Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970310132808.0175538c@aloha.net> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 13:28:08 -1000 From: "Jay Hanson mailto:mailto:j@qmail.com" <j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: Re: UNITED NATIONS: Third World Lacks C -Reply To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
At 05:07 PM 3/10/97 -0500, Jon Sanford wrote:>The IPS piece on Third World energy needs was badly flawed. First, as I
>noted in my other message, it ignores alternative methods for production.
>Second, it doesn't tell us whether the future production is in real or nominal
>dollars. If everything goes up in price, then a particular quantity of energy will
>have a higher cost--as will everything the country produces to pay for it. So
>cost and income will balance. Third, it presumes that developing countries
Dear Jon, Your analysis is badly flawed because you leave out the impacts of the increasing energy costs of energy and the biophysical limits to growth.
Of course economists don't know what they are, they don't study them like physical scientists do. The fact that you deny they exist, merely highlights the poverty of your education.
If you really are interested in learning something about this issue, I suggest you read some of the publications of the International Society for Ecological Economics http://kabir.umd.edu/ISEE/ISEEhome.html
This is what the real scientists have to say about limits to growth:
In 1992, the two most prestigious scientific institutions in the world, the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, issued POPULATION GROWTH, RESOURCE CONSUMPTION, AND A SUSTAINABLE WORLD which ended with: "The future of our planet is in the balance. Sustainable development can be achieved, but only if irreversible degradation of the environment can be halted in time. The next 30 years may be crucial." Archived http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page7.htm
Also in 1992, a WARNING TO HUMANITY was issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists that began: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about."
This warning was signed by over 1,500 members of national, regional, and international science academies. Sixty-nine nations from all parts of Earth are represented, including each of the twelve most populous nations and the nineteen largest economic powers.
It was also signed by 99 Nobel Prize winners. Archived http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page8.htm
And finally, in 1993 THE GROWING WORLD POPULATION, a joint statement by 58 of the world's scientific academies said: "In our judgement, humanity's ability to deal successfully with its social, economic, and environmental problems will require the achievement of zero population growth within the lifetime of our children." Archived http://csf.Colorado.EDU/authors/hanson/page75.htm
Jay