Term Paper on "To What Extent Is Humanity a Wise Steward of the Environment"

Term Paper 5 pages (1509 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

humanity a wise steward of the environment?

To what extent is humanity a wise steward of environment?

We should assert from the very beginning that such a question implies a thorough discussion, as this is not the type of question that can actually be answered with a simple yes or no. As in many questions of this type, the answer lies somewhere in between. Relying on neo-Malthusian and Cornucopian theories as background, I will aim to prove that, while in many cases, humanity finds resources for a long-term approach, in which environmental worries and care for nature take the upper hand, the individual interest for short-term perspectives and views, as well as the strict business approach (profit as the first and main goal) may take over and may lead to environmental disasters in the future as well.

The main concern that we face in the future (in the near future for many resources) is the fact that we will soon run out of resources. Oil reserves in the world are expected to be gone by 2050, something which is being reflected nowadays in the ever increasing price for oil (over $50 per barrel, while at the beginning of the 70s, before the first oil crisis, this lagged somewhere around $10). This is also the case for other energy resources, but we should also consider different components, such as food, if the environment changes to such a degree that we will no longer be able to cultivate them in the future.

We are indeed facing one of the most troubling issues in economics: resources are limited, while needs are not and they are constantly increasing. In our analysis, the increasing needs are not necessarily reflected by increasing per capita needs. We may consider that these are more or less constant. The problem is with the growing population that has suffered a boom in the 20th century, reaching 6.5 billion and growing. With China and India in pole position, both in terms of population growth and number of inhabitants, we may wonder how we will be able to feed and provide warmth for humans in the future.

According to the Cornucopians, this should be no cause for concern, due to several factors. In their opinion, economic growth and technological advances will be able to create "a less crowded, less polluted & more resource-rich world" and that there is "no historical evidence that society will run out resources." Relying on these two basic components of Cornucopian theory, I will relate them to the topic in discussion here.

First of all, the second assertion seems absurd. The fact that there is no historical evidence about something that will happen in the future is a silly argumentation, because history is obviously something that refers to the past. Of course, we may quote Churchill in saying that we learn from the past, but this does not apply here. We may, for example, argument the non-existence of aliens by saying that there is no evidence from the past that they have come here. Additionally, we may assert that life on Earth will never come to an end, because there is no historical evidence. On the other hand, scientifically, we know that this will happen at some time, mainly due to the fact that the Sun is growing (as part of a star's life) and it will, in the end, swallow the first four planets.

The first assertion, on the other hand, is open to debate. I am not sure that technology will make the world less crowded (unless we consider extermination methodologies brought about by technological devices such as the atom bomb, but I am not convinced the Cornucopians were referring to this), but we may consider improving the resource base.

This should not be necessarily because it will create additional resources, but rather because it will create alternative forms of energy or food. Certainly, the oil fields will be dried up by 2050, but by then we may assume that alternative forms of energy will have already been developed. This is already the case nowadays. Countries like Holland and Denmark have begun using Aeolian energy, while the Japanese have already developed a car that functions with solar light.

This may also be the case for food. Instead of wheat, which grows only in fertile land, we will use barley, for example, a cereal that is more adaptable to colder climate and a rougher landscape. Additionally, we should consider the fact that technological advances in the pharmaceutical industry may bring in the future pills with vitamin and protein content instead of food. This is not a science fiction story, all signs make it quite possible.

The neo-Malthusian theoreticians seem somewhat more realistic, in my opinion, in discussing environmental degradation. This is because they seem to relate to straightforward, logical facts. As such, we are in a situation nowadays when the world population is constantly increasing. This means that agriculture will continue to develop and exploit the land and the environment to such a degree that it will simply use all land resources. Technological progress only speeds up this process and brings the day when no culture will be grown closer.

While this may be true, we should again relate to the Cornucopian point-of-view: technological advances will also bring alternative answers to the dilemmas we face. In their opinion, we may never need to wear out nature, because resources will never become scarce enough to produce this possibility.

Somewhat more business-oriented is a view according to which environmental protection is closely linked to "practical considerations for financial costs or direct negative effects on humans." The study I have mentioned estimates that "the effects of air pollution on human health and on major crop plants sum to billions of dollars each year in the U.S. alone."

Such an explanation may turn many people towards environmental protection, even if it is not necessarily an ethical argument. However, the problem in such a case is strictly related to the fact that while costs involved in environmental protection (like acquiring new, less polluting equipment) is palpable and appears both on the company's income statement and in the bank account, costs related to the environment are more or less invisible.

Examples of pollution inducted by short-term economic gains are numerous. One of them refers to a company producing chemical products in India. Old technological equipment and misuse lead to an environmental disaster that killed around one hundred people in India, leaving many more hurting for the rest of their lives. The respective company was forced to pay financial compensations that were several times higher than the profit they had obtained.

Besides this, we know that pollution hurts us physically and that it may lead to disease, but we are not conscious of it until we actually get hit. Pollution is not similar to getting hit by a car, when the consequences are immediately felt to a serious degree and, because of this, our tendency as humans is to ignore its harmful effects, much the same way we ignore other long-term harmful agents, like tobacco.

In my opinion, there is also a psychological view on the issue of environmental protection, something we may not help believing. Keynes battled someone's argumentation about the long-term effects of Keynesian policies by stating that "in the long run, we are all dead," so it doesn't matter anyhow. It is very much the case in terms of environmental protection.

Indeed, we should not consider at this point humanity as a complex, metaphysical term, but rather as a sum of all human beings that compose it. In this sense, we may assume that humanity takes the characteristics of the members that form it and one of these is the fact that humans tend t have a short-term way… READ MORE

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