Essay Quiz


1		It is said that 25% of the world's population living in industrialized countries consumes 80% of the world's resources. While some of these resources are acquired from the industrialized nations' own natural storehouses, a significant number of them come from the developing countries. Are the industrialized countries exploiting these countries by depriving them of resources they may need for their own future development? Or are the industrialized countries contributing to their overall economic well-being here and now by providing a market for their natural wealth, by putting to work resources that might otherwise go to waste?



2		Defenders of the market assume that natural objects like land, trees, rocks, and wildlife have no independent worth because market economics has no theoretical place for them. On this view, they have value only to the degree that humans value them. There are some ethicists, however, who believe that some nonhuman objects, some living things, plants and animals, are intrinsically valuable precisely because they are alive, they tend to maintain themselves in existence over time. Some utilitarians argue that animals are sentient, can feel pain, and we ought not to eat them for food or use them in medical research. According to this view, such beings have rights that we humans must respect. Which view do you think is the correct one? Defend your choice.



3		Some of the world's natural resources may eventually be used up entirely by industrial production: deposits of coal, oil, and gas, for example. Is there anything wrong with this? Is this really an environmental issue? What reasons could be offered to argue that some amount of any of these resources should be preserved? Is there any assurance that they are "fungible," that equivalent, less expensive resources will be substituted for them, so it doesn't really matter if they won't exist at some time in the future?

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