In 1972, the United Nations General Assembly convened the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. During the ensuing years, other conferences were held. (a) What factors mitigate against international cooperation to solve global ecological problems? (b) What are the prospects for achieving sustainable development through a managed global commons arrangement?

What will be an ideal response?

Theorists adhering to realism and free-market mercantilism resolutely defend freedom
of economic choice without regulation as the best path to realizing the greatest good
for the greatest number. Theorists from these traditions believe that pursuing selfinterest and personal profit will benefit all in the long run, producing more income and
technological innovation than would otherwise occur under supervisory regulation of
corporations, entrepreneurs, and investors. They also feel that minimal interference in
the pursuit of personal gain is helpful to the preservation of the Earth's environment.
According to their reasoning, the pursuit of private gain with little restraint is a virtue,
not a vice.