Unit 1 Flashcards
What happened during the Innovation Green Revolution
(1930s-1960s)- High yielding varieties, hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers & pesticides, irrigation infrastructure, modernization of farm management techniques.
Ester Boserup
Optimistic
“The like of causation, where agricultural developments are caused by the population trends rather than the other way around, is the dominant one […]
Thomas Robert Malthus
Pessimism
“The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, the premature death in some shape or other visit the human race
Positive feedback loops
- when secondary effects reinforce a basic trend
- self- reinforcing
- Methane emissions causes rising temperatures
- Rising temperatures cause methane emissions
Negative Feedback Loops
- When secondary effects counteract the basic trend
- Self-limiting
Self extinction premise
- a society can sow the seeds of its own destruction
- population growth will exceed the carry capacity of the land a society occupies
Environmental challenges: Climate Change
- Disproportionate effects
- coordinated global effects to reduce emissions?
Environmental Challenges: Land scarcity
- The amount of arable land continues to decrease
- population growth
- land degradation
Water Scarcity
Physical water scarcity (1.2 billion)
-surface or ground sources of fresh water are scarce
-approaching this situation (500 million)
economic water shortage ~1.6billion
Lack the necessary infrastructure to extract water
Visions of the future
most economists have abandoned Malthus’ pessimistic predictions and in favour of a more Boserup- like perspective. However there are limitations to Boserup’s perspective as well
Limitations to Boserup’s perspective
- Human beings have not adapting to scarcities
- some environmental issues were exacerbating
- innovation itself is not sufficient
- if barriers exist that prevent the gains from those innovations from being realized
