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 Darwin himself was at pains to point out, natural selection is all about differential survival within species, not between them.
That is the logical tight-rope on which we have to walk if we wish to interpret nature.
Very few recognize science as the high adventure it really is, the wildest of all explorations ever taken by human beings, the chance to glimpse things never seen before, the shrewdest maneuver for discovering how the world works.
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that this is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secrets of the "Old One." I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.
Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.
The central difficulty lies in the fact that all of the sciences have made such great progress during the last century that they have got quite beyond the reach of man
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