Imagine we live on a very small island. We allocate part of the island for shelter, part for food production, and part for the making of clothes and other goods. If the island were small enough and the population large enough, we would quickly face painful tradeoffs among these areas. We would be forced to weigh these tradeoffs and learn to optimize resource allocation.
Scarcity begets resource contention. For instance, if most of the island is allocated for shelter, we cater on our island to shelter (e.g. by allowing large, spacious castles for all) we encroach upon necessary farm lands to feed the populace. On the other hand, if we lean towards maximizing food production, we constrain factory space. Similarly, if manufacturing pours waste on the farm lands, illness befalls all. Such confined circumstances and comparatively limited resources amplify the need to make choices in quest of the optimal, self-sustaining balance. In the real world,
Economics is the science of optimizing the allocation of limited resources. Allocation decisions are usually addressed by policy or price action in free markets. These tools work reasonably well in a one-community model. Our imaginary island gets complicated, however, by the addition of a new, autonomous community at the other end of the island – and further, by more and more communities. Separate communities battling for shrinking island space and dwindling resources soon find themselves in conflict for resources. Conflict becomes another tool to resolve tradeoffs across competing parties.
Only in recent world history has mankind been forced to face aggregate limits to growth that traditional tools cannot solve. Of greater concern is the threat posed by civilization to the self-sustaining nature of the planet. Water scarcity, extinction of species, disruption of the food chain, and air pollution are only a few by-products of runaway industry, exponential population growth, and environmental carelessness. Mankind is beginning to awaken to its incumbent responsibility to care for the planet. The need for unprecedented global cooperation is becoming apparent to the industrialized, civilized nations. Some accurately foresee the forthcoming problems while others are oblivious. In short, we are rapidly recognizing we are on small island with many growing, often hostile, volatile communities.
LDS blogs which treat the environment sometimes cite D&C 104:17 in isolation (“The earth is full and there is enough and to spare…”) as evidence that worries about limited global resources are overblown. Those who take this view single out resource abundance as perhaps the only blessing, besides birth itself, that is not predicated upon any measure or level of obedience – almost as a given. Yet this is contrary to reason, to empirical evidence, and to a sense of stewardship for all entrustments – a principle surely embraced by LDS faith. In fact, if “replenish the earth” is intended as a complimentary commandment to “multiply”, the injunction to preserve the self-sustaining nature of the planet is explicit. We don’t merely share the planet with other forms of life – we are the very caretaker species, and we have stewardship for the entire food chain – the earth and everything on it. We face a time of unprecedented demand for cooperation, action, education, and commitment to a long neglected and shared stewardship – the earth.