Global Environment Flashcards
Swedish visitor in London 1748
could see neither St Pauls from Greenwich or the rest of the city from atop St Pauls, both were obscured by “the thick coal smoke, which on all sides hung over the town”
William Cavert, 2016, Londoners’ views
notes how despite concerns over the ugly, unhealthy and undesirable smoke, coal consumption still expanded throughout the period and argues this is because it became deeply embedded in conceptions of social stability, economic prosperity and state power
the smoke of London was seen as both a blessing a curse, ‘a symbol of a new kind of urban life with all of its grandeur and grime’
agriculturalist, Arthur Young in 1780s
complained of “the clouds of coal smoke that envelop London” and wished to escape to the countryside’s “freshness and sweetness of air, the quiet and stillness, the sunshine unclouded by smoke”
and yet he also praised the smoke exclaiming ‘thank God for the coal fires of England’
the environment and social class
Ulrich Beck, 1986 suggests everyone in western societies is invariably exposed to pollution irrespective of class, gender and ethnicity
Joan Martinez-Alier, 2002 agrees pollution is another one of numerous dimensions of social inequality
‘The Limits to Growth’ report, 1972
an immediate bestseller with 10 million copies sold worldwide, it warned of the limits resources and that if the world did not change its historical growth trends then the limits to growth would become evident by 2072 leading to “sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity”
William Stanley Jevons, 1865, ‘The Coal Question’
coal “commands this age - the Age of Coal”
“it is to us indispensable for domestic purposes”
“without it we are thrown back into the laborious poverty of early times”
however he recognises we must acknowledge the finite nature of coal and warns of the exhaustion of Britain’s coal which would bring about “reverse of prosperity, which we may hope not to witness in our days”
he concludes that “the greatness of England much depends upon the superiority of her coal in cheapness and quality”
Sir W. Armstrong
1863
believed “the entire quantity of coal may be considered as practically inexhaustible”
John Williams
1789
one of the earliest writers who recognised it was possible to exhaust our supply of coal, included the chapter ‘The Limited Quantity of Coal in Britain’ in his ‘Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom’
Paul Wade, reaction to ‘The Coal Question’
notes how Jevons report was published to great acclaim and caused questions to be raised in parliament regarding the exhaustion of coal, parliament was then promoted to set up a commission to examine the future of coal use in Britain but concluded that Jevons had been too pessimistic
Paul Wade, commentary on ‘The Coal Question’
explains that at the time Britain was unquestionably the economic powerhouse of the world and its economic supremacy was founded on a combination of the best technology, especially steam power, fuelled by an immense reserve of cheap coal
argues Jevons primary concern was not the exhaustion of coal leading to economic collapse but the fear of surrendering economic supremacy to the US
Paul Crutzen, 2000
argues humankind has emerged as the most powerful influence on global ecology, its effects on the world are so consequential for life on earth that it can be said that a new stage has begun in earth’s history
believes the Anthropocene began in late 18th century with the onset of the use of fossil fuel energy, by 1890 50% of global energy use came from fossil fuels and increased to 80% by 2015
William Cavert, 2016, Anthropocene
argues this ‘fossil fuel revolution’ is an epochal point in human affairs, comparable only to the agriculture revolution, the current threats to the environment, such as pollution and nuclear radiation, have no pre-modern equivalents
McNeill and Engelke, 2014, population growth
‘there is nothing in the demographic history of our species anything like the modern rise of population, nor will there be again’
in 1780 the world population was 800-900 million and by 1930 it was 2 billion and in 2011 it reached 7 billion
McNeill and Engelke, when did the Anthropocene start?
suggest both the surges in use of energy and population growth started in the 18th century but we could date the Anthropocene back as far as 1.8 million years ago when humans first controlled fire
McNeill and Engelke, Anthropocene in 20th C
or the Anthropocene could be dated more recently to the mid-20th century when human action became the most important factor governing crucial biochemical cycles:
within the lat 3 human generations, 3/4 of human caused CO2 poisoning of the atmosphere has taken place and the number of motor vehicles on earth increased from 40 million to 850 million
in 1950 1 million tons of plastic was produced and in 2015 300 million tons of plastic was produces
1945 onwards is known as the ‘Great Acceleration’
