Lecture 3

January 20, 2005

Announcements from Lindley

1) Please let the class know that on Thursday after class I will be
available in room NH 373 for extra help for ALL sections.

2) I have reserved 2 vans for the field trip to the Columbia Blvd.
Wastewater treatment plant for Friday 2/11. There is a trip at 8:45 am and 12:45 pm.

Media assignment

Vocabulary assessment

Review

• sustainability
  • natural resources
  • "strong sustainability"
  • 
• population growth models
  • exponential
  • logistic - run out of resources
  • other trajectories - boom and bust
• demographic transition (multiple, socially and technologically driven changes)
  • what was good for individuals lead to lower death, then lower birth rates
• 2 models for sustainability
  • what is wealth
  • discuss meaning of "reduce, reuse, recyle"

• illustrates use of models
  • explanations (demographic transition model)
  • frames questions (heuristic value)
  • predictions

My answer to the question of sustainability

• acknowledge the inherent inconsistencies
• use multiple views
• sustainability is not the question for many areas of the world
• implementation of the path toward sustainability has to be sustainable

link

Another model for population and resource growth

• a third model - Odum and Odum - A prosperous way down.
• natural systems pulse
• very different implications for society
  • there will be a descent
  • there will be a low energy restoration

Today - focus on the first transition (HG to Agriculture)

History or agricultural methods

hunter-gatherer

low intensity

high intensity

swidden

industrial (green revolution)

genetic modification

First transition -

(Chapter 4 in Clive Ponting 1991)

hunting and gathering - 99% of human history

transition to agriculture

3 areas (sw Asia (Syria and Palestine), China, Mesoamerica

explanataions

slow adaptation - not a revolution

time line

8000 BC wheat and barley collection/wild varieties

7500 BC combination of cereal cultivation and goat heard

6500 BC small towns (Jericho)

spread to other regions

6000-5000 Greece

4000 rest of border of Mediterranean

3000-2000 N Europe

importance of animals

 

 

Environmental damage from agriculture -

(Chapter 5 in Clive Ponting)

3 types of damage (stability, nutrient cycling, irrigation)

irrigation can lead to long term damage through soil waterlogging and salinization

settlements lead to local impact, particularly deforestation

history of Egypt - sustainable for thousands of years

Agriculture vs. other resources

biodiveristy

energy

water

example of all three: Upper Klamath Lake

marsh water input

 

Sustainable agriculture

involves conserving and protecting natural resources

called "strong sustainability"

natural capital includes:

amount of land

quality of land

soil (discuss)

these can be used up or destroyed

 

Milpas cultivation - image

culturally determined sequence

learned

renewal cycle

silt from upland actually enriches other plots