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PERC Reports

The magazine of Free Market environmentalism

Volume 16, No.2, Summer 1998

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IN THIS ISSUE

Rangers On Tour

While ecotourism has been touted as a way to save everything from tigers to sea turtles, it might also prove an economic boon to the financially beleaguered U.S. Forest Service. Heritage Expeditions is part of the user-fee demonstration program that allows federal land management agencies to charge fees for recreation on public lands. A recentContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Oily Hair

An Alabama hairdresser is making oily hair his specialty. Phillip McCrory has devised a technique to clean up oil spills with hair trimmings. The technique is now being refined at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The system could eventually mean quicker and less expensive cleanups. McCrory was first inspired while watching coverageContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Entertainment Farming

Family farms and ranches have found that entertainment is a cash crop that can keep them in business, even when more traditional fruit and vegetable crops cannot. Small family farms struggling to keep up with rising costs and compete with large commercial operations have turned to corn mazes, petting zoos, and hayrides. Farmers who beganContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Corporate Appleseeds

American companies have discovered that planting and preserving trees can reap a wealth of benefits. It can help the environment, it can boost their corporate image, and ultimately it could help the bottom line. American Electric Power is preserving trees by purchasing a chunk of Bolivian jungle which it plans to donate to an adjoiningContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Pallets To Butcher-Block

Deep in the South Bronx a small company is making a big impact on forest preservation, waste reduction, and furniture design. And that’s only part of the story. Every year in the United States 1.5 billion wooden pallets are used in the shipment of consumer goods. Those pallets account for nearly half of the annualContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Light Truck Lessons

Over the last two decades, Americans’ driving experience has been transformed by the proliferation of light trucks–vans, minivans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles. Recently, news reports have castigated these trucks–which weigh about 1,000 pounds more than cars–as a menace on the nation’s highways, especially in car-truck collisions. What few realize is that, according toContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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Solar Power to the Rescue?

  Consider the irony: Many people believe that solar energy, trapped by human-generated greenhouse gases, is responsible for what could be catastrophic future increases in global temperatures. Yet according to recent research, it may be solar energy, harnessed by human-generated photovoltaic technology, which eradicates the problem before it becomes one. In a just-published paper, economistsContinue reading "Rangers On Tour"

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