Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
Interpretation
The quote warns against overconfidence in our ability to manipulate the environment without considering natural limits.
Garrett Hardin emphasizes the peril of relying solely on abstract economic equations that ignore the constraints of nature. Such an attitude may lead to a dangerous arrogance about humanity's power to control and dominate the natural world, potentially resulting in detrimental consequences for both the environment and society.
In practice
In a lecture on environmental ethics, one might use this quote to discuss the limitations of economic models.
Moreover, the practical recommendations deduced from ecological principles threaten the vested interests of commerce; it is hardly surprising that the financial and political power created by these investments should be used sometimes to suppress environmental impact studies.
A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.
Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born.
The question of whether or to what extent human activities are causing global warming is not a matter of ideology, let alone of belief. The issue is simply one of risk management.
Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
For most people, the major hurdle in grasping modern insights into the nature of the universe is that these developments are usually phrased using mathematics.
To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as a whole.
Do you realize that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50 year running budget of NASA. And so when someone says, 'We don't have enough money for this space probe.' No, it's not that you don't have enough money. It's that the distribution of money that you're spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.
[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.
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