Sociology of Environment

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Sociology of Environment

• 11-2 Week 10 B
• Food, Hunger Environment

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Overview

• Welcome
• News
• Reaction Papers 11-14 and 21
• New York Times Supplement - CSR
• Presentation
• Continue Population-Environment Relationships
• Sociology of Agriculture Hunger

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Population Environment

• Summary of Human Population
• Population and the Environment
• What is the Relationship?

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Population Environment

• Population and the Environment
• What is the Relationship?
• Its Complex!!!

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Population Environment

• Population and the Environment
• What is the Relationship?
• Its Complex!!!
• P E Relationships Mediated
• See overheads

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Population Environment

• Is their a Carrying Capacity for Homo Sapiens?

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Population Environment

• Is their a Carrying Capacity for Homo Sapiens?
• There obviously there is..

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Population Environment

• Is their a Carrying Capacity for Homo Sapiens?
• Obviously There Is.. exponential growth not
  endless
• BUT WHAT IS IT?

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Joel Cohens Book
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Population Environment

• Joel Cohen Key questions
• How Many People can the earth support?
• At what level of well-being?

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Population Environment

• Joel Cohen Key questions
• How Many People can the earth support?
• At what level of well-being?
• IN ADDITION At what level of ecological
  well-being?

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Population Environment

• The Ehrlich Simon Commoner Debates
• Paul Ehrlich Biologist Stanford
• Julian Simon Economist, Maryland
• Barry Commoner Biologist/ Scientist/ Social
  Critic - CNY

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Paul Ehrlich Quote

• Paul Ehrlich, in The Population Bomb (1968)
• The battle to feed humanity is over. In the
  1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds
  of millions of people are going to starve to
  death in spite of any crash programs embarked
  upon now. Population control is the only answer.
• Labeled Neo-Malthusian Malthus Reborn

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Paul Ehrlich Quotes

• If I were a gambler, I would take even money
  that England will not exist in the year 2000.
• The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to
  save all the parts.

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Paul Ehrlich Quotes

• "Population will inevitably and completely
  outstrip whatever small increases in food
  supplies we make, ... The death rate will
  increase until at least 100-200 million people
  per year will be starving to death during the
  next ten years."   Paul Ehrlich in an interview
  with Peter Collier in the April 1970 of the
  magazine Mademoiselle.

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Paul Ehrlich Quotes

• By...1975 some experts feel that food
  shortages will have escalated the present level
  of world hunger and starvation into famines of
  unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more
  optimistic, think the ultimate food-population
  collision will not occur until the decade of the
  1980s."   Paul Ehrlich in special Earth Day
  (1970) issue of the magazine Ramparts

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Population Environment

• Julian Simon -

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Population Environment

• Julian Simon -

• http//www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691
  003815/qid1130

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Julian Simon Quotes

• It is your mind that matters economically, as
  much or more than your mouth or hands. In the
  long run, the most important economic effect of
  population size and growth is the contribution of
  additional people to our stock of useful
  knowledge. And this contribution is large enough
  in the long run to overcome all the costs of
  population growth

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Julian Simon Quotes

• Our supplies of natural resources are not finite
  in any economic sense. Nor does past experience
  give reason to expect natural resources to become
  more scarce. Rather, if history is any guide,
  natural resources will progressively become less
  costly, hence less scarce, and will constitute a
  smaller proportion of our expenses in future
  years.

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Julian Simon Quotes

• Because we can expect future generations to be
  richer than we are, no matter what we do about
  resources, asking us to refrain from using
  resources now so that future generations can have
  them later is like asking the poor to make gifts
  to the rich.

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Population Environment

• Julian Simon
• http//www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/cpr-20n2-1.
  html
• http//www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/j/j
  u/julian_simon.html

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Population Environment

• Julian Simon
• The Bet Revisited http//www.env-econ.net/2005/09
  /the_simonehrlic.html

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Population Environment

• Barry Commoner
• http//c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkabl
  e_columbians/barry_commoner.html

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Barry Commoner Quotes

• The sharp rise in environmental pollution in the
  20 years following World War II could be traced
  to such new technologies of production new ways
  of producing electric power, transportation and
  food that, while they generated these valuable
  goods, now violently assaulted the environment as
  well

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Barry Commoner Quotes

• But what has motivated environmentalism and, in
  my view, defines its purpose is the state of the
  environment itself.

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Ecological Footprint

• http//www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
• Source Population Reference Bureau

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Population Environment

• Joel Cohens solutions
• Make a bigger pie Increase human productive
  capacities through technology and innovation
• Put fewer forks on the table Reduce numbers and
  expectations of people through such means as
  family planning and vegetarian diets
• Teach better manners Change the terms of
  peoples interactions through improved planning
  and government to enhance social justice.

