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204Cairns: Eco-Ethics and Sustainability Ethicsconsumers, 77 percent had already taken a vacation involving activities related to nature, outdooradventure, or learning about another culture in the countryside or wilderness. Of the 23 percentremaining who had not, all but one respondent were interested in doing so (Wight, 1996). Onemight reasonably conclude that individuals wish a more personal relationship with natural systemsand would be distressed if their opportunities to achieve this were diminished.CAN WE RELY ON EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT ACTION?One of the books I found most helpful on the question of relying on effective government actionis by Salisbury (1969) on the siege of Leningrad in the then USSR during World War II. Despite overwhelmingevidence to the contrary, Stalin (head of the then USSR) believed that the non-aggressionpact with Hitler (head of Nazi Germany) would hold. Worse yet, high-ranking military officers,who had seen the evidence of a military build-up by Nazi Germany, presented a contrary view, literallyat a risk to their lives. Even after the war had started, some common sense measures werenot taken until after major suffering was evident; for example, women, children, the elderly, andinvalids were not evacuated from Leningrad until much pain had occurred. Furthermore, foodstuffssuch as sugar and flour were left in warehouses that were exceedingly vulnerable to air attack,rather than being placed for safekeeping in underground storage areas. I reread this 635-pagebook (admirably referenced) in order to examine the consequences of steadfast adherence to aninappropriate paradigm.Both Lindsey’s (1993) and Stevenson’s (1976) books show similar inabilities of leaders andgroups to focus on the important issues. Since I was in the Pacific during World War II, I have readsome books about that conflict (e.g., Costello, 1969) and have found that both sides often hadstrongly held but inaccurate beliefs that caused substantial loss of life and material. The reason forreading these distressing publications is that the ease with which one holds on to paradigms to theextent that contrary evidence is rejected (as Kuhn, 1970, so aptly stated) is increased with distancefrom the problem. Some strongly held paradigms of the present time are: (1) economic growth isthe solution to all the problems of human society, including poverty, overpopulation, destruction ofnatural resources, and the like; (2) any problem created by technology can be solved by technology;and (3) human intelligence, creativity, and technology exempt human society from the biophysicallaws of nature that restrict other species.For those who believe that present generations are so well informed that mistakes comparableto those of the past are simply impossible, it is worth re-examining the widespread collapse of theAsian economic system in 1997. Before it occurred, United States financial advisors and analystsworried that, if they did not emulate the Asian “tigers,” they would be devoured. Investors wereencouraged to invest in this rapidly expanding market, and the terrible fate of investors in stodgyUnited States stocks was described in extensive and lurid detail. The collapse of the Asian financialsystem involving many countries (Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and, toa lesser extent, others) seems to have taken financial advisors and analysts by surprise, although Ihave been looking in vain for an admission of error from those who were recommending stocks inthe troubled countries, even up to the point of collapse. Governments in developed countries seemalso to have been taken by surprise, although one would think the financial collapses in Asia wouldhave been of military as well as economic significance.The world is interconnected, which means that trouble in one part can easily result in trouble inother parts, particularly economic instability and political unrest. Even when the problem is fairlystraightforward and obvious, such as the one in the United States Social Security System where