Environmentalists turn trivial issues into matters of life and death. Take sustainability, for instance.

There are no examples in history of any resource causing anything close to a catastrophe because it was not sustainable. There are, however, numerous counterexamples.

Two hundred years ago, whale oil was the most popular fuel for lanterns. Before whales could go extinct from overharvesting, lower-priced kerosene replaced whale oil. Then Edison invented incandescent lights. Now LEDs have replaced incandescent lights. And so it goes.

In his 1981 book The Ultimate Resource economist Julian Simon quite accurately explained that the ultimate resource is human creativity. He wrote, “There is no physical or economic reason why human resourcefulness, creativity, and enterprise cannot forever continue to respond to impending shortages and existing problems with new expedients that, after an adjustment period, leave us better off than before the problem arose... Taken in the large, an increased need for resources usually leaves us with a permanently greater capacity to get them, because we gain knowledge in the process.”

The question that environmentalists ought to ask is whether or not human ingenuity is sustainable. Obviously, it is. Furthermore, it isn’t just sustainable, it increases exponentially. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: “Invention breeds invention.”

If creativity increases exponentially, it’s a waste of time to worry about any resources that may not be sustainable.

Few resources are irreplaceable. A friend of mine, now deceased, liked to observe, “You’re never in trouble so long as you have a good alternative.”

But that’s not how environmentalists see it. Facing a resource shortage, they always assume that Julian Simon’s “adjustment period” will last long enough to justify their immediate panic.

Their silly sustainability fanaticism stems from a lack of awareness of how adept humans are in finding alternatives. Haven’t they heard? “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

The awareness environmentalists should have is not based on faith, but on the behavior of millions of humans over hundreds of thousands of years. We humans don’t just invent good alternatives, we invent better ones.

A 2012 article I wrote on this topic was titled “Now Playing: The Sustainability Con.” The silliness I wrote about at the time has only increased and shows no signs of letting up.

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. He resides in Arcata, California and can be reached at rossecon@aol.com. Most of his previous articles can be seen at rossecon.com.

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