 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | "We fail to mandate economic sanity," writes Garrett Hardin, "because our brains are addled by...compassion." With such startling assertions, Hardin has cut a swathe through the field of ecology for decades, winning a reputation as a fearless and original thinker. A prominent biologist, ecological philosopher, and keen student of human population control, Hardin now offers the finest summation of his work to date, with an eloquent argument for accepting the limits of the earth's resources--and the hard choices we must make to live within them. In Living Within Limits, Hardin focuses on the neglected problem of overpopulation, making a forceful case for dramatically changing the way we live in and manage our world. Our world itself, he writes, is in the dilemma of the lifeboat: it can only hold a certain number of people before it sinks--not everyone can be saved. The old idea of progress and limitless growth misses the point that the earth (and each part of it) has a limited carrying capacity; sentimentality should not cloud our ability to take necessary steps to limit population. But Hardin refutes the notion that goodwill and voluntary restraints will be enough. Instead, nations where population is growing must suffer the consequences alone. Too often, he writes, we operate on the faulty principle of shared costs matched with private profits. In Hardin's famous essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons," he showed how a village common pasture suffers from overgrazing because each villager puts as many cattle on it as possible--since the costs of grazing are shared by everyone, but the profits go to the individual. The metaphor applies to global ecology, he argues, making a powerful case for closed borders and an end to immigration from poor nations to rich ones. "The production of human beings is the result of very localized human actions; corrective action must be local....Globalizing the 'population problem' would only ensure that it would never be solved." Hardin does not shrink from the startling implications of his argument, as he criticizes the shipment of food to overpopulated regions and asserts that coercion in population control is inevitable. But he also proposes a free flow of information across boundaries, to allow each state to help itself. "The time-honored practice of pollute and move on is no longer acceptable," Hardin tells us. We now fill the globe, and we have no where else to go. In this powerful book, one of our leading ecological philosophers points out the hard choices we must make--and the solutions we have been afraid to consider. |
Average Customer Rating:   A Challenging Intellectual Feast This book opens up avenues of thought and reason that aren't explicitly expressed or taught through conventional means. This should be read and discussed by many, unfortunately few will have either the interest or intellectual flexibility to make the most of this brilliant exercise in reason. The only part of the book I feel is flawed is his staunch view on Immigration. There are societal influences that did not add necessary weight to his argument [maybe they are expanded on in his book dealing solely with Immigration]. However, that is a fractional concern when the rest of the book is a work of such immense caliber. A great book about the most important issue of our time. I would give this book 99 stars if I could. Garrett Hardin, most famous for his essay 'The Tragedy of the Commons' (look it up on Wikipedia), intellectually evicerates anyone who would be so foolish as to think that overpopulation is NOT a problem. Nearly every human ill can be attributed to the simple phrase 'too many people and too few resources,' and Hardin attacks this issue from every angle. As a self styled 'ecological conservative' Hardin attacks both liberal democratic and traditional conservative ideology.
I thought I knew a little bit about 'real' economics until I read this book, boy was I wrong. If, like me, you thought that Freakonomics was cutting edge and savvy then you would definitely love this book. Hardin clearly has a firm grasp on what economics is actually about. He throws everything at you - natural selection, Thomas Malthus, carrying capacity, demographics, Unmanaged Commons and so much more that this book is sure to open your eyes to the growing problem around us.
The only negative thing (hence the -1 star from 100) I can say about the book is that there is little continuity or flow to it. Rather than any continuous theme, it seems more like his lecture notes stuck together in some kind of topical series. Besides that, I highly highly recommend everyone read this book - sadly though, I am a realist and know that few will (to society's detriment).
If you like this book, you will like Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed; or if you liked Collapse, then you will like this book. The Common Tragedy Man Garrett Hardin, in interviews has said that those who use "entitlement" as the grounds for claiming their share of resources and opportunities on this planet are often the "useless" and "incompetent" members of our society. This presents a problem in Hardin's view. Many anti- entitlement conservatives will rejoice in this perspective. Especially due to the very compelling theory of "Tragedy of The Commons" that Garrett Hardin has put forward. The problem is that who decides which members of the society are not productive enough to be entitled to a part of this Earth's bounty. And are we to execute people who are deemed "non contributors" to our society. Who will this great authority that decides upon whom is productive or not be? Garrett Hardin perhaps? And often who is seen as "productive" is a completely arbitrary and useless concept. The barbarians of old may have found Plato's work to not be productive nor useful. Unfortunately Garrett Hardin drifts into Social Darwinian and almost Nazi-like stances on entitlement and resource sharing. However his "Tragedy of the Commons" concept is poignant and valuable. Far too much of a good thing. Overpopulation is the reality that multiplies every malady and problem
that afflicts society. Unfortunately, society "chooses" to ignore any
serious consideration of the population question. Politically and
religiously the topic is a hot potato. Hardin gave decades to the
rigorous analysis of this benign enemy of our race. The intensity
of every ill that plagues the nations would be substantially lessened
if we would come to grips with the hard reasoning of Hardin's scholarship
and objectivity. Spaceship economics and other interesting concepts. The problem of population is one of regulating human behavior. He explains several concepts:
1- Cowboy vs spaceship economics.
2- The Malthus demostat.
3- Exponential growth at a small rate and the carrying capacity of Planet Earth
4- Our world is finite
5- There will never be a perpetual motion machine
A great thinker on ecology and human population. |  |
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