The Coming Age of Scarcity

by Dobkowski, Michael N.; Wallimann, Isidor

• ISBN13: 9780815627449
• ISBN10: 0815627440
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

Michael Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann have written a book that, although ominous, is not a fatalistic look into what the future may hold for us in the upcoming century. It lays out the perils of not recognizing the reality of genocide or of acknowledging the full implications of warfare. Showing how scarcity and surplus populations can lead to disaster, The Coming Age of Scarcity is about evil. It tells of "ethnic cleansing and excavates the world's expanding killing fields. The writers anticipate mass death and genocide in the twenty-first century, even while trying to prevent such atrocities. Present directions indicate that population growth, land resources, energy consumption, and per-capita consumption cannot be sustained without leading to greater catastrophes. What is the solution in the face of mass death and genocide?

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix	(6)
JOHN K. ROTH
Acknowledgments	xv	(2)
Contributors	xvii
1. The Coming Age of Scarcity: An Introduction	1	(22)
MICHAEL N. DOBKOWSKI
ISIDOR WALLIMANN
Part One Statement of the Problem	23	(40)
Introduction	23	(2)
2. The Threat to the Underclass	25	(18)
JOHN B. COBB, JR.
3. The Paradox of Global Development and the Necessary Collapse of Modern Industrial Civilization	43	(20)
CHRIS H. LEWIS
Part Two Scarcity and Conflict	63	(134)
Introduction	63	(2)
4. Biophysical Limits to Industrialization Prospects for the Twenty-first Century	65	(18)
JOHN M. GOWDY
5. Our Unsustainable Society Basic Causes, Interconnections, and Solutions	83	(18)
TED TRAINER
6. Defining the New American Community A Slide to Tribalism?	101	(16)
VIRGINIA ABERNETHY
7. The Vicious Circle Principle A Contribution to the Theory of Population and Development	117	(27)
CRAIG DILWORTH
8. The Social Impact of Scarcity The Political Responses of Institutionally Developed Societies	144	(30)
KURT FINSTERBUSCH
9. Competition, Expansion, and Reaction The Foundations of Contemporary Conflict	174	(20)
JOSEPH A. TAINTER
Part Three Case Studies of Scarcity and Mass Death	197	(102)
Introduction	197	(2)
10. Scarcity and Genocide	199	(21)
ROGER W. SMITH
11. Postcolonial Genocide Scarcity, Ethnicity, and Mass Death in Rwanda	220	(25)
DAVID NORMAN SMITH
12. Intrastate Conflict and Sustainable Development Lessons from Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti	245	(24)
WALTRAUD QUEISER MORALES
13. Scarcity, Genocide, and the Postmodern Individual	269	(14)
LEON RAPPOPORT
14. Critical Reflections on the Doomsday, Apocalyptic Vision	283	(16)
CRAIG A. RIMMERMAN
Works Cited	299	(28)
Index	327