Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
agro-ecosystem.
76
The majority of external inputs
-
fertilizers, oil, fodder, and the
like
merely pass through a territory that operates as an inert platform. Ironically,
the massive fodder imports and consumption of cheap fossil fuels have turned most
of the woodland area into a derelict space which is increasingly prone to devastating
wild
—
res. Here again, we see a very close link between low energy performance
and inef
cient land-use, both of which give rise to increasing levels of pollution and
landscape degradation
—
the ecological
imprint of what we now know as
globalisation.
77
Thus, any discussion on the relationship between markets and agro-ecological
ef
ciency or environmental impacts cannot be viewed in black and white terms.
Depending on the type and extent of the markets under consideration, trade might
promote more ef
ows, or the contrary. A number
of current approaches to the relationship between human development and markets
in developing countries seem to draw similar conclusions, considering both the
social as well as the natural environments.
78
While a network of local and regional
markets was, and still remains, an important tool for sustainable human develop-
ment, a direct connection to globalized markets is often little more than a trap.
79
To
gain a better understanding of this relevant question, more studies on past agrarian
economies need to be undertaken from this standpoint.
However, it is already apparent that globalization matters, when considering the
relationship between the sort or scope of trade flows and their environmental
effects. Therefore, transport must be taken into account as a key component in the
ecological side that lies beneath any example of
cient land usage and biophysical
fl
'
Smithian
'
growth fostered by
signi
cant increases in urban population, their consumer baskets, and market
development. Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Fridolin Krausmann and Barbara
Smetschka tackle this important issue from a socio-metabolic approach, and con-
clude that
the volume of transport necessarily rises faster than both the size of the
society (in terms of population of urban centres and their hinterland) and its material
wealth, and this not only constrains but limits the possible size of urban popula-
tions. The core mechanism behind these limits is the agrarian energy metabolism: in
order to overcome distances, agrarian societies need more land to feed the human
and animal labour power required for transportation. So they have to enlarge their
territory, thereby again increasing the distances that have to be overcome. Fossil
fuels provide a two-edged bene
“
t: they allow to span larger distances, and to
manage reproduction within a smaller area. So under industrial conditions, size-
constraints for urban centres and for freight transport disappear: transport volumes
'
.
80
explode
'”
76
Goodman and Redclift (
1991
).
77
Fischer-Kowalski and Amann (
2001
).
78
Shiva and Gitanjali (
2002
).
79
Aoki and Hayami (
2001
) and Chang (
2002
).
80
Fischer-Kowalski et al. (
2004
).
