Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.960408142740.30326B-100000@unicorn.it.wsu.edu> Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 14:50:30 -0700 From: Rotholz <mailto:jrotholz@WSUNIX.WSU.EDU> Subject: Re: Sustainability Award To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Perhaps the goals of environmental sustainability and Monsanto's alleged motive of promoting good pubic relations through the Sustainability Award are not entirely antithetical. The road to sustainable environmental relations may, ironically enough, pass through the domains of capitalist enterprise. There is one theoretical approach in anthropology (evolutionary ecology) which baiscally states that unless something is seen to be beneficial to the individual and his/her reproductive concerns, there will be no motivation on the part of that individual. According to this theory, what is good for the environment must also be seen to be directly good for the individual. Otherwise, one is left with the option of "conservation in the abstract" to motivate people toward sustainble behaviors, and this approach seems to have a long record of failure.Just a thought to share,
Jim Rotholz Dept. of Anthropology Washington State University