Given below are two statements:
Statement I: The carrying capacity of the environment is compared to the ‘plimsoll line’ of a ship, which is its load limit mark.
Statement II: In the absence of the plimsoll line for the economy, human scale stays within the carrying capacity of the earth.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Statement I is true but Statement II is false.
A plimsoll line shows how much load a ship can safely carry. Herman Daly uses it as a picture of the limit of the environment.
Statement I: The carrying capacity of the environment is compared to the ‘plimsoll line’ of a ship, which is its load limit mark. — True. Daly compares the carrying capacity to a ship’s load limit mark.
Statement II: In the absence of the plimsoll line for the economy, human scale stays within the carrying capacity of the earth. — False. Without such a limit, human scale grows beyond the carrying capacity of the earth and moves away from sustainable development.
NCERT (2026-27): “7.4 Sustainable Development … According to Herman Daly, a leading environmental economist, to achieve sustainable development, the following needs to be done (i) limiting the human population to a level within the carrying capacity of the environment. The carrying capacity of the environment is like a‘plimsoll line’ of the ship which is its load limit mark. In the absence of the plimsoll line for the economy, human scale grows beyond the carrying capacity of the earth and deviates from sustainable development …” |