IUCN SULi economist was a research fellow at Big Tobacco's 'good ally'
Documents reveal that Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes was a research fellow at Institute of Economic Affairs when they were engaging with British American Tobacco on risk assessment.
A 1995 document taken from British American Tobacco’s records described Institute of Economic Affairs as a “good ally” for their risk assessment program. The tobacco company noted that a “thrust of [Institute of Economic Affairs’s] work is on [risk assessment] (initially re global warming etc, widening its net later in 1996).”
The tobacco industry used risk assessment to challenge, instead of support, regulations on smoking intended to curb the cancerous effects of secondhand smoking. Risk assessment created the argument that public health and environmental protections would be outweighed by devastating economic losses.
Why should this be of any concern for wildlife conservationists?
Institute of Economic Affairs is a right-wing think tank mainly known for undermining climate science and for its close ties to the tobacco industry (as you could probably guess from the previous document). But the think tank also published literature that advocated for sustainable use in wildlife conservation.
[Right wing think tanks promoting climate denial and sustainable use is fairly common.]
Institute of Economic Affairs and British American Tobacco were in heavy communication during the mid-1990s. British American Tobacco’s previously undisclosed records in the UCSF tobacco industry documents library give us an inside look into how they both operated.
A fact sheet from Institute of Economic Affairs stated that the think tank applied “rigorous scientific and economic analysis to current environmental issues, often presenting research that runs contrary to the dominant consensus view.” The dominant consensus views at the time of course being that man-made climate change was real and that secondhand smoke was causing cancer.
A letter from Institute of Economic Affairs detailed the think tank’s research agenda and listed out their first six publications. Of those first six publications, three of them focused on either climate denial or sustainable use.
This document shows how those three publications were marketed by Institute of Economic Affairs:
Global Warming: Apocalypse or Hot Air? – “Conventional views on Global Warming appear to be seriously flawed.”
Elephants and Ivory: Lessons from the Trade Ban – “The ivory trade ban may exterminate elephants. Ranching them for ivory may be better.”
Rhinos: Conservation, Economics and Trade-offs – “Rhinos should be privately owned and ranched, in order to prevent their becoming extinct.”
Documents also listed the think tank’s personnel. Roger Bate was listed as director while Julian Morris and Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes were listed as research fellows.
Bate and Morris were two British students that were recruited by Fred Smith of the climate change denying think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute for their love of free markets and the Koch family.
Bate is known for pushing climate change denial, calling for tobacco industry deregulation, opposing DDT bans, and supporting ivory trade. He put together a paper discussing the wonders of sustainable use in Zimbabwe under CAMPFIRE.
In 1997, Institute of Economic Affairs put out a book called What Risk? edited by Bate that the think tank said “cast doubt on the relationship between lung cancer in non-smokers and environmental tobacco smoke (secondary smoking).”
[RJ Reynolds, an American tobacco company, revealed in another document that it also worked with Bate on the book.]
Morris is another that has pushed climate change denial propaganda. He’s also said that the rhino horn trade ban reduced rhino numbers in southern Africa because it discouraged sustainable management.
Sas-Rolfes is currently a research fellow at Property and Environment Research Center, another right wing think tank that “denies the seriousness of environmental problems” according to researchers studying climate denial.
He wrote the 1995 paper on rhino farming that Institute of Economic Affairs published. Sas-Rolfe espoused the mythical philosophy of trickle-down economics, saying that sustainable use should be applied to rhinos because, “Poor rural people would benefit in some areas, as shares of the profits were passed down to them.” He thanked Bate and Morris for their “considerable assistance” with the paper.
Sas-Rolfes appears to have engaged with Roger Bate and Julian Morris before that paper though, as he thanked both of them for their support and advice in his Masters Dissertation on rhino conservation economics.
[Bate would later go on to write a book called Life’s Adventure: Virtual Risk in a Real World that covered everything from pesticide use, the ozone layer, tobacco smoking, climate change, and sustainable use – he thanked both Morris and Sas-Rolfes for their help in the book.]
Institute of Economic Affairs gave Sas-Rolfes his first major platform. Bate and Morris helped Sas-Rolfes fine tune his economic arguments in support of trophy hunting and wildlife trade. And now he’s an influential member of IUCN SULi and regarded as a ‘rhino expert’ by some.
They lied to us about the reality of climate change and the health effects of smoking - why should we believe them when they tell us that trophy hunting and wildlife trade are legitimate conservation tools?