Patterns of resource consumption
Ecological footprint
Ecological Footprint: A measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The Ecological Footprint is usually measured in global hectares. Because trade is global, an individual or country's Footprint includes land or sea from all over the world. Without further specification, Ecological Footprint generally refers to the Ecological Footprint of consumption.
Source: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/glossary/#Ecologicalfootprint
We need food, shelter and heating (in some locations) to survive. Our planet’s ecological resources help fulfill these needs. But how many resources do we consume? This question can be answered using the Ecological Footprint.
Just as a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Ecological Footprint accounting measures a population’s demand for and ecosystems’ supply of resources and services.
On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures a population’s demand for plant-based food and fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure, and forest to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.
On the supply side, a city, state, or nation’s biocapacity represents its biologically productive land and sea area, including forest lands, grazing lands, cropland, fishing grounds, and built-up land.
The Ecological Footprint can be calculated for a single individual, city, region, nation and the entire planet.
Many countries are “in the red,” which means they use more natural resources (Ecological Footprint) than their ecosystems can regenerate (biocapacity). They are running an “ecological deficit.” When a country’s biocapacity is greater than its population’s Ecological Footprint, the country has an “ecological reserve.”
Nations (also cities and states) can run ecological deficits by liquidating their own resources, such as by overfishing; importing resources from other areas; and/or emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than their own ecosystems can absorb.
Source: http://www.overshootday.org/kids-and-teachers-corner/what-is-an-ecological-footprint-2/
Source: https://ds.lclark.edu/sge/2012/09/20/gis-world-ecological-footprints-per-capita/
Theories of population and resources
Thomas Malthus' theory of population
Thomas Robert Malthus was the first economist to propose a systematic theory of population. He articulated his views regarding population in his famous book, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), for which he collected empirical data to support his thesis. Malthus had the second edition of his book published in 1803, in which he modified some of his views from the first edition, but essentially his original thesis did not change.
In Essay on the Principle of Population,Malthus proposes the principle that human populations grow exponentially (i.e., doubling with each cycle) while food production grows at an arithmetic rate (i.e. by the repeated addition of a uniform increment in each uniform interval of time). Thus, while food output was likely to increase in a series of twenty-five year intervals in the arithmetic progression 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and so on, population was capable of increasing in the geometric progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and so forth. This scenario of arithmetic food growth with simultaneous geometric human population growth predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on. To avoid such a catastrophe, Malthus urged controls on population growth.
Source: http://cgge.aag.org/PopulationandNaturalResources1e/CF_PopNatRes_Jan10/CF_PopNatRes_Jan108.html
* Population exceeds food supply and is kept in check by war, famine, or disease. It then drops below the food supply. As the population recovers, so the cycle continues.
* Here, as population starts to approach the limits of the food supply, so growth slows. Malthus says this slowing is caused by delayed marriage.
Source: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/geography/population/revise-it/population-models
Esther Boserup's theory of population
Ester Boserup (1910–1999) was a Danish economist who specialised in the economics and development of agriculture. She worked for the United Nations and her experience working in low- and middle-income countries such as India helped to shape her theory of the relationship between human population growth and food production.
In her work ‘The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The economics of agrarian change under population pressure’ (1965), Boserup challenged Malthus’s conclusion that the size of the human population is limited by the amount of food it can produce. She suggested that food production can, and will, increase to match the needs of the population.
Drawing on her knowledge of farming in the developing world, where populations were growing quickly, Boserup argued that the threat of starvation and the challenge of feeding more mouths motivates people to improve their farming methods and invent new technologies in order to produce more food.
Boserup described this change as ‘agricultural intensification’. For example, a farmer who has four fields to produce food for his family might grow crops in three of the fields, but leave the fourth field empty as the ground is dry and his crop will not grow there. However if the farmer has two more children, the pressure to produce more food might drive him to build irrigation canals to bring water to the fourth field or to buy a different type of seed that will grow in drier ground. He would change the way he farms to make sure that he has enough food to support a larger family.
Source: http://bigpictureeducation.com/malthus-vs-boserup
* Boserup argues that as the population approaches the limits of the food supply, that food supply increases as new technology improves yeilds.
Source: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/geography/population/revise-it/population-models
Emile Durkheim's theory of population
Durkheim's works focus on a wide spectrum of societal institutions and social phenomena such as labor, religion, education, suicide, and morality. His seminal study on labor, The Division of Labor in Society, uses a comparative method and borrows from the Darwinian system of survival of the fittest and the Malthusian theory of population density to explain the morphological changes in labor in pre-industrial and postindustrial societies. Noting that labor differentiation tended to increase in proportion to the social complexity and size of the population, Durkheim characterized labor in primitive societies as "mechanical solidarity" for its homogeneous nature, and its industrial counterpart as "organic solidarity," signifying its heterogeneous nature.
Source: http://www.enotes.com/topics/emile-durkheim/critical-essays
He thought that an increase in population density would lead to a greater division of labor, which would allow greater productivity to be attained. He even suggested that population pressure was necessary to increase the division of labor.
Source: Nagle, Garrett and Briony Cooke. Geography Course Companion. Oxford. Print.
The Limits to Growth model
Developed by the Club of Rome it looked at population, natural resources, agricultural output, industrial production and pollution. They predicted that the limits to growth would be reached in 2070. The model basically suggests that ability of resources, food, the environment, etc. to meet human needs will be reached by 2070. Beyond this point if population is not controlled naturally, it will start to decline because of increased death rates. The model has come in for some criticism because it does not look at individual regions that may be well resourced and underpopulated. It also doesn't take into account certain developments in technology like renewable, GM crops and desalination.
Source: http://greenfieldgeography.wikispaces.com/Patterns+of+resource+consumption
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