Ecological Georgism
The extension of Georgist rent-capture to all natural resources and environmental externalities — taxing pollution, carbon, and resource extraction as forms of rent.
Definition
Ecological Georgism (sometimes "green Georgism") extends Henry George's principle beyond land to all natural resources and environmental sinks. If the value of land belongs to the community, so does the value of the atmosphere, oceans, minerals, water, and the spectrum — and the right to pollute or extract from them.
The Argument
Pollution and resource extraction use commonly-owned natural assets without paying for them — a form of unpriced resource rent. Ecological Georgists support carbon taxes, severance taxes, congestion charges, and pollution fees as the environmental application of rent capture: charge for the use of the commons, and (often) return the proceeds as a citizen's dividend. This aligns the Georgist tradition with Pigouvian environmental economics — both charge for socially-costly use of shared resources.
Significance
Ecological Georgism reframes climate and environmental policy as a rent problem, and is a major theme in modern Georgist writing (e.g. Alanna Hartzok's The Earth Belongs to Everyone).
See Also
Sources
- Alanna Hartzok (2008), The Earth Belongs to Everyone (book).
- IMF (2012), "Issues in Extractive Resource Taxation." PDF