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World resources 1987 — An assessment of the resource base that supports the global economy
Book
reviews
private volunteer groups than by any public agency that will ever exist.) Leshy deals only with the narrower issue of the conflict between the mining laws the preserve the tradition of federal land disposal only for mineral lands and newer laws that perpetuate federal ownership of other lands. He often examines the predictable efforts to use the mining laws to evade the other laws and the equally predictable exercises in attempting to prevent such subterfuges. He explicitly recognizes (p 26) the undesirability of giving free access only for mining but never considers that providing comparably free access for other uses might be preferable to restricting mining use. Similarly, he incessantly complains about lack of data for policy making without demonstrating the slightest acquaintance with Hayek’s contention that government direction of the economy is doomed to failure by the inability of a centralized system to obtain adequate information. What is done superbly is to develop the proposition that the problem has been handled by successively limiting the scope of the mining law. The book begins with three chapters of background and then turns to review of how the principle of free access has been narrowed. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and its amendments created a leasing system for coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and several common nonmetallics such as sodium and sulphur. Environmental restrictions and mining prohibitions removed more land from free access. His next chapter tries to deal with the workings of the free access principle. It turns out that far more is clearly known about the problems of implementing the principle than about what results have been produced. As a result, Leshy provides a few pages indicating that free access produced significant discoveries, and even this is qualified by a warning that the superiority of the system to alternatives cannot be determined. Far more space is devoted to problems, particularly mining claims actually designed to get ownership for non-mineral purposes. This chapter also introduces a problem to which he returns in the next
298
several chapters - the proper procedures to follow for deposits discoverable only after drilling of the subsurface. Roughly, the situation is that the courts devised ways to protect right claimed before drilling; Leshy feels these fictions work imperfectly and bring discredit on the legal process. The next issue treated is the problems of defining when a discovery has occurred. Still another problem is the extent to which limits on claim holding lead to inefficiently small mines. He then turns to problems of environmental protection. The final issue-oriented chapter deals briefly and only descriptively with problems arising from federal retention of mineral rights under lands ceded to private owners. Again, the economics are ignored. The rest of the book (about a third of the main text) is devoted to the processes of administering the law. Chapter 13 provides a summary and appraisal of the role of administrative and judicial discretion in shaping the administration of the laws and the rest of this discussion relates to issues of new legislation. The review of administration argues that lessening of access occurred despite the tradition of encouraging mining. Then he deals with the problems of replacing the prevailing patchwork in the face of discord about what would
be best and fears that the change would be for the worse. The discussion starts with a history of reform reviews the problems proposals, associated with determining the status of the two million claims that have been recorded, states the case for a shift to leasing, notes that the concerns over strategic minerals do not justify retention of the Act, and concludes with an appraisal of the prospects for reform. He seems to feel that with a bit more effort, including aggressive action by the Executive Branch, a better law could be drafted. Others, myself included, would reach other conclusions, particularly given some of the evidence he downplays. For example, his enthusiasm for leasing is not well supported by his discussion. He dubiously contends that the oil and gas system has effectively made supplies available and ignores the long moratoriums on coal leasing. His optimism about effecting reform ignores a Congress that has been unable to agree on urgent needs to remove ill conceived secondary provisions of recent mining laws (which themselves have tended to create more problems than they solved).
