ABSTRACT
The ability of the human race to anticipate impending ecological disasters seems to have outstripped its willingness to do anything about them. Economic predictions typically assume that discounting is exponential, at a rate equal to the rate of interest on investments. Territories last occupied by conservers and non-conservers are referred to as "high-quality" and "low-quality" territories, respectively. Since the territories inherited by prodigal offspring are always of low quality, these offspring might do better by refusing their inheritance and taking their chances in the offspring pool. The effect of resource inheritance in this model may be interesting, but the question remains, what does it have to do with reality? Inheritance of property has two countervailing effects on the evolution of conservation. The greater the certainty of inheritance, the greater the chances that conservation enhances the fertility of one's offspring. Consequently, inheritance of resources promotes the evolution of conservation less than intuition might suggest.
