Tuesday, February 8, 2011

"Sustainable Natural Resources" is a Three-way Oxymoron

To call forest and prairie and soil and rivers and breathable air resources means that they are considered to be objects for consumption.  The tension between consumption and sustainable needs no embellishment.  But what is really meant by sustainable in this context is that our parasitic consumption can be prolonged through regulation and control.  And as soon as a natural entity’s fitness—or continued existence—depends on bureaucratic regulation and control, the word natural no longer applies.  

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