Articles by Jason D Scorse

NGO cozy with human-rights nightmare Burma?

The accusations in The New Republic about the Wildlife Conservation Society's cozy relationship with the government of Burma, which has one of the worst human rights records in the world, should disturb all committed environmentalists. Our goals do not exist in a vacuum and it is not alright to focus myopically on biodiversity conservation without taking into account other serious issues.

So no matter what you think about animal welfare and animal rights, I hope everyone out there will express some concern about turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in order to promote environmental goals. That's a value judgment for sure; one that I stand by wholeheartedly.

Value judgments are inescapable

In the ongoing debate (which has been great) over the extent to which environmentalism should expand beyond notions of sustainability to the welfare of individual animals, I have never once challenged the core belief that preventing species extinction is of paramount concern to all environmentalists. But once we unpack that assumption a little more, we will discover that the entire realm of environmentalism is fraught with contentious moral and value judgments.

Yes

Some commenters have wondered if my argument is really a side show. Most environmental groups oppose whaling and the killing of dolphins and other advanced mammals, so why am I trying to create a rift that isn't there in the first place? For two reasons:

Just because GDP doesn’t track happiness is no reason to reject economic growth

It's inarguably true that while GDP has grown exponentially for the past half-century, human happiness has remained relatively flat. All the same, as an economist it baffles me when these two facts are put forth as evidence that capitalism, markets, and economic growth are one big mirage, with only minor links to human welfare.