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World Hunger
& Poverty
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Garrett Hardin: Lifeboat Ethics

Hardins Central Argument
Hardin argues that the Marxist/Christian or sharing
approaches to global ethical problems often embodied by the
Spaceship Earth metaphor are the wrong stance to take.
Hardin argues that unless we drop the Spaceship outlook and
adopt something more like a Lifeboat Ethics, we risk dooming
ourselves.
- Hardins argument is that our choice in ethical approach to
global issues depends on the way the world is, not simply
the way the world should be.
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Spaceship Earth
Were all in this
Usually adopted as an together!
environmental metaphor:
- We need to replace our wasteful
cowboy economy with a frugal
spaceship economy.
The generous attitude of too many
people results in asserting inalienable
rights while ignoring or denying matching
responsibilities. (447)
A true ship always has a captain and
crew, but our Spaceship Earth has no
captain, nor any real executive committee.
Ultimately, the spaceship metaphor does
not reflect the complex balance of rights
and responsibilities on Earth.
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Lifeboat Ethics
The people in poor countries have an average per capita GNP
of about $200 per year.
The people in rich countries have an average per capita GNP
of about $3000 per year (in the US, its more like $5000).
- (Todays per capita GNP in the US is closer to $30,000;
compare this with about $450 in India or $370 in Haiti.)
Consider the alternative metaphor of a lifeboat.
- Each rich nation amounts to a lifeboat full of comparatively
rich people.
- Each poor nation amounts to a much more crowded
lifeboat.
- Continuously, the poor fall out of their lifeboats, and hope to
be admitted to one of the rich lifeboats.
- Each lifeboat is effectively limited in capacity.
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Lifeboat Ethics (contd)

Consider our lifeboat, filled with 50 people.
- Assume our boat has a capacity of 60, but the room for
another 10 is a safety factor in the event of a disaster.
- The 50 of us see another 100 others swimming about in the
water, asking for admission. How do we respond?
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Lifeboat Ethics (contd) -- Option #1

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Lifeboat Ethics (contd) -- Option #2

Goodbye,
safety factor!
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Lifeboat Ethics (contd) -- Option #3

Let us grant that the third

option is abhorrent and unjust.
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Reproduction
The numbers inside the wealthy lifeboats are doubling every
87 years; those outside are doubling every 35 years.
- (Today, the US population is doubling every 79 years;
compare this with every 45 years in India and every 30
years in Haiti. The population in Liberia is doubling every 16
years.)
Every nation regards its rate of reproduction as a sovereign
right. (449)
If the US lifeboat were to allow as many non-Americans in as
Americans already inside, the American portion of the
population would increase to 420 million in 87 years; the non-
American portion to 3.5 billion.
- Sharing is suicide.
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Ruin in the Commons

The tragedy of the commons arises from sharing ethics:
- An intelligent farmer will allow no more cattle in a pasture
than its carrying capacity justifies.
- If he overloads, the cattle eradicate the land, and the farmer
loses.
- If a pasture is open to all (a commons), each herdsman
feels no responsibility to take care of ithe dare not!
- One herdsman who chooses not to overload the commons
only leaves room for another to do so.
- In a crowded world of less than perfect human beings
and we will never know any othermutual ruin is inevitable
in the commons. This is the core of the tragedy of the
commons. (449-450)
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World Food Banks

The idea behind world food banks is that of a new commons:
an international depository of food reserves:
- Nations contribute according to their means, and draw on
according to their needs.
If each nation is responsible for its own well-being, poorly-
managed ones will suffer.
- But they will be able to learn from experience.
- They will learn to budget for infrequent but certain
emergencies.
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World Food Banks (contd)

But it isnt their fault! How can we blame the poor people who
are caught in an emergency? Why must we punish them?
- Concepts of blame and punishment are irrelevant.
- If irresponsible governments can draw on a world food bank
every time the need develops, they have no motivation to
plan ahead.
- There will be little-to-no overlap between those who deposit
to the bank, and those who withdraw from it.
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The Ratchet Effect

An international food bank is not so much a bank as a one-
way transfer device for moving wealth from rich countries to
poor.
Absent such a bank, the population of each nation would go
through a repeated cycle:
Overpopulation:
P
2 ( safety factor exhausted ) Emergency

At carrying capacity:
P
1 ( with safety factor )
A demographic cycle of this sort obviously involves great
suffering in the restrictive phase, but such a cycle is normal to
any independent country with inadequate population control.
(451)
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The Ratchet Effect (contd)

Emergencies serve to prune away the luxuriant growth of
the human race. (451)
If such countries can draw on a world food bank in times of
emergency, the population will not cycle, but P
escalate: 4

P Emergency
3

P Emergency
2 ( Inputfoodfrombankworld )
Input from world
P
1 ( food bank )
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The Ratchet Effect (contd)

The process is brought to an end only by the total collapse of
the whole system, producing a catastrophe of scarcely
imaginable proportions. (451)
Without a world government controlling reproduction,
Spaceship ethics are the wrong approach.
Instead, survival depends that we govern our actions by
Lifeboat ethics.