best solutions is allowing the federal government to award land and water rights to private conservationists and individual properties. One of the largest threats facing American land and water today is that because nobody besides the government and the “people” are the owners of water, there is a lack of responsibility, capability, and incentive to keep areas clean. The nature of property is that when something belongs to someone, then the property owner will expend their own resources to protect the value of that property.
Consider two people: a farmer far up the Mississippi River in Iowa and a fisherman in the Mississippi Delta. Agricultural runoff of pesticides and other chemicals from the Iowan’s farm makes it way into the Mississippi. On a national scale, this is thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals accumulating and making their way to the Gulf of Mexico, where they are deposited. Currently, a hypoxic “dead zone” exists near where the Mississippi meets the Gulf, suffocating fish which enter it. With fish in the region dying as waters become uninhabitable, the fisherman loses his livelihood. What can be done to create accountability? Property rights. If consecutive farmers up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries are granted water rights, then if a farmer pollutes the water supply by not preventing chemical runoff, then they can be punished legally for harming the property of farmers down river. Similarly, the fisherman would be granted property rights so they would be compensated for the pollutants’ damages. The fisherman would also prevent overfishing in their own waters to ensure a healthy, sustainable population of fish would grow in his territory. Land and water rights create incentives for private citizens to protect their own land or face legal consequences. This takes a massive burden for caring for millions of acres of ocean and soil off the government, while also creating new economic opportunities for caring for the environment which frequently outcompete the government in implementation.
Fortunately, the process of implementing water markets and increased land property rights for conservationists has already begun. Oregon perhaps has the best functioning example of a water market today. The fundamental pillars of such a system include easy access and transferability of water rights, non-encroaching government enforcement of those rights, and responsible water quality guidelines which ensure environmental health within achievable bounds for owners. Water markets prevent pollution while maintaining much of the economic freedom of individuals involved with water in their daily lives. Furthermore, a water market is more efficient than a government amalgamation trying to manage all of the water across a country as massive as the United States – it’s just not feasible considering the absence of such programs since FDR’s New Deal nearly a century ago. And while recent proposals have attempted to reach this ambitious level of project, the current political climate is more inclined to steady policy changes such as extending property rights.
Water and land rights are just one measure towards combating the deterioration of the environment. But through persistent commitment towards innovating the way we approach this issue, Americans will add saving the environment to the long list of triumphs.
Ganon Evans is a policy researcher at the American Conservation Coalition (ACC).