Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
human societies with the land-use changes made by them leads to the study of Global
Change, a crucial meeting point for all scienti
c disciplines interested in the sus-
tainability of human-nature interaction.
21
This emerging socio-metabolic perspective does not entail prior assumptions
concerning the causal direction in the ecological-economic interaction or phe-
nomena.
22
The common attitude among practitioners of the emerging
'
sustainability
science
is a cautious, multidimensional and transdisciplinary approach which, from
a co-evolutionary background, can admit that sometimes the driving forces origi-
nate from within the economic sphere and leave their ecological footprint on the
surrounding environment; whereas in other cases researchers highlight the role
played by the availability of energy, water, raw materials or climatic conditions and
variability, either as a limiting factor or as a source for economic growth. Neither
does such an approach entail the making of any deterministic presumptions; rather
it is dependent on the type of enquiry being undertaken and on its historical or
geographical scope.
23
When environmental historians seek to discover the ecological impact of eco-
nomic growth, usually from a short or medium-term perspective, they typically
adopt market or state economic forces as the main driving force. But by adopting a
long-term, comparative historical perspective, they also raise questions about the
role played by the availability of energy, land, water and raw materials in
accounting for historical economic growth processes or catching-up paths. On
occasion, both approaches can be adopted simultaneously within the same research
strategy, as Astrid Kander demonstrates in her study of the long-term relationship
between energy, economic growth and greenhouse emissions in Sweden since the
beginning of the 19th century
'
a research strategy that has been adopted within a
broader comparative analysis between different countries and regions of the world
undertaken by the members of the Energy-Growth and Pollution Network and the
Institute of Social Ecology.
24
Whereas it is true that all these new perspectives and methods provided by
ecological economics and environmental history are greatly expanding the toolbox
of economic historians, it is no less true than among scholars devoted to the study of
past organic economies there was already a long tradition of taking bio-geographic,
agro-ecological, energetic and landscape factors into account. However, their
explanatory relevance has tended to decrease with the shortening of the time
perspective from which economic historians seek to understand the present. The
practitioners of prehistory and ancient, medieval or early modern history have never
—
21
Cronon (
1983
,
1991
), Crosby (
1986
), Cuff and Goudie (
2009
) and Hornborg and Crumley
(
2007
).
22
Costanzaet al. (
2007b
), pp. 522
527.
23
Kates et al. (
2001
) and Haberl et al. (
2006
).
24
Kander (
2002
).
-
