Peter Huber

It is not wealth, but poverty, that is the main engine of environmental degradation, argues Peter Huber in the following viewpoint. America and other wealthy nations have the capital and knowledge to use resources efficiently, and its citizens are wealthy enough to demand environmental protections. Poor nations, he asserts, produce more pollution and use up more land because they waste resources and are more concerned with everyday survival than with the environment. Huber is a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a columnist for Forbes magazine, and author of Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why have forests in the North American continent been expanding since around 1920, according to Huber"
2. Why are poor countries bad at practicing conservation, according...