Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Beyond bumper sticker environmentalism
Beyond bumper sticker environmentalism
Mar 19, 2026 2:32 PM

In an Earth Day column last week that was skeptical about the gospel of global warming consensus, Glenn Shaw, a professor of physics at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, expressed hoped that the climate change debate might spark a prehensive conversation about plex environmental responsibilities.

In fact the opposite seems to be happening: the activist buzz over global warming is reducing the broader concept of environmental stewardship to a litmus-test on climate change. That’s why I wrote a piece that appeared in today’s Detroit News, “U.S. must move beyond Earth Day slogans.”

In this op-ed I examine three aspects of environmental care that show prehensive nature of plex realities that belie the free and easy slogans of bumper sticker environmentalism: planting pact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), and plug-in cars.

For more information about the sources used in this story, see these related items:

Russell Seitz, “An Inconvenient Tree,” The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2006The Home Depot, “Eco Options”Tesla Motors

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The lasting relevance of Wilhelm Röpke
The 20th century is considered one of the deadliest centuries in history. Collectivism and consolidation of power took flight, resulting in some of the most atrocious violations of human rights the world has ever witnessed. One economist was instrumental in analyzing the cause of such atrocities while offering an antidote to the worldviews in which they were rooted, in hopes that we might not once again be lured by similar false promises of socialism. Published in 1958 and later translated...
The power of story in the economic imagination
In his 1958 essay,“I, Pencil,”Leonard Read took up the voice of a self-reflective pencil to tell a fictional tale that illuminated the nonfictional marvels of mundane economic cooperation. The essay went on to influence the hearts and minds of many, thanks in part to Read’s insightful mind, but also to his chosen medium:the story. “You may wonder why I should write a genealogy,” the pencil says. “Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more...
Radio Free Acton: What is Natural Law? Upstream on Netflix’s ‘Anon’
This episode of Radio Free Acton features a discussion between Drew McGinnis, Editorial Director and Research Fellow at Acton, and Eric Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College and translator of a book recently released in Acton’s bookshop: On the Law of Nature. Drew and Eric talk about the book and what Natural Law is. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks with Titus Techera, film critic and contributor to multiple publications including National Review and The...
Human progress and productivity gave us more time to watch cooking shows
For most of human history, the average person spent much of their day trying to produce enough food to survive. Even in the mid-1800s 90 percent of Americans were farmers. But that was soon to change, and by the 1870 census farmers dropped to a minority at 47.7 percent of all employed persons. In that same year the average person spent 62 percent of their waking hours—70 hours a week—working. But over the next 150 years the number of working...
How ‘democratic socialism’ disempowers minorities
Progressives are known for their blanket denunciations of “big business” and consolidated corporate power. Yet amid their sweeping disdain, such critics somehow manage to maintain a peculiar affection for the consolidation of much, much more. Alas, although today’s so-called “democratic socialists” try to claim distinction among their peers by emphasizing popularcontrol—as opposed to the typical authoritarian shtick—the “democratization” of all things via political control will still surely lead to greater consolidations of power at the expense of many—particularly minorities and...
P.J. Hill on the social power of markets
Economic exchange is often seen as a cold and calculating endeavor—entirely self-focused and impersonal, with sole attention on price and profit and, thus, little regard for actual human needs or well-being. Such a view fails to recognize that trade is more simply the manifestation of humanpartnership, and, seen rightly, such partnership is filled with positive social and moral implications. In a recent lecture for the Oikonomia Network, economist P.J. Hill highlights the profound social connections that markets can help to...
The Prague Spring: An Eastern European perspective
The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia began in earnest 50 years ago today, with the intention to destroy the blooming “Prague Spring.” But today, the truths that invasion revealed have been lost, both in the West and among many young people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Krassen Stanchev of Bulgaria recounts the invasion’s history and importance in detail at Acton’sReligion & Liberty Transatlanticwebsite. In a new essay, he writes: On this date in 1968, armies of the Warsaw Pact invaded...
Christians and Muslims have reason to agree: Mustafa Akyol
The West flourished by developing a synthesis of morality informed by faith, rationality shaped by classical philosophy, and the rule of law. Some Christians and Muslims see faith and reason as opposed – but theological schools of both religions believed the two were indispensable allies. Samuel Gregg has written extensively about the fiction that Christians were “somehow opposedholus bolusto Enlightenment ideas.”On the contrary, Gregg wrote, after seeing “the discoveries made through enhanced use of the empirical method, Catholics shaped by...
Democrats are now more positive about socialism than capitalism
The News: According to a new Gallup survey, a majority of Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than of capitalism. The Background: Since 2010 Gallup has asked Democrats and Republicans whether they have a positive or negative image of small business, entrepreneurs, free enterprise, capitalism, big business, the federal government, and socialism. Since 2010, a majority of Democrats have expressed a positive image of socialism. But this is the first year that less than a majority (47 percent)...
What do bond markets do?
Note: This is post #90 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Most borrowers, such as individuals and small businesses, borrow through banks. But larger institutions can also borrow from a different financial intermediary: the bond market. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok explains what bonds are, what they do, how they’re rated, and how the bond markets work. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved