World Views

World Views

William Ruckelshaus once said “Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.” It is comforting to believe that our earth will be able to provide us with the luxurious life humans have lived for hundreds of years. When the race of man was small, one was able to pollute profusely. Once this area was no longer livable, they would move and continue to pollute a new area. At a population of six billion and growing, the world can no longer sustain the increasing population. Four theories analyze the possibilities and future welfare of the earth as humans see the decreasing numbers of resources, food, land, and even basic human necessities such as water. The world can no longer continue to support the human race if nothing is to be done about this world epidemic.

Henry George’s novel Progress and Poverty first described the “Spaceship Earth” theory and later on was an issue of Kenneth. E. Boulding’s essay The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth. The Spaceship Earth theory explores the idea that our world is a “spaceship” so to speak, and that once our ship has become depleated of resources, we will enter another ship and will be given access to infinite resources. With regards to water, food and forests, the Perilous Optimism theory explores the same idea that humans must remain hopeful, as hope is what makes tomorrow seem worthwhile and without it, one cannot function. The PO ideas basically state that all matter cannot be created or destroyed and that the earth has a set number of resources that cannot be shattered. Although this is true, the PO theory doesn’t explore the areas of matter alteration. These two theories are wonderful in the concept that it offers optimism to many, but does not show a realistic evalutation of our earth.

On a more pessimistic note, the Gaia hypothesis and Limits to Growth concept, propose that the earth is in fact depleting and that as a global society, humans must act immediately if they want to guarantee future life. The Gaia hypothesis is influential as it points out the delicate complex interrelationships between living and non-living forms and that human interaction have large impacts on this relationships. They must learn to respect Gaia. The Limits to Growth concept says that the race of humans must limit its population