Richard L. Gordon Pennsylvania State University
Collecting the data WORLD RESOURCES 1987 - AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RESOURCE BASE THAT SUPPORTS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY international Institute of Environment and Development and The World Resources Institute Basic Books, New York, 1987, 369 pp, f15.25 paper, f29.75 hardback
World Resources 1987 is the second in a series of annual reports on the use of the world’s resources and environmental quality, prepared by the IIED
in Washington and the WRI in New York. It is similar in structure to the first volume, issued in 1986, with the first part devoted to a series of topical reviews and this followed by a set of tables which complement the reviews. In introducing the first volume, the authors pointed out that sections of it would be expanded and added to in future reports; new topics would also be introduced. The second volume seems to bear this out. Under ‘World resource reviews’, for we find a welcome new example, section, ‘Global systems and cycles’, dealing for example with the carbon cycle, ocean-atmosphere interaction,
RESOURCES
POLICY
December
1987
Book reviewslRecent papers
and perhaps most important, geosphere-biosphere interactions. There is great need for research in two areas of modern global science - the interactive coupling between living and non-living parts, and the impacts of human activities on the natural background of environmental change. A good example is the difficulty of predicting the ultimate effects of rising levels of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse’ gases. It is welcome news that the various multidisciplinary research programmes with goals and names that are much alike in the field of global science are to be working together in what is termed the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, launched at Bern in Switzerland in September 1986 at the 21st General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions. Remarkable at Bern was the unanimity of opinion of all nations present, from China to the USA to the USSR. The international army of scientists to be enlisted by the IGBP will come from the fields of biology, oceanography, geology, atmospheric science, hydrol-
ogy, soil science, glaciology and solarterrestrial physics. It is said to be the biggest effort so far in which physical, chemical and biological scientists will actively cooperate. In 1986, the part of the report devoted to world resource issues contained only one section, on forest decline. The new report has two, very important sections in this part - managing hazardous wastes (with a subjective subtitle ‘The unmet challenge’), and an encouraging account of some successful agricultural initiatives in subsaharan Africa. Although the latter account is uplifting in tone, the former is gloomy; it seems that we lack a tremendous amount of accurate data about the world’s hazardous wastes. The tables part of the report is slightly larger, including data for 146 countries. The same headings are used as previously; users of the first volume will therefore rapidly find their way about the tables. Data in the tables is sometimes only an extension of that given in 1986, but in many cases the data changes. For instance, ‘Atmos-
pheric climate’ gave carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emissions last year, now we have this replaced by data on environmentally important trace gases, acidity of precipitation, and indoor air pollution in the developing countries. The final section, on policies and institutions, is doubled in length. The world map at the end is based on a different projection from last year. This is an improvement since it shows the oceans better and their relation to the land masses more clearly. A band across the bottom gives the size of land areas and also the populations, for useful reference. Altogether, this second book may be said to live up to the promises made by the authors in the 1986 report. It is just as useful a volume and should sit on the shelf beside the first one, awaiting the third issue.
Fred Roberts Richmond North Yorkshire
Recent papers Agtbe, D.E., and R.B. Billings, ‘Increasing block rates for water: equity, price elasticitv and household income’, The Journal of Economics and American Sociology, Vol 46, No 3, July 1987, pp 213-286. Amir, R., Sequential Games of Resource Extraction: Existence of Nash Equilibria, Cowles Foundation discussion paper 825, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at Yale University, March 1987, 25 PP. Ashworth, J.S., and I. Papps, Estimating the Costs of Government Policy: The Case of Mercury Discharges from Waste-brine Chlor Alkali Plants, Working namer 84. University of Durdam, Deiai&ent oi Economics, May 1987, 35 pp. Austin, A., ‘Developments in the market for platinum’, Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Section A, Vol 96, July 1987, All%A122. Auty,
R.M.,
‘Backward
RESOURCES
versus
POLICY
forward
December
integration in resource-based industrialisation: Malaysia and Indonesia’, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol 78, No 2, 1987, pp 82-93. Baillard, D., et al, Model&g Energyi Technology Choices in the Smelting and Refining Industry in Canada; the MARKAL Model Approach, Cahier G-87-03, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherthe en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 64 pp. Baillard, D, et al, Modelling Energy/ Technology in the Pulp and Pauer Industry of Cam.&: the MkRKAL‘ Approach, Cahier G-87-01. Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherche en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 74 pp. Baillard, D, et al, Model&g the Long Range Evolution of the Oil Refining Industry in Canada: the MARKAL Model Approach, Cahier G-87-04, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal,
