Introduction: Philosophies, Politics, and Policies

Abstract

American attitudes toward the use of natural resources, and the policies which flow from those attitudes, have changed markedly over time.¹ For most of American history, those who shaped natural resource policies were inspired by the Biblical injuncture to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion … over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”² A secular version of that attitude emerged with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in 1776, and ever since has been developed by a succession of economic theorists.³ Virtually all early Americans were “cornucopians” who saw the earth’s resources as endless, and there to be exploited by humanity for its material needs. Cornucopians idealize conceptions of private property, free enterprise, and a government with powers confined to protecting Americans from internal and foreign violence.