In his book Time to Think Small, author Todd Myers explains why big government efforts usually fail to fix the problem at hand. Rather, these attempts often create greater problems than the original problem they intended to solve. By contrast, new technologies, individuals and groups can provide flexible solutions to environmental problems that improve both the environment and society.
Technologies, like cell phones and the apps they can run are allowing individuals and small groups to develop new insights into the causes and consequences of environmental problems and solutions to them at the local level. By contrast, one-size-fits all big government “solutions,” often misidentify the problem and/or its causes, take time to develop, are inflexible, and often make a bad situation worse.
Technologies, like cell phones and the apps they can run are allowing individuals and small groups to develop new insights into the causes and consequences of environmental problems and solutions to them at the local level. By contrast, one-size-fits all big government “solutions,” often misidentify the problem and/or its causes, take time to develop, are inflexible, and often make a bad situation worse.
H. Sterling Burnett
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy and the managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
Todd Myers
Myers is environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, a market-oriented think tank in Seattle.
