Private innovation is the wellspring of progress on environmentalmatters. Where once environmental policy inherently mistrusted marketsand punishment was pursued more vigorously than progress, today wealthcreation, appropriately harnessed, is the main engine of environmentalprogress. This is the new environmentalism. At first glance one might attribute comments such as these to amarketing giant such as Wal-Mart or an innovative technology companysuch as GE. In fact, these are the views of NewEnvironmentalism.org, aproject of the California-based Reason Foundation, a non-profitorganization that identifies and promotes innovative approaches toaddressing serious environmental challenges. According to the Foundation, the new environmentalism focuses ondecision-making processes and strives to create incentives for bothconsumers and business to obtain the information to become goodenvironmental stewards. Whereas traditional environmentalism perceived the free market as anadversary, the new environmentalism recognizes the marketplace as animportant mechanism for problem solving through incentives. Recognizingthat a healthy environment also leads to a healthy economy, consumersand some business leaders are responding accordingly. The argument is straight forward. Environmental progress over thelong term requires self-propelled environmental protection bygovernment, businesses, and individual private citizens. Environmentalentrepreneurship is not likely to occur unless people have theincentives and ability to act as private stewards of the environment.While punishment is needed for those who callously flout environmentallaw, new environmentalism strikes a balance between punishment andincentives that encourage environmental innovation. It`s not a new argument - the National Center for Policy Analysis inthe US published an insightful paper stressing this theme over a decadeago - but it is an important one. The Centre argued Traditionalenvironmentalism had failed to appreciate the importance of incentivesin guiding human action, whereas the New environmentalism focused onindividual decision-making processes that created incentives for peopleto become good environmental stewards. "Because of its respect for incentives, new environmentalism viewsthe marketplace as an important mechanism for problem solving. Itrecognizes that wealth creation, appropriately harnessed, is an engineof environmental progress, "stated the Centre in its 1997 Study New Environmentalism. Chief among the many Principles put forward by the Centre as thecornerstones of the new environmentalism, was an emphasis onIndividualism "Other things being equal, when individuals make theirown decisions about what values to pursue, conflict is reduced and thewell-being of society is enhanced." John Javna, author of the best selling book - 50 Simple Things YouCan Do to Save the Earth , makes the same point about the importance ofpersonal values as the core determinants of action - but action that isoriented toward issues. Such action goes further than simple individual effort. It harnessesthe power of cooperation and community that not only works to changeindividual personal habits, but also to change society - laws,business practices, and even values. This action inspires a sustained,committed effort to solve specific problems, rather than simplyencouraging random environmental behaviour. The simplest, most practical way to accomplish this argues Javna, isfor each of us to find a single environmental issue that`s right forour lives-one that we really care about-and make that issue the focusof our efforts. "It doesn`t matter which issue you pick-big or small-becausethey`re all connected. If you work to cut carbon emissions from powerplants, for example, you`re also helping to clean up waterways. If youclean waterways, you`re improving wildlife habitat. By impr
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