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.
As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.
Climate Change is a national security issue. We found that climate instability will lead to instability in geopolitics and impact American military operations around the world. People are saying they want to be perfectly convinced about climate science projections. But speaking as a soldier, we never have 100 percent certainty. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield.
There are, in truth, no specialties in medicine, since to know fully many of the most important diseases a man must be familiar with their manifestations in many organs.
Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination
It's the poorer people in tropical zones who will get really hit by climate change - as well as some ecosystems, which nobody wants to see disappear.
It is remarkable, Hardin, how the religion of science has grabbed hold.
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