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Switching Gears
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Agriculture Hunger

• Introduction
• Can We Feed the Worlds Population?
• Are we keeping up with growing populations?
• Not new questions
• Thomas Malthus 1798
• Paul Ehrlich 1968

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Agriculture Hunger

• Bottom Line
• World Output of food is increasing
• Meeting the increase in human population at
  present
• BUT this success masks a number of critical
  problems

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Agriculture Hunger

• Bottom Line
• World Output of food is increasing
• Meeting the increase in human population
• BUT this masks a number of critical problems at
  present
• Problems with Regional Distribution
• Questions of Agricultural Sustainability
• Environmental Consequences of Agricultural
  Production
• Rates of agricultural production are currently
  decreasing
• i.e. Outputs are increasing but at decreasing
  rates

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Trends World Food Production
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Per Capita Food Production
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Growth Rates World Agriculture and Cereals
Production
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Agriculture Hunger

• P\World Development Indicators\VIDEOS
• World Bank Minute
• Must use computer

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Agriculture Hunger

• If World Output is continuing.. Why increasing
  hunger?

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Agriculture Hunger

• Production vs. Distribution
• Sociological Fact Hunger Poverty go together
• If you have resources food is always available
• Hunger and Malnutrition in US/ Western countries
• Food Security Issues in Africa Asia
• 2 dozen African Nations
• India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
  Philippines

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Agriculture Hunger

• Downside of Food Aid
• Hunger hits Foreign Assistance arrives
• What happens?

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Agriculture Hunger

• Downside of Development Policies and Schemes
• Western Development/ World Bank, USAID, etc.
• Promotion of Food Exports World Markets
• Why can that be a Problem?

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Agriculture Hunger

• Green Revolution -1950s-1980s
• Population Explosion beginning of the large
  natural increase from demographic transition
• Paul Ehrlichs Population Bomb
• Great concerns about hunger South Asia
  especially (India, Bangladesh, etc)

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Agriculture Hunger

• Green Revolution -1950s-1980s
• International Agencies and Foundations (e.g. Ford
  Foundation)
• Developed high yield agricultural practices
• High Yield Varieties rice, maize, sorghum,
  wheat
• Fertilizers
• Pesticides
• Irrigation
• Mechanization
• Increased Yields Dramatically 260But

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Agriculture Hunger

• Green Revolution -1950s-1980s
• Increased Yields DramaticallyBut
• Social and Ecological consequences
• http//livingheritage.org/green-revolution.htm

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Agriculture Hunger

• Green Revolution
• The Problems behind the Success
• Plants with identical HYV
• Reduces genetic diversity
• Increases vulnerability to pests
• Necessities heavy use of pesticides treadmill
• Requires heavy use of fresh water
• High dependency on technology
• Questionable sustainability

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Agriculture Hunger

• FAO Food Agriculture Organization
• Future Food Production will require
• 21 Land Expansion
• 66 increased Yield
• 13 crop intensification

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Agriculture Hunger
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Agriculture Hunger

• Environmental Consequences
• Land- anything farmable already is!
• New land must come from elsewhere?
• Fresh water is globally/ regionally scarce
  limits to irrigation dependence on rain fed

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Agriculture Hunger

• Environmental Consequences
• Net Primary Productivity of the Planet (land)
• 40 is dominated by the human species
• NPP is the amount of biomass within an
  ecosystem/ unit time

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Net Primary Productivity
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Agriculture Soil Loss
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Agriculture Environment

• Air pollution
• Projections suggest that, by 2030, emissions of
  ammonia and methane from the livestock sector of
  developing countries could be at least 60 percent
  higher than at present.
• Ammonia Powerful agent in acid rain
• Methane Powerful greenhouse gas

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Agriculture Environment

• Biodiversity Loss
• Loss of biodiversity owing to agricultural
  methods continues unabated, even in countries
  where nature is highly valued and protected.
• Agricultural Expansion loss of habitat
• Agricultural use of chemicals/ pesticides

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Agriculture Environment

• Global Climate Change
• Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas
  emissions. It releases large quantities of carbon
  dioxide through the burning of biomass, mainly in
  areas of deforestation and grassland.

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Agriculture Environment

• Global Climate Change
• Agriculture responsible for 50 of all methane
  emissions. Though it persists for a shorter time
  in the atmosphere, methane is about 20 times more
  powerful than carbon dioxide in its warming
  action and is therefore a major short-term
  contributor to global warming.
• Current annual anthropogenic emissions 540
  million tonnes growing at around 5 percent per
  year.

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Agriculture Environment

• Global Climate Change
• Still - In the next three decades, climate change
  is not expected to depress global food
  availability
• May increase the dependence of developing
  countries on food imports and accentuate food
  insecurity for vulnerable groups and countries.

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Agriculture Hunger

• Returning to the FAO Requirements
• Future Food Production will require
• 21 Land Expansion
• 66 increased Yield
• 13 crop intensification

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Agriculture Hunger

• Future Developments?
• Technological Solutions?
• GMOs Genetic Modified Organisms

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Agriculture Hunger

• Alternative Agriculture?
• Agroecology
• http//www.agroecology.org/
• Sustainable Agriculture Cuba
• http//www.foodfirst.org/issues/sustainableag

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Next Monday 11-7-05

• Controversies over Genetic Modified Organisms
  GMOs