Read 'n' Seed 3: Second Quarter of "The Fate of Nature"

I had originally planned to read Parts III and IV of the book but I only ended up reading Part III and then about halfway through Part IV.  This entailed chapters 14-23 (pg. 119-233).  I think I will still be able to stay on track because I had planned to read Part V for the third quarter and Part VI for the final quarter.  So, I will just finish up the last few chapters of Part IV for next week!  Most of what was covered in the sections I read for this week discussed conservation and the history of conservation.  Through discussions of the gold rush, the Civil War, World War II and a specific look at Alaska, Wohlforth details the evolution of land conservation and discusses the ownership of water bodies which he names the "liquid world."  Wohlforth goes into even greater detail about the debate of property lines, and ownership of land.

There were a few things in the text that stood out in my mind.  One directly relates to what we have been talking about in class.  Wohlforth is discussing how we can maximize our resources while still benefiting from them.  He talks about an experiment at Indiana University in which students played a Pac Man-Type game where they had to munch up all of the little tokens.  Each token was worth a certain amount of money and the students could actually go home with $22 each.  The students played at the same time on the same screen for a total of four minutes.  After a token was eaten, it would take a while for it to regenerate, much like our natural resources.  However, because each student only thought of themselves and wanted to maximize their resources, the tokens were gone within the first minute of the experiment and the students ended up earning about 1/3 of the potential $22.  The experiment was done again, this time with a higher institution stepping in and dividing the screen into quadrants that each student "owned."  This time, the students ended up earning more of their money because they were not worried about others munching up their tokens.  In a third round, students did not have "property lines" but were allowed to communicate to each other.  This third round ended up being the most successful in the allotted four minute time period. Students actually had resources left over at the end of four minutes so that if there was more time, the game could have continued.

I found this to be a very important part of what I read.  If we think of the earth and how we can best preserve it, cooperation is the key.  Obviously more factors go into it than the Pac Man Experiment can demonstrate, but if we simplify it, it relates.  We as humans are not maximizing our $22 of resources and, as we saw in the Star Wars Activity, we are using up our resources way too fast.  Another important thing that was pointed out in this experiment was government intervention.  Later in the text, Wohlforth hints at the importance of having power and resources.  But, he points out that we must not be blinded by the government because they do have so much power in our society.  I think this is important because one of our responsibilities is to advocate for health.  If we can't do that, there is not much we can do.

This section was less philosophical and more historical so I hope that this post is easier to follow than the last.  I am anxious to see where the reading takes me.