Environmental Trade-Offs
Who will benefit?
There are still environmental problems that need solving, but these will be impossible if the environmental movement does not acknowledge the existence of trade-offs. Every environmental regulation has benefits and problems, and every problem cannot be reduced to the desire of capitalists to make more money.
I live on the central coast of California, and a perfect example of environmental trade-offs exists on one of more most polluted beaches, Cowell’s Beach in Santa Cruz. Cowell’s has often been rated one of the top 10 dirty beaches on the Pacific Coast, which presents a particular problem for the tourist industry in Santa Cruz. However, the reason why Cowell’s is so heavily polluted with bacteria is directly tied to California Coastal Commission regulations. The municipal wharf adjacent to Cowell’s beach has several tourist shops and restaurants that are over 100 years old. These businesses have 100-year-old sewage treatment systems. If you’re unfamiliar with 100-year-old sewage treatment on the coastline, it consists of dumping raw sewage into the ocean. However, to protect the “pristine” ocean environment of California, the Coastal Commission refuses to allow any improvements or new construction on wharfs or piers. As a result, no updates can be made to these sewage systems, which will continue to dump raw sewage into the ocean and pollute the nearby beaches.
Another example that is close to home are the wetlands in the San Francisco Bay. Shipping companies would like to dredge out regions of the bay to make room for large boats, while environmentalists are fighting to save the wetlands in San Francisco Bay. However, most of the environmentalists are unaware that the wetlands in San Francisco Bay are themselves a results of environmental destruction. Gold Rush miners in the Sierras destroyed whole mountainsides with hydraulic mining. The Sacramento River washed these sediment loads to the San Francisco Bay, creating large wetlands. Since these wetlands are unnatural, they continue to erode away, much to the joy of shipping companies. In an odd course of nature, in this case, the environmentalists are on the side of environmental destruction, while the greedy capitalists on the side of letting nature take its course.
The story of Yellowstone National Park is one where the federal government’s changing goals of tourism to restoration to environmentalism have created a landscape that is entirely artificial. Even the idea that we might know what a “natural,” unaltered environment might look like is impossible.
The attempt to return nature to a pristine, “natural” environment is a utopian dream. To truly care about nature, the environmental movement should look to the ancient art of husbandry, which actively involves humans caring for animals and plants in a way that puts the needs of future generations of people first.