Recent publications
Imposing our preferences on whaling cultures
Few issues illustrate how subjective beliefs about morality distorts environmental debate more than the issue of whaling. Many environmentalists claim to be simply advocates for the sustainable use of resources; they claim that they are not in...
Biotechnology is bioterrific, not bioterrifying
Near the beginning of Richard Hindmarsh's Edging Towards BioUtopia he provides, apparently un-selfconsciously, a persuasive illustration of the chasm between scientists using rDNA techniques (the creation of artificial DNA) and critics of...
Climate Change: China's approach
In November 2008, Dr Alan Moran, Director of the IPA's Deregulation Unit travelled overseas to get on-the-spot looks at the international policy climate for global warming mitigation strategies. This second part looks at China. (The first part, on...
What's happening to the Murray River
The Murray River is Australia's longest river, and together with its tributary, the Darling River, drains an area known as the Murray Darling Basin. The region has historically received only 6 per cent of Australia's annual rainfall but produced...
2008 Harold Clough Lecture: 'The Politics and Science of Climate Change: The Wrong Stuff'
The 2008 IPA Lecture was organised in conjunction with the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation. I am pleased to present this lecture today in Perth. I am particularly pleased to find that Perth is still here. I last visited here in 2005 - the...
Shooting down the enemies of progress
Tony Gilland reviews An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming by Nigel Lawson (Overlook, 2008, 144 pages) & The Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainabilityby Austin Williams (Imprint, 2008, 156 pages) An Appeal to Reason:...
Who should take the blame for the biofuels tragedy?
In Mexico early last year, 75,000 people took to the streets in protest of the increasing cost of basic grain, in what were branded the ‘tortilla riots.' In March 2008, there were food riots in Egypt. And in April, Haitians rioted over the...
Taking apart Australia
After more than two decades of economic reform there were few truly egregious examples of government sanctioned protection left to greet the incoming Rudd Government. Perhaps the most outstanding was the monopoly granted to a publicly listed...
Submission to the Green Paper on Australia's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Emissions Trading: Towards the biggest economic change in Australian history
‘Placing a limit and a price on emissions will change the things we produce, the way we produce them, and the things we buy', states the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper, which compares the economic impact...