Sustainability

[jdkelly6]

To me, Solow’s definition of sustainability is really not very satisfying. Sure, if we were to give the future exactly the same proportional amount of resources as we were provided by our predecessors then we have sustained enough for that generation to have a similar well being, but did we really practice being “sustainable’ if we have completely depleted alternative options leaving the future with only one way to live? I wouldn’t think so. I would think that sustainability is an issue that is also concerned with preserving the well-being of earth and not just the ability of humans and the future of humanity to consume resources. Although people in the future may be able to live well and happy lives with less variety in their resources, I think that variety in resources is a good thing that improves quality of life. I would not like to have to eat the same thing every day because people in the past had eaten most everything else and left just what was needed for us to survive. I think that when it comes to the issue of sustainability, we actually benefit greatly from having more variety. If we were to leave our future generations with only one kind of fish in the ocean, then they will have to eat only that for their wild caught fish protein and if the population of that fish gets low or if the fish goes extinct, they will have to stop eating wild caught fish. If we were to leave future generations with multiple species of fish, even if the populations were lower because we had harvested a lot, the future could work towards making those fish sustainable again so that they can be fished without being overfished. Because of my view on sustainability, I do not see aquacultured salmon as sustaining wild fisheries at all.

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