Becker 2013, Has the World Really Survived the Population Bomb 

Introduction

  • Lam: did not consider environmental costs
    • He didn't consider the outlook for the next 40 years
    • He only focuses on humans and not on ecosystems or other species

Unsustainable Use of Resources

  • The increase in industrial and food production led to the massive inputs of nonrenewable resources

  • Resources:

  • We are not far from the peak of oil production

    • This will lead to increases in oil prices and food prices

  • Natural gas reserves may only last for 60 years

    • Problem: we haven’t yet discovered a fuel replacement for vehicles
    • The lag time from discovery of this and the extensive use of a new resource will more likely be more than 60 years

  • More agricultural production for food increased the inputs of fertilizer

  • Tapped rivers + underground aquifers for massive irrigation to keep up with the demands for more and more food

  • Groundwater use is higher than recharge in China and India

  • Security of drinking water is threatened because the source is the same for irrigation and drinking

  • There are more suicides among Indian farmers due to financial ruin

  • Peak renewable water limits have been reached for many river basins:

    • Nile
    • Jordan
    • Yellow Rivers
    • Colorado River
    • Rio Grande

    → in 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries with absolute water scarcity!

  • Many important minerals will last less than 50 years

Negative Effects on the Planetary Ecosystem

  • We must take into account how our unsustainable practices will affect future generations
  • Examples of reduced negative effects of Lam (through emissions standards and international agreement)
    • Decline of sulfur dioxide
    • Decline in ozone-destructive CFCs

Deforestation

  • Clearing of forests has been occurring at the rate of about 13 million hectares per year during the past decade!

  • Greenhouse gas emissions = 10% due to deforestation

  • Deforestation → conversion of areas recovered of trees to farming land in order to feed more population

Other Species

  • Increase in the rate of extinctions of species
  • Wide range of extinction rate
  • Number of species at risk of extinction grows each year
  • Major threat = human activity

Several Other Negative Effects of Humans on Ecosystems

  • Overfishing due to a lack of regulation of the commons
  • Nitrogen pollution of streams, estuaries and the seas → most life dies
  • Mountaintop removal in Appalachia to obtain coal easily → local ecosystems are destroyed
  • 2012: hottest year ever
  • Increased frequency of extreme weather events

Potential Framework to Integrate Ecology and Development

  • Ecological economics
    • Addresses the relationship between ecosystems and economic systems
    • The human economy is not separate from but embedded within nature
    • Taking into account future generations
    • Ecosystems typically respond nonlinearly to perturbation