Selfishness

A detailed Summary of Selfishness

“Can Selfishness Save the Environment”

Economists and Biologists have come to realize that people are really only motivated by self-interest. For economists this means economic incentives, and for biologists it means the pursuit of short-term goals that were once the means to reproduction. The two professions generally believe that people are not willing to pay for the long-term good of society or mother earth. For example in business, the selling of products that use CFC’s may be economically fruitful in the short-run, but over a long period of time technology shows there are better, more environmentally friendly chemicals that run the product more efficiently and also cost less. One would think that people would have the capability to realize that they are the on path to self destruction, but then again that is how man has gotten himself into this mess, ignorance. Man has come to believe that, “the world wasn’t made to produce frogs or katydids or sharks or grasshoppers. It was made to produ!

ce man” (Quinn 102). He has no regard for nature and his surroundings, his only objective is to, “exterminate his competitors” for a profit (127). In the essay by Matt Ridley and Bobbi

Ridley and Low point out that, “people and animals will cooperate only if they as individuals are given reasons to do so” (Ridley 2). This idea can be seen throughout the world in all aspects of life. For humans it has come down to the almighty dollar, and nature is unfortunately the one that has to pay the price of consumer wants. The Rhine River was once a gorgeous, pristine place where there were many species of fish and other sea life. Due to industrialization, it has become a polluted wasteland of chemicals struggling to sustain any kind of life. Many of the pollutants are flowing from the factories through the Rhine into the ocean killing seals and other animals. Fortunately there has been a dramatic positive change for the Rhine in recent years. Many new tough pollution laws are being created, but it is sad that we would still be polluting if laws had not been enacted (RSP 3). Another example of man destroying the environment can be seen in the whale!

Berry, Wendell. “Mayhem in the Industrial Paradise.” Walker 329.

Along with the idea that individuals affect the environment, there is another realization that one species affects another. If man rids the earth of one species it will affect another, what will the frogs eat if some insecticide kills all of the flies? Or what will foxes eat if man takes all of the breeding ground of rabbits? People must acknowledge that our ecosystem is setup like a spider’s web, where everything is interconnected, Chief Seattle, realizing this, said, “man didn’t make the web of life; he is only a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

“Save the Earth – Feed the World.” Race to Save the Planet. Videotape. Narrator: Roy Scheider.

“Do We Really Want to Live This Way.” Race to Save the Planet. Videotape. Narrator: Roy Scheider.

S. Low, “Can Selfishness Save the Environment,” exposes the idea that in society today

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1345
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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