Losing Proposition
Is the world running out of resources? Most environmentalists think so economist Julian Simon strongly disagrees.
In October 1980, Simon bet ecologists Paul Ehrlich, John P. Holdren, and Johr Harte that in 10 years the price of any raw material they selected would have fallen (measured in constant 1980 dollars). Last October, Ehrlich and his colleagues sent Simon a $1,000 check, since the prices of the five minerals they had chosen (copper, chrome, nickel, tin, and tungsten) had dropped substantially.
Simon would like to renew his bet upping the ante to $20,000. So far, no one has accepted the offer.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Losing Proposition."
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?