Week 6: The Endless Growth Economy

This week, we were introduced the idea that our exploitation of resources is unsustainable.  I will go into that concept a little later on. The Millennium Assessment was presented as proof of our exploitation. We are introduced to this idea through Cresell and Thomas's article, the Talented Mr. Madoff. Here, the case of Bernard Madoff was presented. He was a charismatic and wealthy financier with a lot of influence who ended up cheating many investors with a type of Pyramid Scheme called a Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme, an "investment opportunity" is presented to investors that promises high or steady returns, to make it especially attractive. However, the money investors receive does not come from profits but from the investments of other investors. We also looked at David P. Barash's article We Are All Madoffs. In this article, our relationship to the Earth is likened to a Ponzi scheme.

In this quote by Barash, the similarities between Madoff's exploitation :

Everybody hates Bernard Madoff, and for good reason. He bilked hundreds—thousands—of people out of billions, perhaps tens of billions, of dollars, destroyed numerous life savings, ruined the future prospects of many of those who had trusted him, all the while living in ostentatious, and, it is now painfully clear, despicable luxury.

Lookit that despicable face.

 I personally think our relationship with the Earth resembles a Ponzi scheme, but in a different way. Our resources are exploited by a number of large companies with little regard to sustainability or our future, so only a relatively small proportion of the population can live in luxury. In a way, we are all Madoffs. However, the Earth isn't really like the investors he fooled. The Earth did not consciously invest in us, so that it may get some perceived amount of return. We do not pay the Earth back with some sort of gain taken from some other source than it was expecting. In a way, we are like the unwitting investors, too. The stock market is pretty much integral to modern business, and it is built on the perception of companies and the estimations and expectations of their profits. Investment itself is based on practices that are not sustainable and returns that may not exist. The Ponzi scheme is within our society and that is what hurts the Earth.

I did a bit of research on the sustainable extraction of resources for a class; I still remember what I talked about. Specifically, I studied the collapse of cod populations in Newfoundland, and the rules that had to be implemented in order to prevent that catastrophe from happening again.When John Cabot came across Newfoundland in 1497, the bay was teeming with cod. Over-fishing rendered Newfoundland's cod population extinct by the 1980's. Due to the depletion of Newfoundland's cod population, the industry was effectively frozen with a moratorium on boats in 1980, and then on licenses the following year. Property rights had to be implemented to prevent over-fishing of cod.

The ocean can be defined as a common pool resource, which sets it apart from other types because it would be extremely costly or impossible to exclude people from partaking in it's use. However, the amount that can be used by each individual is inherently ill-defined  leading to overuse and depletion. This dilemma is called the “Tragedy of the Commons”, in which an individual thinks of only increasing the size of his harvest since the negative effects of their exploitation isn't directly or immediately felt. Since the ocean was traditionally treated as common property, causing Canadian cod fishers to fish extensively in order to compete with both each other and foreign fishers in Canadian waters.

My literature suggested the implementation of Individual Transferable Quotas, similar to Carbon Credits, In this system, each licensed fisher would purchase coupons representing the amount of fish he would be allowed to catch. Only a limited number of these official coupons would be released. A system would be put in place to ensure the trading and selling of these coupons, so fishers could determine who needs what among themselves. With careful monitoring and good participation, the system is supposed to encourage sustainable use of resources. I personally think the credit system has a lot of potential and would like to see more of it in use.

A world where we have to be told how to share... Perhaps it the same as it's ever been.