Living in the Environment 18th Edition by Tyler Miller,Scott Spoolman

Exercise 13

In the early 1990s, Miguel Sanchez, a subsistence farmer in Costa Rica, was offered $600,000 by a hotel developer for a piece of land that he and his family had been using sustainably for many years. The land, which contained an old-growth rain forest and a black sand beach, was surrounded by an area under rapid development. Sanchez refused the offer. Explain how Sanchez's decision was an application of one of the social science principles of sustainability (see Figure 1-5, p. 9 or back cover). What would you have done if you were in Sanchez's position Explain your thinking.