1987
Groupe Analyse
d’Etudes et de Recherche en des Decisions, January 1987, 87
PP. Baillard, D, et al, Model&g Energy1 Technology Choices in the Cement Industry of Canada Using the MARKAL Model, Cahier G-87-02, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherche en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 50 pp. Balkay, B., ‘The Third World and the CMEA group in the world economy of raw and basic materials’, World Development, Vol 15, No 5, May 1987, pp 685-700. Bean, C.R., and P.J. Turnbull, Employment in the British Coal Industry: A Test of the Labour Demand Model, Discussion paper 274, Centre for Labour Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, March 1987, 37 pp. Burington, small-scale
Bart E., ‘A case study of enterprise organization in Chi-
299
reviews
private volunteer groups than by any public agency that will ever exist.) Leshy deals only with the narrower issue of the conflict between the mining laws the preserve the tradition of federal land disposal only for mineral lands and newer laws that perpetuate federal ownership of other lands. He often examines the predictable efforts to use the mining laws to evade the other laws and the equally predictable exercises in attempting to prevent such subterfuges. He explicitly recognizes (p 26) the undesirability of giving free access only for mining but never considers that providing comparably free access for other uses might be preferable to restricting mining use. Similarly, he incessantly complains about lack of data for policy making without demonstrating the slightest acquaintance with Hayek’s contention that government direction of the economy is doomed to failure by the inability of a centralized system to obtain adequate information. What is done superbly is to develop the proposition that the problem has been handled by successively limiting the scope of the mining law. The book begins with three chapters of background and then turns to review of how the principle of free access has been narrowed. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and its amendments created a leasing system for coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and several common nonmetallics such as sodium and sulphur. Environmental restrictions and mining prohibitions removed more land from free access. His next chapter tries to deal with the workings of the free access principle. It turns out that far more is clearly known about the problems of implementing the principle than about what results have been produced. As a result, Leshy provides a few pages indicating that free access produced significant discoveries, and even this is qualified by a warning that the superiority of the system to alternatives cannot be determined. Far more space is devoted to problems, particularly mining claims actually designed to get ownership for non-mineral purposes. This chapter also introduces a problem to which he returns in the next
298
several chapters - the proper procedures to follow for deposits discoverable only after drilling of the subsurface. Roughly, the situation is that the courts devised ways to protect right claimed before drilling; Leshy feels these fictions work imperfectly and bring discredit on the legal process. The next issue treated is the problems of defining when a discovery has occurred. Still another problem is the extent to which limits on claim holding lead to inefficiently small mines. He then turns to problems of environmental protection. The final issue-oriented chapter deals briefly and only descriptively with problems arising from federal retention of mineral rights under lands ceded to private owners. Again, the economics are ignored. The rest of the book (about a third of the main text) is devoted to the processes of administering the law. Chapter 13 provides a summary and appraisal of the role of administrative and judicial discretion in shaping the administration of the laws and the rest of this discussion relates to issues of new legislation. The review of administration argues that lessening of access occurred despite the tradition of encouraging mining. Then he deals with the problems of replacing the prevailing patchwork in the face of discord about what would
be best and fears that the change would be for the worse. The discussion starts with a history of reform reviews the problems proposals, associated with determining the status of the two million claims that have been recorded, states the case for a shift to leasing, notes that the concerns over strategic minerals do not justify retention of the Act, and concludes with an appraisal of the prospects for reform. He seems to feel that with a bit more effort, including aggressive action by the Executive Branch, a better law could be drafted. Others, myself included, would reach other conclusions, particularly given some of the evidence he downplays. For example, his enthusiasm for leasing is not well supported by his discussion. He dubiously contends that the oil and gas system has effectively made supplies available and ignores the long moratoriums on coal leasing. His optimism about effecting reform ignores a Congress that has been unable to agree on urgent needs to remove ill conceived secondary provisions of recent mining laws (which themselves have tended to create more problems than they solved).
