Resourcism

Resourcism is a utilitarian view on land and environmental resources, as merely a commodity and a means to produce goods and services (Perley 13).

Resourcism views humans as apart from nature and places their needs above the needs of the environment. It has one objective, which is to maximize profit and production at the expense of sustainability and environmental welfare (Perley 13). This includes harvest rates at above sustainable yield rates and investing funds back into the industry, not the ecosystem which the industry is dependent upon. Practices like these often result in deterioration of the ecosystem as well as negative effects on human society due to contamination and loss of resources. This contrasts with other mindsets such as romanticism, which values the environment due to aesthetic or inherent values, and multiple use theory which values the environment for sustainable recreational use (Perley 14).

Further readings:

Gobster, P., and Hull, R. B., editors. 2000. Restoring nature: perspectives from the social sciences and humanities. Island Press, Washington D.C., USA.

Hull, R. B., D. P. Robertson, and G. J. Buhyoff. 2003. Beyond the interventionist-preservationist duality. Conservation Ecology 7(1): r4. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/resp4/

Perley, Chris J.K. “Resourcism and Preservationism in New Zealand Forestry: An End to the Dichotomy?” NZ Journal of Forestry, Aug. 2003.

Rowe, S. 2003. Much more than ecological scale and “nature knowing best” hiding in environmental decisions. Conservation Ecology 7(1): r3. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/resp3/