Hardin's initial complaint is against humanitarian efforts to establish an international food bank, to which rich nations will contribute and from which poor nations will draw. Theoretically, accidents (famine, crop failure, etc.) should teach nations to plan ahead and budget for future tragedies; the existence of an international food bank would inhibit this process from occurring by "spoiling" the benefiting nations. In addition, a food bank would allow population to constantly balloon regardless of immediate food availability. For example, a famine should reduce a society's population back to its "carrying capacity," but an international food bank would prevent this regression.

A popularly proposed alternative is the "Green Revolution," where agriculture is improved within a nation rather than food de

livered directly to it. Despite the superior logic inherent in this idea as compared to that of a food bank, both have the exact same result: overpopulation.

Essentially, Hardin's ideas are backed with logic but not with morals, religion, or even human instinct. Perhaps the root of the entire "lifeboat" dilemma is the humanitarian impulse of mankind (pity felt for the less-fortunate), but how can anybody expect to repel this impulse from themselves and others? I believe, like Hardin, that a strict accordance with the ethics demonstrated by limited lifeboats at an ocean disaster is the only way to curb our problem of over-population, but I also submit to the fact that putting selfishness on a pedestal in front of the world is not something that can or should be done.

Quite simply, I disagree with Garrett Hardin's theories regarding the self-preservation of wealthy nations in his paper Lifeboat Ethics. His assertions regarding the nations' limited carrying capacities adheres the idea of self-preservation idea to firm logic, but logic cannot overpower the humanitarian impulse of mankind. World food banks and the "Green Revolution" are used to demonstrate the "ratchet effect;" a firm yet ineffectual point asserting that the efforts of wealthy nations to aid the poor are inhibiting to the welfare of the environment. Obviously this effect makes an excellent graphic for a thesis page and is alarming in many respects, but essentially it is encouragement for the wealthy populace to abandon the poor to the conseque

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Approximate Word count = 1023
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)