sexta-feira, outubro 22, 2004

Economia e meio ambiente (para bom estudante, um pouco de esperteza basta)

Meus alunos podem aprender um bocado (e discutir muito) com este texto. Claro, não apenas os alunos, mas os leitores deste blog podem gostar da discussão.

Trecho: There is environmentalist confusion between the mastery over nature and the destruction of nature. Control over nature means reshaping the natural world to meet human needs - for example, developing medicines to fight against disease or building dams to prevent flooding or generate electricity. This is not the same as destroying rain forests or making animal species extinct.

Nature has sometimes been destroyed as a side-effect of economic growth. But the aim of economic development is to benefit humanity rather than to destroy the natural world. It is important to remember that richer societies are in a much stronger position to create a positive environment for human beings than poor ones.

The remainder of this essay will examine the key tenets of environmentalist economics in more detail. It will argue that, in addition to being undesirable, the environmentalist worldview is based on fatally flawed assumptions.