Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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to heat our homes and run our factories, but also
to provide the materials we needs to build the
products that we use on a daily basis (from homes
to iPhones). But there are also other important
resources upon which human society depends,
such as fresh water and soil (see
Chapter 3)
. A
defining feature of the Anthropocene is humanity's
emerging ability to extract, move and exploit
resources at geologically significant levels (Crutzen,
2002). This situation has inevitably lead scientists
such as Paul Ehrlich to question how long it may
be possible to sustain humanity's increasing
demands for environmental resources.
In crude terms, it is possible to characterize the
positions of Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon in
relation to two broad schools of thought. Ehrlich
is often associated with a
Malthusian
worldview,
which suggests that in the contexts of rising
population levels and the increasing relative
demand for resources, that finite resources will
eventually be exhausted (for more on Malthusian
theories see
section 2.3)
. Julian Simon by contrast
is more
cornucopian
in his outlook. Cornucopians
believe that technologies and market forces will
work to ensure that in the future humans will have
adequate resources to meet their collective needs
(the phrase cornucopian derives from the Greek
legend of the 'horn of plenty', which would supply
its owner with all that they desired). This chapter
explores these, and related, theories of resource
use and supply. Ultimately it will be argued that
neither provides an adequate account of the
complex nature of human resource relations
(Bridge and Wood, 2010). In this context, it is
argued that while the cornucopians may be correct
in recognizing the role of technology, politics and
markets in regulating and redirecting the human
use of resources, they fail to acknowledge the
limits that do exist in the biosphere's ability to both
continue to supply these resources and to absorb
the pollution that often follows in the wake of
