Our Duties to the Environment
What Has Posterity Ever done for Me? —
Robert Heilbroner
•
To the question of why we should care
about future generations, there is no
rational answer.
•
We must appeal to inner conscience to
show that we should care about future
people.
Our Duties to the Environment
The Tragedy of the Commons—Garrett Hardin

The tragedy of the commons is mutual ruin
from a well-meaning system of sharing.

The problems of poverty and starvation are
due to uncontrolled population growth.

In a world where all resources are shared
and reproduction in the impoverished
countries is uncontrolled, the tragedy of the
commons is inevitable.
Our Duties to the Environment
The Tragedy of the Commons—Garrett Hardin
•
Some social problems have no technical
solution.
•
In the field of practical demography, we
cannot rely on what Adam Smith called
the power of the “invisible hand.”
Our Duties to the Environment
The Tragedy of the Commons—Garrett Hardin
 We cannot control the long-term
breeding of mankind by an appeal to
conscience.
 The long-term disadvantage of an appeal
to conscience should be enough to
condemn it.
 Conscience is self-eliminating.
Our Duties to the Environment
The Tragedy of the Commons—Garrett Hardin
•
•
To deal with human population growth,
we must above all rely on mutual
coercion.
The only way we can preserve and
nurture other freedoms is by
relinquishing the freedom to breed.
Our Duties to the Environment
People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal
Pollution —William F. Baxter

To ensure benefits to humans, we should be
willing to allow pollution where it harms
animals and trees.

Every human being should be regarded as an
end.

We need not respect the balance of nature.
Our Duties to the Environment
People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal
Pollution —William F. Baxter
•
The costs of controlling pollution are best
expressed in terms of the other goods we will
have to give up to do the job.
•
If the use of DDT in food production causes
damage to the penguin population, we should
not automatically conclude that we must stop
agricultural use of DDT.