Richard L. Gordon Pennsylvania State University
Collecting the data WORLD RESOURCES 1987 - AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RESOURCE BASE THAT SUPPORTS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY international Institute of Environment and Development and The World Resources Institute Basic Books, New York, 1987, 369 pp, f15.25 paper, f29.75 hardback
World Resources 1987 is the second in a series of annual reports on the use of the world’s resources and environmental quality, prepared by the IIED
in Washington and the WRI in New York. It is similar in structure to the first volume, issued in 1986, with the first part devoted to a series of topical reviews and this followed by a set of tables which complement the reviews. In introducing the first volume, the authors pointed out that sections of it would be expanded and added to in future reports; new topics would also be introduced. The second volume seems to bear this out. Under ‘World resource reviews’, for we find a welcome new example, section, ‘Global systems and cycles’, dealing for example with the carbon cycle, ocean-atmosphere interaction,
RESOURCES
POLICY
December
1987
Book reviewslRecent papers
and perhaps most important, geosphere-biosphere interactions. There is great need for research in two areas of modern global science - the interactive coupling between living and non-living parts, and the impacts of human activities on the natural background of environmental change. A good example is the difficulty of predicting the ultimate effects of rising levels of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse’ gases. It is welcome news that the various multidisciplinary research programmes with goals and names that are much alike in the field of global science are to be working together in what is termed the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, launched at Bern in Switzerland in September 1986 at the 21st General Assembly of the International Council of Scientific Unions. Remarkable at Bern was the unanimity of opinion of all nations present, from China to the USA to the USSR. The international army of scientists to be enlisted by the IGBP will come from the fields of biology, oceanography, geology, atmospheric science, hydrol-
ogy, soil science, glaciology and solarterrestrial physics. It is said to be the biggest effort so far in which physical, chemical and biological scientists will actively cooperate. In 1986, the part of the report devoted to world resource issues contained only one section, on forest decline. The new report has two, very important sections in this part - managing hazardous wastes (with a subjective subtitle ‘The unmet challenge’), and an encouraging account of some successful agricultural initiatives in subsaharan Africa. Although the latter account is uplifting in tone, the former is gloomy; it seems that we lack a tremendous amount of accurate data about the world’s hazardous wastes. The tables part of the report is slightly larger, including data for 146 countries. The same headings are used as previously; users of the first volume will therefore rapidly find their way about the tables. Data in the tables is sometimes only an extension of that given in 1986, but in many cases the data changes. For instance, ‘Atmos-
pheric climate’ gave carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emissions last year, now we have this replaced by data on environmentally important trace gases, acidity of precipitation, and indoor air pollution in the developing countries. The final section, on policies and institutions, is doubled in length. The world map at the end is based on a different projection from last year. This is an improvement since it shows the oceans better and their relation to the land masses more clearly. A band across the bottom gives the size of land areas and also the populations, for useful reference. Altogether, this second book may be said to live up to the promises made by the authors in the 1986 report. It is just as useful a volume and should sit on the shelf beside the first one, awaiting the third issue.
Fred Roberts Richmond North Yorkshire
Recent papers Agtbe, D.E., and R.B. Billings, ‘Increasing block rates for water: equity, price elasticitv and household income’, The Journal of Economics and American Sociology, Vol 46, No 3, July 1987, pp 213-286. Amir, R., Sequential Games of Resource Extraction: Existence of Nash Equilibria, Cowles Foundation discussion paper 825, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at Yale University, March 1987, 25 PP. Ashworth, J.S., and I. Papps, Estimating the Costs of Government Policy: The Case of Mercury Discharges from Waste-brine Chlor Alkali Plants, Working namer 84. University of Durdam, Deiai&ent oi Economics, May 1987, 35 pp. Austin, A., ‘Developments in the market for platinum’, Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Section A, Vol 96, July 1987, All%A122. Auty,
R.M.,
‘Backward
RESOURCES
versus
POLICY
forward
December
integration in resource-based industrialisation: Malaysia and Indonesia’, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol 78, No 2, 1987, pp 82-93. Baillard, D., et al, Model&g Energyi Technology Choices in the Smelting and Refining Industry in Canada; the MARKAL Model Approach, Cahier G-87-03, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherthe en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 64 pp. Baillard, D, et al, Modelling Energy/ Technology in the Pulp and Pauer Industry of Cam.&: the MkRKAL‘ Approach, Cahier G-87-01. Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherche en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 74 pp. Baillard, D, et al, Model&g the Long Range Evolution of the Oil Refining Industry in Canada: the MARKAL Model Approach, Cahier G-87-04, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal,
1987
Groupe Analyse
d’Etudes et de Recherche en des Decisions, January 1987, 87
PP. Baillard, D, et al, Model&g Energy1 Technology Choices in the Cement Industry of Canada Using the MARKAL Model, Cahier G-87-02, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherche en Analyse des Decisions, January 1987, 50 pp. Balkay, B., ‘The Third World and the CMEA group in the world economy of raw and basic materials’, World Development, Vol 15, No 5, May 1987, pp 685-700. Bean, C.R., and P.J. Turnbull, Employment in the British Coal Industry: A Test of the Labour Demand Model, Discussion paper 274, Centre for Labour Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, March 1987, 37 pp. Burington, small-scale
Bart E., ‘A case study of enterprise organization in Chi-
299