A few days ago, Paul Krugman displayed his masterful knowledge of the sociology of the libertarian movement by complaining about all the Ayn Randians running around advocating for a Basic Income Guarantee.

Now he’s at it again, demonstrating that he knows absolutely nothing about libertarian positions on environmental issues.

According to Krugman, libertarians believe that “anyone who worries about…environmental issues is engaged in scare tactics to further a big-government agenda.”

Right. Because it’s not like libertarians have ever written anything on this. And it’s not like there’s any theoretical resources in the libertarian toolkit like, I don’t know, a concern for property rights, that might be brought to bear on various environmental problems like phosphate pollution.

For some actual insight on this issue, see Ed Dolan’s response to Krugman here. And see my paper on “Libertarianism and Pollution,” forthcoming in the Routledge Companion to Environmental Ethics.