The main goal of free trade is to make trade between nations easier and .
The way it achieves this goal is by removing barriers such as tariffs, .
eliminating regulations and dismissing certain standards, which allows the market .
to balance itself through the pressures of market demands. The free trade .
system has existed now for just over two-hundred years, beginning just after the .
industrial revolution. It has been successful in promoting independent action, .
advancing technology and thus in turn creating wealth. While free trade .
economics is a major contributor to economic growth, economic growth is also a .
major contributor to the destruction of our planet. "Due to over consumption and .
the throw away model of most developed nations, free trade does not allow for .
very much sustainable development."(Chomsky,N:www.oneworld.org) .
Many critics of free market capitalism feel that the root of our problem is too .
many environmental resources are considered common goods or common to all. .
Common resources are available free of charge to anyone who wishes to use .
them. The text defines common resources as "Goods that are rival, but not .
excludable."( Chomsky,N) Because common goods are rival, one person's use of .
the resource takes away from other people's enjoyment of it. For example back .
in 1998 when the Ontario Provincial Government granted a permit to remove .
freshwater supplies in bulk amounts from Lake Ontario. The water was to be .
removed in bulk amounts and exported to the United States by a private .
enterprise based out of Salt Ste. Marie. If it wasn't for a mass public outcry and .
disapproval, this permit to export Canadian fresh water would have opened the .
flood gates for serious environmental disaster. The free market's principle for .
supply and demand is inapplicable when dealing with common goods because .
there is no price attached to them. Therefore overuse and depletion is a common .
theme when so many of our natural resources are common goods.
