On the Edge of Scarcity : Environment, Resources, Population, Sustainability, and Conflict

by Dobkowski, Michael N.; Wallimann, Isidor; Roth, John K.

• ISBN13: 9780815629184
• ISBN10: 0815629184
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

Michael N. Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann establish a disturbing but realistic scenario of the disastrous future that awaits humankind as surplus populations collide with dwindling resources. Authors consider a number of cause-and-effect situations on industrialization, biophysical limits, exponential population growth, and genocide, to name a few. This volume is a critical contribution to the field and will serve as an ideal introduction to courses in the environment, population, resources, genocide, and social conflict.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Bottlenecks and the Ways Out	vii
John K. Roth
Acknowledgments	xv
Contributors	xvii
Introduction: On the Edge of Scarcity	xxi
Michael N. Dobkowski
Isidor Wallimann
Part One STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Introduction	3	(1)
Globalization and Security: The Prospects of the Underclass	4	(12)
John B. Cobb, Jr.
Global Industrial Civilization: The Necessary Collapse	16	(18)
Chris H. Lewis
Part Two SCARCITY AND CONFLICT
Introduction	33	(1)
Biophysical Limits to the Human Expropriation of Nature	34	(13)
John M. Gowdy
Our Unsustainable Society ... and the Alternative	47	(11)
Ted Trainer
Population and Immigration: Sliding into Tribalism	58	(19)
Virginia Deane Abernethy
Population, Technology, and Development: The Vicious-Circle Principle and the Theory of Human Development	77	(16)
Craig Dilworth
Scarcity and Its Social Impacts: Likely Political Responses	93	(15)
Kurt Finsterbusch
Foundations and Context of Contemporary Conflict	108	(13)
Joseph A. Tainter
Sustainable Development and Human Security: Can We Learn from Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, and Haiti?	121	(17)
Waltraud Queiser Morales
Part Three CASE STUDIES OF SCARCITY AND MASS DEATH
Introduction	137	(1)
Scarcity and Genocide	138	(11)
Roger W. Smith
Globalization and Genocide: Inequality and Mass Death in Rwanda	149	(24)
David Norman Smith
The Feminization of Global Scarcity and Violence	173	(10)
Waltraud Queiser Morales
Scarcity, Genocides, and the Postmodern Individual	183	(12)
Leon Rappoport
Works Cited	195