The New Holy Wars

In the paper I wrote for Energy Intelligence last summer, I cited just one economist – Robert H. Nelson, who published “The Economics Profession and the Making of Public Policy” in the J. of Economic Literature more than a quarter-century ago…. & I’ve been following his work ever since. About a decade ago, I read his book Economics as Religion, a great read which posits that while economists think of themselves as scientists, they might more accurately be viewed as priests proselytizing a secular religion – the well-known ‘gospel of efficiency.’ By assuming away important factors – e.g., the ‘pecuniary externalities’ of market transformations, or the ‘non-use’ values of environmental amenities – they’ve played a key role in legitimizing that “most vital religion of the modern age”: economic progress.

On this trip I was reading Nelson’s latest book, The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion vs. Environmental Religion in Contemporary America. The book is every bit as iconoclastic as the last one, with the target this time being environmentalists – who would no doubt be surprised to find themselves being likened to Creationists. By ignoring Darwin on several fronts (i.e., trying to re-create pristine landscapes that didn’t exist, lamenting the “great Darwinian triumph of our own species,”etc.), and utilizing Biblical imagery and threats, Nelson suggests that environmentalism has “reasserted the powerful U.S. Puritan heritage,” but in a secular form “free of the historical baggage of institutional Christianity.”

His work is both erudite and provocative, and he’s tackling the core intersection of economics and environmentalism – and so I’ll definitely continue to track his on-going efforts!