The Rice Objectivism Club is sponsoring yet another speaker this semester! We figure who better to challenge the status quo and to present a rational, this-worldly approach to common philosophical, social, and political issues.This time around, we’re going to challenge the environmentalists! You’ve seen the dire predictions about global warming; you’ve been warned about the evils of fossil fuels; you’ve been encouraged to “go green.” But does any of this make sense? Are these predictions and warnings based upon scientific fact? More importantly, will “going green” actually make your life better or worse?
Our speaker Richard Salsman, an Ayn Rand scholar and economist, will address these issues and more in his talk Capitalism and Environmentalism: The Virtues of Exploitation, taking place next Tues., March 25th, at 7:30 p.m. in 212 Herzstein Hall. Take time out of your studies to get an entirely new perspective on environmentalism, a viewpoint that you probably won’t hear in class.
Summary
Man achieves his survival by using his mind to alter his environment to suit his needs and improve the conditions of his existence. It is this process — expressed in science, technology, and capitalism — that has allowed man to rise from the hunger, drudgery, and misery of primitive existence to the comfort of modern civilization. But it is precisely this process that is under attack by the reactionary “greens” — who want to return man to the pre-industrial era or even to the Stone Age.
In this talk, Mr. Salsman does not merely discredit the scientific claims of environmentalism; he demolishes its moral and philosophical base. He demonstrates that: (1) the doctrine that nature has “intrinsic value,” i.e., some sort of mystical value entirely apart from its relation to man, is nothing but the desire to destroy human values, (2) the improvement of the environment — for man — can be provided for only by laissez-faire capitalism, and (3) that it is the environmentalist movement itself that is today’s greatest danger to human health and happiness.
About Richard Salsman
Richard M. Salsman is president and chief market strategist of InterMarket Forecasting, which provides quantitative research and forecasts of stocks, bonds, and currencies to guide the asset allocation decisions of institutional investment managers, mutual funds, and pension plans. He is the author of numerous books and articles on economics, banking, and forecasting from a free-market perspective, including Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (American Institute for Economic Research, 1990) and Gold and Liberty (American Institute for Economic Research, 1995). Mr. Salsman’s work has appeared in The Intellectual Activist, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist and Barron’s. From 1993 to 1999, he was a senior vice president and senior economist at H. C. Wainwright & Co. Economics. Prior to that he was a banker at Citibank and the Bank of New York. Mr. Salsman is an adjunct fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
