RE: NANFA-- Re:pulling our heads out of the sand & miniature

Crail, Todd (tcrail_at_northshores.com)
Fri, 14 Jun 2002 17:16:08 -0400

Hmmm... Because free-markets open to individuals *never* exploited
natural resources, right?

An open market never:
- Clear cut the Appalachians
- Never subsistance-fished the Phillipene coral reefs with dynamite
- Never burned the forests of Indonesia and Micronesia to amount to 2
years profitability for subsistance kava farming (of all the things
humans need)
- Never suggested "Hey... We'll just move these endangered fish to
aquariums to keep all you tree-huggers happy, go about trashing the
stream, and the fix it and put them back when we're done, cause that
will work right?"

The greatest problem Jeff, is that most of the endangered organisms on
this earth have zero "economic" value, so who's going to speak for them?
An economist? Some organisms come in and out of fashion, such as the
recent surge of marine aquarists who will get intensely upset by the
sale of dead coral head skeletons, but will knock each other down to get
that extra special super-purple live Acropora to place in their 75
gallon curio cabinet (I'll expand on this if you desire)... But for the
most part, the real loss is in what never comes into fashion or
desirability.

I see the earth as one big brick wall. There are many parts that
support other parts. By removing some of the bricks, and then
homogenizing parts of the rest by market desireability, and only using
*money* to reinforce the obvious open holes... When does it fall?

I share a similar distrust with political entities because I feel they
only exist to protect themselves. But I don't see any better way to at
least stay on the heels of unguided progress besides regulation and
lobbying. I think you're being paranoid that the UN is somehow going to
run the earth... There's too many oinery faces in the crowd for them to
get away with that. ;)

I've never seen an unregulated process take only what it needed.
Perhaps you can provide an example that would counter balance the
aforementioned atrocities?

In all that I've seen or read... Only after some governing entity
stepped in, have any of these situations improved... And that's usually
by them "locking it up" and then working in with environmental
organizations/non-profits using their own funding to show the people how
to better utilize what they have left over.

Todd
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org