Earth Day is broken—only private conservation can fix it

With this week’s 2025 Earth Day came the usual media and progressive lawmaker fanfare lauding government programs and regulatory solutions to environmental concerns.

But the real story of environmental stewardship remains underappreciated: The most sustainable, long-lasting conservation efforts stem not from top-down command but from private initiative and secure property rights.

The tired narrative that capitalism pollutes and degrades continues to dominate, even as market-driven innovation continues making the Earth cleaner, not dirtier. Wherever property rights are weak or absent—whether in airsheds, watersheds, endangered species habitat, or public lands—environmental degradation tends to follow.

Conversely, when individuals and institutions have a stake in the health of natural resources, stewardship becomes not just possible, but profitable.

The late R.J. Smith, longtime head of CEI’s Center for Private Conservation, championed this truth. His pointed often to examples like Virginia’s Natural Bridge and North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain and Chimney Rock—landmarks that, while in some cases transitioning to state parks in recent years, prospered for generations thanks to private ownership or the care of stewardship foundations.

Obviously, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin is the exception, but by and large, today’s policymakers continue doubling down on subsidies, mandates and industrial policy instead of embracing property-based environmental solutions. Vast sums—only recently facing restraint—have chased so-called “green” infrastructure and electrification efforts, while real market signals and conservation incentives remain ignored. The results speak for themselves: endangered species lists that never shrink, forests mismanaged into tinderboxes, and landowner backlash to one-size-fits-all coercion.

Markets, on the other hand, reward doing more with less—even to the point of minor annoyances, like soda cans becoming so thin you can crush one just by looking at it funny. They incentivize cleaner processes, leaner production, and smarter use of resources. Environmental quality is a form of wealth, and capitalism—at its best—is a system for maximizing affluence of all kinds.

Earth Day should not be a ritual of pretending government control brings sustainability. Instead, it should recognize how much individuals and markets can achieve when trusted and empowered. Environmental goals aren’t undermined by capitalism—they depend on it.

As America 250 approaches, let’s use Earth Day 2026 to spotlight the real solution to environmental justice: secure property rights, private innovation, and voluntary exchange.

For more, see my writeup on Forbes last year: “There Is No Earth Day Without Private Conservation.”