Counsel for Getting There - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 156

Within the conventional approach, we tend to think it a tragic economic
waste if nature's products, such as wood fiber or forage for livestock, are not
somehow used by humans but are allowed instead to recycle in the ecosys-
tem—to compost, as it were. And because of our paranoia over lost profits
(defined as economic waste), we normally extract far more from every eco-
system than we replace. We will, for example, put capital in a crop but not
in maintaining the health of the ecosystem that produces the crop. This type
of expenditure is part of our Western, industrialized tradition and is thus
ingrained in our culture.
According to a song popular some years ago, freedom is equated with
having lost everything and thus having nothing left to lose. In a peculiar
way, this sentiment speaks of an apparent human truth. When we are uncon-
scious of a material value, we are free of its psychological grip. However, the
instant we perceive a material value and anticipate possible material gain,
we also perceive the psychological pain of potential loss. Historically, then,
any newly identified resource is inevitably overexploited, often to the point
of collapse or extinction. As we have often done in this work, let us proceed
with two examples that lead to the formulation of some general principles.
EXAMPLE 11.1 PEARL OYSTERS
In the 16th century, the turkey-wing mussel replaced the pearl-oyster
beds off the coast of Cubagua, Venezuela. The oyster's depletion was the
result not only of overexploitation in a short period of time but also of
the ecological stress the exploitation generated. Consequently, the tur-
key-wing mussel outcompeted the pearl oyster and thus prevented its
recovery. 1 Depletion of the economically valuable species allowed the
incursion of a competing species.
Such overexploitation, the specific details of which are unimportant,
is an interaction of economics and environment. It has been experienced
in many ways throughout history in numerous ecosystems with a mul-
titude of products worldwide. The experience is inevitably based on the
perceived entitlement of the exploiters to get their share before others do
and to protect their economic outlay. The concept of a healthy capitalis-
tic system is one that is ever-growing and ever-expanding, but in fact,
such systems, and the ventures that fuel them, are no more sustainable
biologically than the most fragile of the species that comprise the ecosys-
tem. Consider a more modern example.
EXAMPLE 11.2 CHINESE TURTLE TRADE
The exploitation of turtles and tortoises for today's market in Asia con-
tributes to a crisis in extinction of global proportions. Thus, it serves as
a contemporary example of an unsustainable, capitalistic venture based
on a biologically renewable resource thought to be inexhaustible.
Although mainland Southeast Asia has long been regarded as a mecca
of diversity for turtles and tortoises, little is known about them in Laos,
Cambodia, and Vietnam (formerly known as French Indochina), because