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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy
On 16 Nov 1996 21:58:01 GMT, ssusin@emily11.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Susin)
wrote:
>J McGinnis (sync@inforamp.net) wrote:
>
>: U.N. World Food Council documents:
>: -------
>: Every day around the world 40,000 people die of hunger. That's 28
>: human beings every minute, and three out of four of them
>: are children under the age of five.
>
>: The number of hungry people increased five times faster in the 1980s
>: than in the previous decade. By 1989, 550 million people filled the
>: ranks of the malnourished or hungry.
>: -------
>
>If this is so, it says nothing about the environment, since
>world food production per capita increased over the 1980s.
>Further, food production per capita has been increasing
>on every continent except for Africa.
So we have more food per capita AND more people facing famine per
capita? Why doesn't this make me feel any better?
I have no doubts that there is enough food to go around. Maybe you
should read this last paragraph again.
>: If everyone produced and consumed food as North Americans do, there
>: would only be enough food on the planet to feed 2.5 Billion people. On
>: the other hand if Americans reduced their meat consumption by just
>: 10%, it would free up 12 million tons of grain anually - more than
>: enough to feed all those facing famine.
We in the west have no fear of going hungry, because if worst comes to
worst we can just start mining topsoil from the Amazon, or secure
precious farmlands with our armies.
As more - and much larger - populations attempt to follow the west
down the holy road to affluence the limitations of our environment
will become apparent very quickly. (As if they aren't already).
Unfortunately, sustainable development and global economic
competition, (to see who can grow the fastest), don't mix well.
Jason McGinnis
References: