Today there is great concern over the environment - pollution of land, air and water, industrial wastes, over-development, destruction of nature. Furthermore, with the advent of global environmental problems, environmentalism is no longer a local concern. "NIMBY" (not in my back yard) is no longer possible in many cases.

Much environmental devastation is caused by our system of land tenure. As a community grows, large areas are acquired for speculation. This results in "leap-frog" development, with people moving further out to find affordable land. Thus all the facilities needed for a growing population are stretched out and made more expensive - transportation, utilities, water supply, garbage disposal, markets and other requirements.

If this condition were corrected, people and industries could move out from the centers of population at a more normal pace, thus making unnecessary the waste and expense, and a premature invasion of nature.

The "Dover Jail Single Tax Club", part of a group of "depraved and irrepressible vagabonds" who traveled up and down the state of Delaware in the 1890s trying to convince the citizens to adopt the Single Tax statewide. Although these "pests of society" failed in their great goal, they did, apparently, have a great time. And one part of their legacy -- Delaware's "single tax colony" of Arden, thrives to this day.

Land value taxation would make this condition possible, as people could then acquire sites closer to the centers more cheaply. Furthermore, people could enjoy both the advantages of urban culture as well as proximity to nature, instead of, as now, either being crowded in the city or settled so far away that urban amenities are not conveniently available.

The environmental problem is exacerbated where land monopoly is at its worst. In Brazil, the destruction of the rain forest is deplored. People crowded in urban slums go to farm these areas, not well suited for agriculture, because prime agricultural land is owned by a few latifundistas. An application of land value taxation would improve this situation. Better land would become available without having to resort to the rain forest.

We also find that in African countries whole communities of people are forced onto poor land not suitable for habitation by the dominant ruling cliques. The plight of the disinherited people is often attributed to overpopulation or overuse of land, but the real cause is land monopoly.

Often, measures advanced by environmentalists to improve the situation would require much regulation and restriction of individual liberty, along with a degree of monitoring that would become increasingly difficult to attain. Under land value taxation, and relief from other taxes, good environmental standards would be easier to attain. A greater sense of community and voluntary observance could be relied on, instead of increasing regulations imposed by government.

People are becoming deeply concerned about the consequences of reliance upon fossil fuels, and hope to shift to renewable, less- polluting energy sources as soon as may be. Land value taxation would provide a significant incentive in this direction. At the current state of technology, resources such as solar power are not yet cost-competitive with fossil fuels. However, the energy industries receive various indirect subsidies, and the techniques for utilizing coal and oil have been refined for over a hundred years. A major cause of this has been the capacity to own the potential energy resources themselves, in the ground. It is not possible to own the sun! Profits from oil and coal come largely from land, whereas profits from various forms of solar energy come almost exclusively from capital. A tax system that collected ground rent, and removed the tax burden from labor and capital, would put solar energy on a more equal footing with entrenched - but environmentally destructive - fossil fuels.

Environmentalists need to learn the remedy of the single tax on land values as a way to improve the environment.