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From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Sawyer, Holly L

From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth, D. Pirages and K. Cousins (Editors). The MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., Cambridge, MA 02142. Sept. 2005. 268 pages. $24. ISBN 0-262-66185-6.

From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security is an exceptionally timely book that evaluates the predictions of world population and resource availability that were made in the Global 2000 Report to the President in 1980. It begins by examining how the forecasts were derived, and then it discusses their accuracy and shortcomings, and offers its own ideas and projections of what must be done to sustain our resources.

This book effectively addresses a broad range of environmental and social issues, and demonstrates how they are all inextricably intertwined. Examples include the declining rate of reproduction, HIV/AIDs, and other such factors. These have led to an aging global population, with that aging population's effect on the world's resources, current environmental policy, economics, and ultimately ecological security. The book also offers an easy-to-understand explanation of the driving forces behind population, global climate change, and energy security, and examines the effects of technology and politics on environmental policy. It also addresses a wide range of topics from disease to biological diversity to immigration, and demonstrates how each directly impacts the other. These issues then relate back to their effect on ecological security.

The coverage is very even, and a wide variety of areas are discussed in depth. Several adjacent chapters discuss different aspects of the same topic, such as Chapters 2 and 3, which are concerned with the effects of the aging global population. The editors do an excellent job of transitioning between chapters so that the flow of ideas is good and the chapters complement each other.

The strongest point of the book is that it not only discusses how we go to where we are today, but it offers ideas about what must be done to have ecological security for future generations. Therefore, the book is a useful tool for anyone who is interested in learning our socio-environmental history and where we are heading based on our current trends. The book presents an optimistic outlook in that it seems to consistently return to the idea that education is the key to sustainability and a successful future, and that through education, we can learn to protect our resources so that they will be available for future generations.

I did not find any errors in the text, either typographical or substantive.

Holly L. Sawyer, Esq.

1505 Oak Drive

Dothan, AL 36303

Copyright American Water Resources Association Feb 2006

Source: Journal of the American Water Resources Association

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