Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [135]
In this sense, the Once-ler is operating in a sustainable way when he turns the last of the Truffula Trees into Thneeds: the total stock of capital is increased. Sure, the local ecosystem has been wrecked, and all that remains of the indigenous flora and fauna are “Grickle-grass” and crows, but the Once-ler and his family got “mighty rich,” so the natural capital of the area was transformed into Thneeds, a factory, and money, and the society’s total capital was (apparently) increased. Some senses of sustainability are narrowly focused on measures of wealth, and their conditions appear to be satisfied if there is as much or more capital tomorrow as there was yesterday. Other measures of societal and environmental well-being are left out of the picture, unless they can be expressed in terms of “stock of capital.”
The strongest forms of sustainability, on the other hand, ask that we look not only at the value of our stock of capital but also at the context for the accumulation or use of each type of capital. Think again of the Thneed factory: it seems clear that the factory is at least less valuable (if not completely valueless) once the last Truffula Tree is cut down. Suddenly, in order to determine whether or not a course of action (say, improving our Truffula-cutting equipment) is sustainable in the strong sense, we need to look past the sum of the value of the factory and the Thneeds; we need to investigate the size of the current Truffula Tree population, its rate of reproduction, the minimum size of a healthy population, the impact of the factory’s emissions on the forest’s health. . . . In short, when we use the strongest definitions of sustainability, a vastly more complicated set of variables comes into play.
In 1990, Herman Daly offered what are now known as the “Daly Rules” for the sustainable use of natural capital:
1. Renewable resources (fish, forests, soils, groundwaters) must be used no faster than the rate at which they regenerate;
2. Nonrenewable resources (mineral ores, fossil fuels, fossil groundwaters) must be used no faster than renewable substitutes for them can be put into place;
3. Pollution and wastes must be emitted no faster than natural systems can absorb them, recycle them, or render them harmless.15
Others are seeking to extend these rules to other forms of capital, so that the same kind of analyses can be performed on them as well.16 Sustainability, then, assumes that we can have a broad accounting of a variety of different kinds of capital, holds that some of these forms of capital are not substitutable for one another, and requires that we leave our stocks of all these different forms of capital intact (if not improved) for the next generation. In building and biggering his business, the Once-ler has given no evidence of concern for the future at all. Any more attentive businessman would certainly have noticed that his raw material was being used up faster than it could replace itself, and an environmentally conscious businessman might even have worried about the long-term sustainability of his entire operation. Could the Once-ler have produced Thneeds in a sustainable way? We’re not certain—but he certainly could have done better than he did.
The Lorax: Speaking for Trees
Is it odd that this chapter has focused so much on the actions of the Once-ler and their consequences to