Rapid Population Growth and Environmental Degradation: Ultimate <i>versus</i> Proximate Factors

Rp, Shaw

doi:10.1017/s0376892900009279

Cited by 43 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This has occurred due to a combination of human population growth and declining rainfall (Stenning, 1958;Shaw, 1989;Luseno et al, 2003;Randall, 2008 Sandford and Habtu (2000, chs. 1, 2).…”

Section: Pessimistic Outlook: 'Too Many People Too Few Livestock'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Population Growth, African Pastoralism, and Rangelands: A Perspective

Holechek

Cibils

Bengaly³

et al. 2017

Rangeland Ecology & Management

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“…This has occurred due to a combination of human population growth and declining rainfall (Stenning, 1958;Shaw, 1989;Luseno et al, 2003;Randall, 2008 Sandford and Habtu (2000, chs. 1, 2).…”

Section: Pessimistic Outlook: 'Too Many People Too Few Livestock'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Population Growth, African Pastoralism, and Rangelands: A Perspective

Holechek

Cibils

Bengaly³

et al. 2017

Rangeland Ecology & Management

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“…Many cases in the international development literature suggest overexploitation is common when local people are marginalized and have no immediate incentive to conserve (e.g., Harrison 1987, Shaw 1989. McNeely (1988), in a new and provocative view of economics and conservation, proposed that various kinds of incentives and disincentives implemented at the local level are needed to sustain conservation activities in protected areas.…”

Section: Prediction [1] Resource Types Conservatively Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population, resources, and environment: Implications of human behavioral ecology for conservation

Low

Heinen

1993

Popul Environ

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Had we but world enough, and time,This coyness, lady, were no crime. -Andrew Marvell, To His Coy MistressIt was certainly no accident that Repetto (1986) titled his essay on conservation management problems World Enough and Time, after Marvell's lament to his mistress. Most of us agree that today we face global problems of environmental degradation and extinction, that these have reached unprecedented proportions, and that time grows ever shorter. Brown (1990Brown ( ,1991 suggests that we are witnessing an "illusion of progress": progress because on the surface, many of the traditional scourges of mankind are diminishing. We have seen progress made toward feeding more people and increasing standards of living in many places, and we have lived through the longest span of economic growth in history. This progress is an illusion, Brown argues, because there are high prices attached to the good fortune: destruction of non-renewable resources and rainforests (e.g. Hecht and Cockburn 1990), desertification (Chiras 1988, Revelle andRevelle 1988), increased pest outbreaks and pollution from increased use of pesticides, fertilizers, and artificial irrigation systems (Revelle and Revelle 1988), resource scarcity for much of humanity (Smith 1982), global warming (Edgerton 1991). It is likely that thousands of species will be extirpated before they are even described (Myers 1984, Wilson 1988. Locally, landfills are being closed because they are simply too full. We protest against the dumping of nuclear wastes as we use the power from nuclear plants.Conventional wisdoms exist about the way humans used resources in the past, and our strategies to promote conservation in the face of devastating global problems are in part based on these wisdoms. If they are wrong, our strategies will not work. These conventional wisdoms include our perception that people in pre-industrial ("traditional") societies, being more directly and immediately dependent on the ecology of the natural systems around them, were more conserving and respectful of those resources (e.g. Bodley 1990). Thus, as we have developed technological insulation against ecological fluctuations, we feel we have, in important ways, "lost touch" with ecological realities and constraints, and have, to some degree, lost our respect for them. We also commonly think of ourselves, as ethical individuals, giving value to the common good; thus, because none of us wishes to cause destruction of resources, each of us will accept some level of personal cost to ensure the common good.If these conventional wisdoms were true, simple information about the effects of our actions would be sufficient to solve ecological problems, as individuals accept costs for the common good. It should be relatively easy to get each of us to accept some small cost for the good of all. Conventional wisdoms generate normative prescriptions: that we should all become more reverent, that we need more information about the impact of our actions on ecological balances. Yet today we seem trapped, with repeated e...

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“…At the macro-level, global and regional climatic and environmental change may also cause land degradation but such impacts may not be prominent and tangible at the micro-level (for example, Mirza et al, 2001). Population growth has increased food demand, rural poverty and landlessness, and demanded over-exploitation of land, water and forest resources that caused land-use/land-cover changes, deforestation, soil erosion, depletion of ground water, land and water pollution, and loss of crop yield in landstressed countries (Bartelmus, 1986;Durning, 1989;Higgens and Kassam, 1985;Lipton, 1977;London and Smith, 1988;Lonergan, 1993;Malthus, 1798;Myers, 1988;Sadik, 1988;Shaw, 1989). In traditional societies, population growth and market opportunities increase the demands for consumption and commodity production and induce farmers to change farm technology, which may include improvements of landesque capital and local knowledge, changes in cultivation practices, adoption of new improved seeds and cultigens, and use of manufactured machinery and chemical inputs that allow frequent cultivation of the land and increase both land and labor outputs (Boserup, 1965;Grigg, 1992;Ruttan, 1984;Schultz, 1964; Figure 1).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological change in agriculture and land degradation in Bangladesh: a case study

Ali

2004

Land Degrad Dev

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Much of Bangladesh has experienced land degradation due to technological change in agriculture in an attempt to increase food production. This study examines the impacts of cultivation of high-yielding variety (HYV) rice, using power tillers, low-lift irrigation pumps, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, on selected land and soil qualities during the period 1985-2000 in a village in southwestern Bangladesh. For the purpose, three types of land uses were identified: fields traditionally plowed to cultivate rain-fed local aman rice using cow-manure and very little or no pesticides; plots power tilled to cultivate rain-fed HYV aman rice using full-dose application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; and fields power tilled to cultivate rain-fed HYV aman rice followed by low-lift pump irrigated HYV boro rice using double doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Based on 120 soil samples collected from 60 plots representing these three land-use types, the present study revealed significant changes in soil texture, bulk density and structure, increases in soil acidity and salinity, depletion of Ca, Mg, K, N, P, Zn, and organic C in double-cropped irrigated rice fields compared to the rain-fed single-crop rice fields. Power-tilled plots have shown higher rate of soil erosion and loss of soil structure than traditionally plowed fields. Low-lift pump irrigated fields were more degraded than rain-fed rice fields. Soil degradation has affected the yield of rice while cultivation of HYV rice has decreased the fodder production that affected livestock population. While technological change was necessary to meet the growing population demand for food, its negative impacts on land and soil qualities are alarming and should be minimized by adopting more sustainable techno-managerial methods and continuous soil monitoring.

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Rapid Population Growth and Environmental Degradation: Ultimate versus Proximate Factors

Cited by 43 publications

References 12 publications

Human Population Growth, African Pastoralism, and Rangelands: A Perspective

Human Population Growth, African Pastoralism, and Rangelands: A Perspective

Population, resources, and environment: Implications of human behavioral ecology for conservation

Technological change in agriculture and land degradation in Bangladesh: a case study

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