To my knowledge, Rand didn’t spend much time
specifically on the issue of pollution. But given that her political philosophy
is grounded in the principle of individual rights, it logically follows that
she would believe that anti-pollution laws have their place in a free,
industrial society.
And she did have a few things to say explicitly
on pollution and the government’s role:
As far as the issue of actual pollution is concerned, it is
primarily a scientific, not a political, problem. In regard to the political
principle involved: if a man creates a physical danger or harm to others, which
extends beyond the line of his own property, such as unsanitary conditions or
even loud noise, and if this is proved, the law can and does hold him
responsible.
Rand also had a balanced view of pollution vs.
the benefits of industrial activity, which I think is consistent with the views
of most Americans:
City smog and filthy rivers are not good for men (though they are
not the kind of danger that the ecological panic-mongers proclaim them to be).
This is a scientific, technological problem—not a political one—and it can be
solved only by technology. Even if smog were a risk to human life, we must
remember that life in nature, without technology, is wholesale death.
These quotes are taken from the sections Pollution and Ecology/Environmental
Movement of the Ayn Rand
Lexicon.
Some half a century ago, at the dawn of the
Environmentalist movement (then labeled “ecology”), Rand predicted that Americans
would clean up the air and rivers and so on, but would never do so at the
expense of their standard of living, as the “back-to-nature” crowd demanded.
Since then, great strides have been made against industrial pollution, even as
Americans’ living standards continued to increase. Although the ideological
Environmentalists continue their anti-industrial campaign (with some success),
Rand’s “take” on pollution has largely become the mainstream, in my view.
Related Reading:
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