Challenging The Narrative
His groundbreaking 1978 book The Conserver Solution (Doubleday) was among the first to challenge the prevailing overpopulation narrative. He continued this work in subsequent titles, including In the Name of Progress, co-authored with Patricia Adams of Probe International.
Championing Better Cities
As executive director of the Urban Renaissance Institute, Mr. Solomon discovered that market-based urban policies result in efficient, high-density cities, informing his critique of the conventional wisdom that urbanization drives declining fertility rates. His book Toronto Sprawls (University of Toronto Press) demonstrates how government policies—not consumer preferences—creates the low-density development known as urban sprawl. Without government intervention in our lifestyles, urban development would tend to produce higher densities and higher fertility rates in tandem.
Market Solutions Better Results
A longtime advocate of market solutions, Mr. Solomon has supported energy privatization and deregulation, foreign aid reform, Chinese human rights, and user-pay toll systems. The Deniers—his 2008 book which exposed the fallacies of climate alarmism—became a #1 environmental bestseller in both Canada and the United States, and was named one of the “10 Books That Drive The Debate” by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A Leading Voice in Public Discourse
Today, Mr. Solomon is a columnist for the National Post (Toronto) and The Epoch Times, and a contributor to the Jewish News Syndicate. He previously was a syndicated columnist, a Globe and Mail columnist, a Wall Street Journal contributor and editor and publisher of the award-winning magazine, The Next City. He has authored or co-authored seven books, including Energy Shock (Doubleday), Breaking Up Ontario Hydro’s Monopoly (Energy Probe), and Power at What Cost (Doubleday). He is currently writing The Population Implosion, which explains why western countries are on a glide path to extinction, and how to restore fertility growth.
Building Institutions, Shaping Policy
Mr. Solomon’s influence on policy spans decades. In the late 1970s, he advised President Jimmy Carter’s Task Force on the Global Environment for the Global 2000 Report. His 1982 model of a competitive electricity system was endorsed by the leaders of all three major Ontario parties and adopted by the Thatcher government in the U.K. in 1989, accelerating the closure of uneconomic plants and the shift to efficient natural gas generation. The Ontario Conservatives under Premier Mike Harris incorporated his ideas into their Common Sense Revolution. His late-1980s and early-1990s recommendations for natural gas restructuring delivered both economic savings and environmental gains in Ontario. His pioneering 1996 model for satellite-based dynamic road tolling was adopted by Singapore and multiple U.S. jurisdictions.
A Legacy Of Environmental Stewardship
Mr. Solomon co-founded the World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth Canada, Lake Ontario Waterkeepers, Probe International and, along with Jane Jacobs, the Energy Probe Research Foundation—the world’s first free-market environmental group.
