The "Science Compass" piece is also good -- it revisits Hardin's
"Tradegy of the Commons" and makes the case for institutional diversity in
dealing with sustainability challenges involving common property resources.
Interesting perspectives offered on the failure of western solutions in
Southeast Asian irrigated farming regions. It misses (at least does not
discuss) two major changes governing the impact of people on the planet and
steps to promote sustainability -- the volume of trade/movement of capital,
resources, goods and the evolution of transnational corporations that are
more powerful than most national governments and certainly dance to the beat
of a different drummer when it comes to impacts on the commons and
who/what/how controls their behavior.
The article points out that people, communities, governments often
find ways to solve common property problems that meet their needs and work
sustainably. But in perhaps 20 years starting in the early 1990s, the
corporate genome, as it were, will go through its own evolutionary process,
with the number of "species" shrinking at least 95% and the size/power of
companies going up several-fold. This profound change will undoubtedly
trigger equally major changes in the behavior and impacts of corporations;
these must be factored in by ecologists, biologicts, politicians, as they
look ahead.
It appears we are heading for a period when there is a fundamental
mismatch between what institutions can accomplish -- public and private --
and the actions and profit needs of transnationals. Perhaps GMO issues
resonant so deeply with the public in Great Britain because most people no
longer believe that government or public institutions can stand up to
corporations/special interests when scientific uncertainty and messy,
complex questions get in the way of new (or existing) markets and profits.
chuck
Charles Benbrook 208-263-5236 (voice)
Benbrook Consulting Services 208-263-7342 (fax)
5085 Upper Pack River Road benbrook@hillnet.com [e-mail]
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 http://www.pmac.net
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