ABSTRACT
What can we do about the problems that result from the intensification of resource management and the expanding scale that often accompanies it? We can ignore them, but that only works for a while. A second approach is to develop new production technologies that are not as environmentally detrimental or that mitigate the effect of detrimental technologies. Many colleges of agriculture and forestry have recently broadened their teaching and research from a narrow focus on increased production to one that includes environmental problem mitigation. But most of the new technologies are susceptible to the same dangers as earlier technologies designed solely to increase production — they are subject to fallible human control, they may be expensive, and they may have unanticipated side effects. The economy is allowed to expand, but when the problems appear, the economic ratchet has foreclosed the possibility of turning back. The economy cannot contract or even remain in a steady state without major political repercussions.
