Garrett Hardin's Lifeboat Ethics Applied to Environmental Migrants

Abstract

As human population grows, it begins to exceed the Earth's carrying capacity. Although very few countries have surplus capacity, or are under capacity, desperate people migrate to nations that appear to have a surplus of food and other resources needed for survival. Environmental migrants to describe people who either have or will be migrating because of some environmental disaster that makes their country a less suitable habitat. The ideal host country for environmental migrants should have a surplus of resources and no ecological deficit, but such a country is near impossible to find in the current human economy that depends on the planet s natural capital. The only way to combat this complex problem is to put rigid, firm sustainable practices in place to spare the future generations of all nations on Earth.