The case for recycling

[tame_deuces]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The closest analogy is looking at some big piece of land containing 500 farms. If 5-10 of those farms chose the most very high short-term profit way of farming, they will destroy the long-term profitability (and survivability of hundreds of millions of people, but that's another issue) of all the other farms. But at the same time, if they do, they can get very rich and very powerful.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think this is a realistic analogy. I'm not sure what type of farming practices you are talking about here, but if there was a way for a farmer to get 'rich and powerful' from changing some of his farming practices, most farmers wouldn't hesitate to do this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I agree, using an analogy was bad in the first place - I was just trying to explain the principles and probably made a hash of it.

It's like this, get a fairly big trawler...hawl it to a prime fishing spot, in the right (illegal) season, drop the bottom trawl using illegal masks, haul till you drop, find someone who will buy it - and you'll make a fortune. Doing it alot would effectively ruin the resource for a more long-term and ecologically sound plan, and make the same practice the only profitable way to make money untill the resource is destroyed - which is a shame, since it is naturally renewing when tended well.