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Perhaps most important, developed countries, which currently consume over 70% of the
earths resources, can directly contribute to global environmental improvement through their
own efforts to (1) reduce harmful emissions, including greenhouse gases, (2) undertake R&D
to develop green technologies and pollution control for themselves and for developing
countries, and (3) alter their own environmentally harmful patterns of demand.
Emission Controls
Beyond responsible consumption, perhaps the greatest contribution that the developed
world can make to the global environment will be through a clear demonstration of
their own commitment to a cleaner environment. Because they remain the main
polluters of air and sea, developed countries must lead the way to global changes in
developing world.
Import Restrictions
Through its importation of products that are associated with environmentally
unsustainable production, the developed world has an indirect but important impact
on the global environment. International treaties to limit the destruction of endangered
resources will have little effect if wealthy nations continue to provide lucrative
markets for the sale of such goods. Import restrictions are an effective way of
reducing undesired international trade.
Yes weve made dramatic improvements in feeding the world, with current crop yields much
higher than in previous generations. But the environmental degradation and the overuse of
fossil fuels has created a false panacea whereby weve thought that we can solve all of our
problems with more technology, rather than using sustainable practices and more intelligent
utilization of existing resources.
The biggest technological innovations in aquaculture and fishing has in the last half century
led to a near total breakdown of all saltwater fisheries worldwide. Rather than enhance
stocks and provide for greater resource management, it has led to the exact opposite.
Technology hasnt made life easier for the fish, it has made life easier for the fisherman. Mile
long seine nets, city-sized drag lines, sonar fish-finders and commercial harvesting boats the
size of the Titanic have reduced our stocks to the point where many are approaching total
collapse. This creates a cascade effect, where people who have invested huge sums of money
in infrastructure to harvest the more expensive table fish now find themselves with rusting
boats, crews that spend more time unemployed than active, and banks anxiously awaiting
mortgage payments.
Sustainability requires rethinking how much of a specific natural resource we can harvest
before we exhaust that population, either for our future needs or for wildlife. Human
population can not continue to grow indefinitely unless we decide to live lives that have less
and less impact on the environment.
We need to use technology to improve the environment first, or else there is no sustainability.
And as history has shown, repairing the commons is never a major priority because there are
always bigger mouths to feed.