Why does the government engage in anti-property rights policies that hurt the environment?

For example, the government overturned the common law precedent that polluters could be sued by the owners of property which they destroyed. The government also declares that forests are "public property," which leads to extinctions because nobody owns the forest and the animals within and therefore nobody values the animals and trees within the forest enough to take proper care of them (if somebody owns a forest, they aren't going to permit all the animals to be killed and the forest to be chopped down because that will cause them long-term economic loss).

Why does the government engage in these ridiculous policies that violate property rights in order to subsidize pollution? Why do the Greens call for more government intervention when government interventions themselves are doing massive harm to the environment? Shouldn't the government just respect property rights and therefore permit property owners to keep pollution off of their property or to conserve land?

This government under Bush has absolutely no regard for environmental issues. It is instead possessed with the idea of conquest, of rewarding the wealthy with more riches, and of taking from the poor what they don't have to give.

Greed. They think maximizing profits is more important than life itself.

Excellent question!

This is a typical 'tragedy of the commons' situation. Whenever the government takes away private property and 'nationalize' it, you get degradation of property values and environmental pollution and negligence by the population. The government thinks that it owns the land. This is a fallacy, especially in a republic. Because the people gave the government the power, and the government owns nothing except what the people gave them (in taxes, and by acceptance of government 'rule'). In essence, a government owns nothing, and serves at the pleasure of the people.

It is only at the ignorance and misunderstanding of the concept that the government could take away private property.

The ones running the governments don't give a damn, that's why. They are only in it for themselves and to get whatever they can that will benefit them and to hell with everyone else. This is harsh, but it's the absolute truth.

Because government outsource everything else