- Humans and resource use
- Discovery-All resources are socially defined
- cultivation/extraction-the raw material--in the case of agriculture, we cultivate. In the case of timber, we log. In the case of petroleum, we drill.
- transportation-this entails getting it from the source to refinery, etc.
- processing-to become what? For whom? With oil, it goes to refineries, and heating produces different grades of fuels.
- Distribution-getting it out to consumers.
- Transformation-Transformed into what??
- World population growth
and prosperity (some graphs: growth/infant mortality; infant mortality/life expectancy)
; pop growth/birth rates; birth rate/death rate; birth rate/urbanization)
- Is it a social problem? Where? (demographic transition)
- The tragedy of the commons -- what are 'commons?' What is the 'tragedy?' Malthus
- What is causing it? (the prisoner's dilemma)--rational decisions may lead to irrational outcomes -- 'everyone's property is no one's property' and the concept of 'free riding'--common property ownership leads to overuse
- Hardin says that countries with high birth rates are free riding on the world's resource base
- What to do? No 'technology fix,' sez Hardin--'intolerable freedom to breed;' Private property as solution (what about 'peak oil?')
- How has he 'framed' the problem? People in poor countries with high fertility rates. Why do they have high fertility rates (not looking for a biological explanation here ...)?
- Alternative framings--Population growth versus resource consumption -- wealthy countries with high consumption rates
- 'Ecological footprint' --what's yours?
- Diamond's 'consumption factor': Yes, Kenya has high birth rates, but average US citizen consumes 32 times more than a Kenyan.
- Who's using resources? Who's benefiting? Who's paying the price?
- What should be done?
- Hardin--address 'intolerable freedom to breed;' privatize the 'commons'
- alternative view--sustainable development: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need."
- Technology
- Political and social issues
- Consumption--reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle
- Education? 'Ecological literacy? Consumption?
- Industrialization?
- Internalize costs (which would increase prices of goods, and . . . voila! . . . decrease consumption of stuff (with the exception of food, hopefully)
- As an individual--reduce, reuse, recycle
- So . . . . who is free riding?
- Carrying capacity: "The maximum number of individuals of a particular species that a given area can maintain indefinitely"
- What impacts carrying capacity? longevity, technology, consumption, ecosystem and its 'resilience;'
- Have humans overshot?
- If so, why haven't we 'felt' it (living off 'ghost acreage')?
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