I'd like to start a thread on whether the popular buzz-phrase "sustainable development" is possible in the real world. Any human community that foregoes the attempt to maximize its power (hence, resource consumption) is putting itself at the mercy of any 2nd group that does not thus hobble itself. By Darwinian logic, the first group will be destroyed, neutralized, or absorbed. The surviving thrust will once again be "non-sustainable". To complete the logic, it remains only to show that there will always exist at least one non-conforming group (of the 2nd type, above). This is pretty much guaranteed by the diversity of human thought and culture.

Thus as usual Ecclesiastes got it right: "Words are better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good."

-- scott (lynx5_5@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000

Answers

-- scott (lynx5_5@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000.

screwed up the link above... Sustainable Development papers

-- scott (lynx5_5@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000.

"Any human community that foregoes the attempt to maximize its power (hence, resource consumption) is putting itself at the mercy of any 2nd group that does not thus hobble itself."

And so, in one sentence, does Scott distill the lesson of "The Tragedy of the Commons" as postulated by Garrett Hardin in 1967. It is available at dieoff.org along with a selection of other of Hardin's essays.

More of Professor Hardin's thoughts may be found here: http://lrainc.com/swtaboo/stalkers/hardin.html

Among my favorite Earth-oriented thinkers, Hardin's seminal work, "Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos" is a cornerstone of the environmental literature.

Hallyx

"But we can never do nothing." ---Garrett Hardin

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), February 28, 2000.