Apart from localized developments in highly developed societies
humans have continued to degrade the earth.
"All spheres of conduct public or private are subject to ethical
princples or rules (Bankowski)."
"When government or corporations despoil the environment in the
name of development or when governments permit laissezfaire
policies that permit the expliotation of nature for narrow, shortterm
gains, they contravene the basic ethical principle of the greatest
good for the greatest number of people" says Bankowski). We need
to develop a code of ethics that will into account not only the needs
of humans but also other organisms and even the environment.
Environmental ethics should underlie the human stewardship of
naturethe antithesis of the exploitation of nature.
.
Neoclassical economists think that that technological advantage
will outpace resource scarcity over the long run. Ecological
services will be replaced by technological advances (Ecological
economics 73).
The problem of poverty is addressed by neoclassical economist by
the reality that everyone becomes better off with the rapid takeoff
of the economy. If you increase the rate of economic growth in the
countries that are already rich they will trickle down some of their
wealth to the poorer ones.
Dematerialization is the idea that we need to stabilize the level of
material throughput in our economy. (ecological economics73)
Material flows are the criteria by which we judge success
When a individual uses less in a stylized and image conscious
economy the distance from nature reduces any incentive to weigh
the negative external impacts to using more(72)
The Open System Paradigm
When the economy over utilizes capacity of nature the value of the
equity of nature's services is reduced. The economy must be
viewed presently as open system operating within a finite closed
system. If it has exceeded the carrying capacity of the nature today,
then it is using up more than can relied upon in the furure. As a
result our use curve has to go down, to meet the declining levels of
carrying capacity. Nature is being overdepleted by human
industrial activities. Nature's services are in effect worth more
remaining natural and preserved than they are if they are being
marginalized into production benefits that sustain a economy that
has grown beyond the capacity of the earth to sustain it. If we see
our potential future survival as a desirable value. Existentially
however human life as viewed by the materialist paradigm of the
present regime does not value this criteria of valuation as an
adequate rationale to radically change in the development priorities
of western civilization. Or at least they are not satisfied that there
is enough evidence to warrant radical changes.
(84) Fundamental change in the pattern of scarcity has arisen from
the displacement of the earth's natural systems by humanity.
Previously the limiting factors was in maximizing the and
human made capital so as to more rapidly utilize the natural
capital that "sat wasting away" This is no longer the case since
the productivity of human capital and accumulation is no
longer a factor of scarcity. Rather as we have doubled and
then doubled again in just eighty years. In 1900 we used only
10 percent of the earth's net primary product of the
photosynthesis. The doubling rate is every 40 years and so in
1940 it was 20 percent and in 1980 it was 40 percent. Even
though this number is not even half it does not relflect values
that have to go to the variety of life forms that we share the
planet with. As we increase our displacement of the biomass
they are decreased of theirs. The result being that we are
affecting nature's systems in a way that we do not understand.
Much evidence that long run human carrying capacity is reached
well under 40 percent.
This doubling time has been quicker than fundamental economic
paradigms shift. Physicst Max Planck says that pardigms shift not
because of the majoirty of the opponents being convinced but
because they eventually die. With the rapid progress of technology
and the mastery of nature that came with it the economy rapidly
expanded pushing us further to massive rate of population and
consumption increase that was on a curve overshooting
sustainability and the old empty earth paradigm. The old paradigm
economists are still alive and they are reluctant to embrace the new
wave of economics thinking. By the tight control of the discipline
they have able to prevent people with open minds and diverse views
from being taken seriously within the mainstream, by maintaining
tight control of their guild.
Neoclassical economics says that factors of production are highly
convertible.The very idea of a limiting factors such any malthusian
notion of over depletion of food sources apppears absurd to them
because they feel that technology stems from an infinte wellspring
of human innovation. 85
Complementary relationship between human and natural capital
means that the accumulaton of human capital increases the
pressures of nature to produce a spiraling increase in throughput to
sustain that human capital investment in production infrastructure.
When a flow has reached a level of overexploitation, there is a
stimulus within the market system from a variety of factors to
denial that trend as anomolies. As result that flow is supplied by
liquidating of natural capital stocksso as a result nature is
impoverished and becomes capital poor. This exploitation of
nature reveals the depths of false economy. Although this would
seem illogical remember that we do not have enough information
about the natural systems of the earth to make a decision tha t we
feel is scientifically verifiable to the point that we deem confident
in. This thresold is pushed higher because of the subjectivity that a
materialistic and superificial culture and society which relies on
consumption as the most important part of existence. The backbone
of the present modern society is the growing economy. A reversal
of this trend would devistating to our notion of progress. So we
would have to have tremendous amount of evidence to rapidly shift
gears to another model of existence away from the idea that
economic growth coupled with technology is the pancea for all our
problems. 86
Ecological Economics
Zbigniew Bankowski World health jan feb 1990