The Thoreau Institute
Articles, Speeches, and Op-Eds

Articles

The New Conservationists: Randal O'Toole speculates that the movement is fragmenting into its pre-1970 configuration of "conservationists" and "preservationists."

Comments on "The New Conservationists": Comments from a variety of sources on a draft of the New Conservationist paper.

Better Incentives for Public Lnads: How lands are managed is more important than who owns them.

Building an Environmental-Libertarian Alliance: Can libertarians work together with environmentalists? Published in Liberty magazine.

Fixing the ESA: Article published in the FSEEE newsletter, Inner Voice.

The Coming War on the Automobile: Why some people want to turn cars into the next social evil, written for Liberty magazine.

Neotraditionalism: A critique of Neotraditional or New Urban planning, written for Liberty magazine.

Beware Metro: Problems with metropolitan planning, written for Liberty magazine.

Speeches

Reforming Public Land Management with New Incentives: A speech given at Colorado University shows why it is more important to reform incentives than to replace top officials or transfer land ownership.

Recreation Fees: The American Experience: A speech given at a conference in Montreal shows how recreation fees can play an important role in reforming public land management.

Incentives for Protecting Biodiversity: Speech given at a Smithsonian conference on biodiversity on April 22, 1995.

Recreation Fees: The American Experience: A speech given at a conference in Montreal shows how recreation fees can play an important role in reforming public land management.

Op-Eds

Purity Weakens Greens: Some environmental groups thrive by attacking other environmentalists. Published in the Denver Post (1-4-98) and elsewhere.

Private Ownership to Save Species: A proposal for fixing the ESA published in the Arizona Daily Star (1-5-98) and several other papers.

Should Congress Give the Federal Lands to the States?: A summary of a lengthy report of the same name that Randal O'Toole prepared for the Cato Institute.

Solve Park Controversies with User Fees: How user fees can help restore the national parks.

Fixing the Recreation Fee Program: Reveals a significant flaw in the recreation fee demonstration program.

Packing Them In: Critique of Metro planning in Portland published in the Oregonian (11-15-97).

Comments on Packing Them In: Responses published in the Oregonian (12-22-96) written by University of Puget Sound economist Hart Hodges and the Coalition for a Livable Future, with replies by O'Toole.

Coming Soon to a City Near You: Warning other cities of the perils of Portland's New Urban planning process, published in the Las Vegas Sun (9-21-97) and several other papers.

Rail Not the Solution: A critique of ISTEA and light rail published in the Houston Chronicle (9-21-97) and Detroit News.

The Solution to Congestion: How to fix congestion without spending a fortune.

Electronic Drummer