Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies by Thomas Michael Power,
Island Press, $29.95, (ISBN 1 55963 368 9).
MONTANA harbours some of the last areas of wilderness in the US, so
conservation鈥攑ro and con鈥攊s much on the minds of Montanans. Thomas
Power, a professor at the University of Montana, is no exception. A specialist
in the economics of wildlife preservation, he addresses the increasingly
acrimonious clash between the resource extraction industries and
environmentalists in Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies. He also sets
out to demonstrate, first, that the role of these industries in the local
economy is not as central as most imagine and, second, that protected landscapes
can add to local economic vitality.
According to Power, two things, above all, have transformed the economic
geography of the US over the past 50 years: businesses seeking cheap labour, and
people, especially in retirement, moving to unspoilt areas. Why not build on
this preference for certain places and construct an 鈥渆nvironmental model鈥�
of local economic development?
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Because much of Power鈥檚 research involves assessing the local economic impact
of resource extraction, he can mobilise several authoritative case studies in
support of his thesis. Using examples ranging from metal mining to agriculture,
he shows that damage to the environment is simply not balanced by the classic
local economic benefits of such intervention鈥攋obs and income.
He is much less convincing, however, when it comes to explaining how his
鈥渆nvironmental model鈥� might work in practice. Power implies that a beautiful
natural environment, with culturally rich, safe neighbourhoods, a reasonable
cost of living and high-quality public services will, in itself, attract a
鈥渉igher-quality, lower-cost labour force鈥�, plus what Power calls the 鈥渂usiness
retirement income鈥� that will presumably employ it.
Apart from wondering where these 鈥渋deal鈥� communities spring from in the first
place, I found Power鈥檚 faith in retired businessmen as the bedrock of any local
economy quite extraordinary. Can incoming pensioners develop a sense of place
strong enough to ensure that a local community is protected rather than
exploited? Southern California, for example, was a magnet for seekers of the
good life. It now has crime and pollution rates so high that people are moving
out in droves.
Power is essentially right: lost landscapes do lead to failed economies. He
is also right that we must consciously reconnect the destiny of our local
economies with those of the place in which we live in order to create a
counterweight to the ruthlessly globalising marketplace. On how this might be
done, however, he has no serious new insights to offer.