Global Trends

• Sustainability is needed because economic growth cannot be maintained in the long run due to limited resources. There is na underlying idea in the price mechanism relating to resource optimum which states when the price of a good increases it leads to the substitution of the good by a more abundant resource.
• Sustainability is a technological problem. William Stanley Jones we will run out of coal, But now we have more than ever. He was looking at the future from the perspective of having the same technology. But innovation aided the sustainability of the good.
• Since the industrial revolution all generations have lived longer than the previous ones because of technological advancements so can use resources more efficiently.
• the Population before the industrial revolution was known as the Malthusian population. This was the idea that resources are limited so the earth can only sustain a certain amount of people. So the population is constantly fluctuating. Once it reaches the maximum a big event will bring the population back down.
• The Malthusian ideology doesn't hold today as people have the option to trade and specialize allowing more people to exist on the same resources. The UK was the first to escape this Malthusian Trap
• After the industrial revolution there was an increase in life expectancy. Increasing the population. There wasn't a massive population boom as capitalism and commerce act as natural population control.
• Higher inter connectivity and wealth in the world will cause the population to stop growing and stabilize at a size the earths resources can handle due to:

  • falling child mortality = smaller families, no need to have lots in case one dies
  • wealth = children don't go to work early anymore so they are a consumer good have to invest in them which is expensive
  • Female emancipation
  • Urbanization = now can use machines instead of people
• Why do we need government policies that address population, poverty and economic growth:

  • deceleration in the decrease in poverty
  • Ageing population eat taxes and savings from smaller workforce
  • increasing population in Urban areas causes land and water shortages (poor people affected the most)
• another reason why we need government policies is to help reduce environmental destruction:

  • increasing the income of the poor reduces environmental destruction
  • Environmental Kuznets curve says as economy get richer and grows environment gets worse but when certain level of wealth is reached environment improves as people willing to pay for greener technology
• Before industrial revolution it was leisure for few, exhaustion for many. But industrial revolution progressed from Human energy to fossil fuels allowing people to escape from poverty breaking the previous pattern.
• after the industrial revolution:

  • improved standards of living
  • poverty decreased
  • inequality fell
  • deaths from infectious disease fell
• can prosperity continue

  • forests as renewable resource are over exploited but actually overall area of rain forest has not changed much since 1950's
  • production of different food items has increased
  • global greening is occurring faster
• Why is Biodiversity important:

  • pleasure - nice plants etc
  • rain forest is a medicine stockpile
  • genetic diversity crucial to survival of crops
  • today have gene libraries which species are stored in
• Water Pollution like oil spilling is a major threat to clean water. But there is a decreasing trend of water pollution. Which new policies could speed up.
• Air Pollution not a new issue and is in fact getting better.
• Ecology of Urban slums :

  • health threatening pollutants
  • unsanitary environments
  • serious impact on the poor
• Industrialization & Urban air pollution:

  • Environmental Kuznets curve
  • pollution tax
  • absorptive capacity of the environment
  • the impact on health
• Why is there more pollution today than what is optimal for us:

  • because pollution is an externality and producers cant see the cost to society
  • the marginal cost of production > marginal cost to society
  • if the producer internalizes the cost it is paid by the consumer and the producer
  • marginal cost to society increases by more when production increases
• Problems of policy's trying to fix congestion, clean water and sanitation:

  • health costs to the government
  • drags development down
  • impacts on the poor
  • private wells can cause flooding
  • impacts export earnings
• To solve environmental costs it may require redistribution policies as they effect developing countries disproportionately such as:

  • taxes on polluting activities
  • adaptation policies
  • incentives for tech innovation
• the major environmental problems include climate change, deforestation and urban development
• What is the main topic of ECON330?

  Climate change
• What are the potential effects of climate change?

  Significant negative effects may occur
• What iconic image represents climate change?

  Starving polar bear on melting ice
• How did polar bears survive previous warm periods?

  They survived through the last interglacial period
• What was the biggest threat to polar bears in the 1960s?

  Indiscriminate hunting
• What is the current estimated polar bear population?

  Approximately 26,000
• What is a common symbol of global warming?

  Heat wave
• What are the dangers of heat waves?

  They are dangerous and kill people
• What did the 2015 Lancet study find about heat and cold deaths?

  Heat caused 0.5% of deaths, cold 7%
• Why do cold deaths receive less attention?

  They are less sudden than heat deaths
• How many cold deaths occur in the UK for each heat death?

  33 cold deaths
• How does extreme cold affect deaths in India?

  It kills twice as many as extreme heat
• What is causing unprecedented greening of the world?

  Carbon dioxide fertilisation
• What does global warming not guarantee?

  All vegetation is beneficial or needed
• What challenges remain despite global greening?

  Higher sea levels and more heat waves
• What is argued about global warming and the Syrian civil war?

  It caused a drought leading to conflict
• What factors contributed to the Syrian drought's impact?

  Bad water management and population growth
• What did Koubi (2019) find regarding climate change and wars?

  No evidence linking climate change to more wars
• What does the statistic on natural disaster deaths from 2007 to 2021 show?

  Global deaths from natural disasters