Environmental Change and Human Development: The Place of Environmental Change in Human Evolution (Arnold Publication)

264 Pages·2003·17.39 MB·English

by  Chris Barrow

ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE AND HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
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ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE AND HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Controlling Nature?
C.J. BARROW
School of Social Sciences and International Development,
University of Wales Swansea, UK
A member of the Hodder Headline Group
LONDON
Distributed in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc., New York
First published in Great Britain in 2003 by
Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group,
338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
http://www.arnoldpublishers.com
Distributed in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
© 2003 C. J. Barrow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically,
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London W1T 4LP.
The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and
accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the author nor the publisher
can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0 340 76403 1 (hb)
ISBN 0 340 76404 X (pb)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Typeset in 10/12pt Sabon by Phoenix Photosetting, Chatham, Kent
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Environmental change before modern humans appeared 32
3 Environmental change during historical times 59
4 Are twenty-first-century humans more vulnerable to nature? 100
5 Ongoing natural threats 123
6 Reacting to environmental challenges and opportunities 166
7 Coping with nature 192
8 The future 204
Glossary 221
References 225
Index 245
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Preface
This book focuses on environmental change and human fortunes. While
there is a large and rapidly expanding literature dealing with how people
affect the environment, less attention has been given in recent years to how
the environment shapes human development. In an ever more crowded
world there is a need for anticipatory environmental management, and a
crucial input to this is consideration of the interaction between environment
and humans.
Nowadays, planners, administrators and the people they serve are often
oblivious to the fact that the environment is a key control on the quality of
life. In richer nations, people commonly feel that modern technology gives
them 'the edge' over nature to a degree never enjoyed before; and in poorer
countries established ways of coping with natural challenges have often
broken down, and new technological solutions are beyond easy access. City
folk overlook the fact that each modern high-rise building, towering above
a hectare plot (or less), has enormous 'roots' stretching out to oil-fields,
many square kilometres of croplands, ocean fisheries, cattle ranches, rivers
and reservoirs, and so on - all dependent upon and vulnerable to nature.
The environment is not as stable, benign or controllable as many like to
think. The world population is vastly larger than it ever has been and is
still growing, and humans increasingly upset nature through pollution and
other activities. While modern communications may help environmental
managers, rapid travel also increases the dispersal of diseases and pests.
Technological advance and social development are not all beneficial; some
innovations have the effect of making people more vulnerable to disruption
by natural disaster, and citizens are often less able to cope with and adapt to
changed conditions than people were in the past.
In the modern world there is, in practice, relatively limited interest from
governments and voters in anticipatory studies, contingency planning and
adaptive strategies. Over the past few decades there has been some shift
towards concern for environmental issues, stimulated by fears about global
warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, pesticide pollution and, by the late
viii Preface
1990s, El Nino events and the associated forest fires in Southeast Asia and
Latin America, and flooding in the UK; however, the focus has been mainly
on how humans are affecting the environment, and much less on how the
environment can affect humans. This book, I hope, will help prompt con-
sideration of the latter, and development that includes vulnerability reduc-
tion, and improvement of flexibility and adaptability.
There are three sections in this book: the first (Chapters 1 to 3) deals with
debates about environment-human interaction, the attitudes people have
towards the environment, and past environmental impacts; the second
section (Chapters 4 to 5) focuses on recent and ongoing changes, asking
whether we are more or less vulnerable than in the past; section three
(Chapters 6 to 8) reviews likely future challenges and explores how to
ensure a more secure, as well as materially improved human future.
Inevitably there is a tendency to report past catastrophes and to flag
threats, but I am also keen to identify opportunities and strategies to
improve the chances of achieving better human welfare.
Chris Barrow
University of Wales Swansea
Swansea, UK
May 2002
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the editorial team at Arnold, in particular Liz Gooster and
those who kindly read my draft. I am also most grateful to staff of the Inter-
Library Loans Office, University of Wales Swansea.