Reflection Paper: 3

Consumption

Consumption of fossil fuels have increased vastly. After 1950, consumption of oil was the

largest. This is because of oil production technology that was used in extracting oil by massive

amounts as it was in high demand. This was done through interactions in the oil rich countries

with other countries either through war or agreements between the countries. As for coal, it has a

sudden steep increase after 2000. This is because of the growth of the economy in two countries,

India and China that began from mid 90s. The demand for energy for such economic growth was

met by the dependency on coal. So huge amounts of coal was extracted and consumed causing

that steep increase from 2000. Considering another type of consumption, meat consumption

starkly increased in the continent of Asia compared to other continents. Meat consumption
entails many components, such as the grain and water used to feed the animals, the land used by

the animals for grazing, water used to grow the grain and finally of course the meat from the

animals. Meat consumption has a very exhaustive and large impact on natural resources as it uses

vast amounts of water, land and other resources.

Policy options have been suggested by Myers in response to the consumption issues. The first is

internalizing externalities that are created during consumption. In doing so, market failures are

fixed and are reflective of all the environmental costs. In not charging for these externalities, we

create an incentive that the consumption of something is not cheap. For example, the cheap price

of oil in America at a time which caused air pollution (externality) and other issues. The second

options would be phasing out perverse subsidies as they exert a negative impact on the

environment and economy in the long run. An example is the subsidization of the fishing

industry as the government believes that this will reduce the dependency and the pressure exerted

on land if more is harvested from the ocean. But the reality is, it appears to be cheap because of

perverse subsidies, when instead it is not cheap as we are extracting unsustainably from Earth.

Next option is calculating the ecological footprint which is the foreign resources needed to

support consumption. The consumption of food, energy and other resources along with waste
absorption cause wealthy nations to rely on foreign sources which they compensate by

appropriating poor nations. Global warming from this will affect nations around the world.

Fourth option is promotion of efficiency and sufficiency. Decoupling consumption from resource

use is viable through higher efficiency of resource use, product recycling and waste prevention

with existing technology. Increase in efficiency allows for sufficiency which would also often

bring in profits. The next option is government best practice where it would set the example for

sustainable consumption via procurement and administrative procedure. The last policy option

which is mobilizing the media, involves the active persuasion of viewers to conduct consumption

in a more spare and discriminate manner through advertising to stimulate sustainable

consumption.

Holdren, Ehlrich and Commoner regarding IPAT

Holdren starts off with giving us a brief description of Barry Commoner's views on

environmental crisis and how he points to faulty technology as the sole reason for the crisis.

Commoner's discovery of the relationship between pollution, population and production and the

methodologies and calculations used to find the discovery are heavily criticized by Holdren
where he describes the gaps and errors of the arithmetic, process and logic used by Commoner

and his co-authors. In a paper with the purpose of a rebuttal to Commoner, Holdren and Ehrlich

together stated that the interactions between the components and all the components are

important and neglecting them would be ineffective and indefensible. They also presented the

preliminary form of the IPAT equation in 1971 where they stressed the variables are not

independent. They then later published the IPAT equation in 1972 in a critique of Commoner's

book where they developed better terms for the components and a proper formula as

Commoner's terms were too simplistic. In the IPAT equation, they explained how it includes a

lot of complexity and how they are causally interrelated proving Commoner’s hypothesis

incorrect. They do this by explaining how severity of the impact of adverse change in technology

is heavily dependent on population and affluence and more so if it takes place within a densely

populated and affluent society rather than a minor, poorer society.

This seems to be the typical trajectory of research, Commoner being an individual to suggest a

new hypothesis with Holdren and Ehlrich being the individuals contesting the hypothesis with

their preexisting hypothesis and eventually proving Commoner incorrect with their findings. In

terms of policy making, IPAT does not help as it makes environmental degradation policies hard
to implement along with being unproductive compared to rationing or pigovian taxation of usage

of resource and pollution. The IPAT equation in general is no longer relevant in the present as it

has many criticisms and now remains just a primary attempt at people trying to link poverty,

affluence, environmental impact, technology and population together.

Barry Commoner: Poverty is the cause for overpopulation

Commoner starts off with explaining that there is a limit to resources that can support and so the

increasing growth of the world population size is not a process that can go on forever. Using

Malthusian theory he explains that if the population exceeds the food supply then disastrous

consequences will follow such as famine and mass death. He moves on to one viewpoint of the

cause of population issue, which is uncontrolled fertility and how the birthrate should be

decreased to a point of zero population growth. He then discusses the approaches taken so far to

control fertility, family planning programs and contraceptives, legal measures and finally a
measure inspired by Hardin's lifeboat ethic which is keeping food from starving developing

countries as they have failed to control birth rates adequately.

Commoner discusses the viability of the approaches. For birth control programs, he remarks on

how contraceptives are not as effective as higher living standards in reducing fertility through an

account of an Indian study done by Harvard researchers. The results from the study tell us that

contraceptives were not used by the participants in the study. So the birth control programs were

not responsible for the reduction in birth rates. Instead there was a rise in age of marriage from

technological and social change that brought down birth rates. These are the elements of

demographic transition. So a demographic transition is more effective for reductions in birth

rates. He supports this by his discussion about the relationship between GNP and birthrates and

that a higher GNP leads to a voluntary reduction in birthrates through a number of facts and

figures. However the issue is that the world's wealth is not evenly distributed causing poorer

countries to have high birthrates as a result.

He then discusses the third approach of the population problem, the withholding of food from

starving developing countries (lifeboat ethic). Hardin and other lifeboat ethics claim that there is
not enough resources to support the world population and that it is beyond their ability to save

poor overpopulated countries. Commoner first dives deeper into this reasoning to reveal that

Hardin is only concerned about Americans becoming a minority in taking up the shares of the

commons (the world) and thereby being replaced as the rest of the world is doubling in terms of

numbers and therefore taking a bigger share.

Another assertion by Hardin which is a commonly held viewpoint is also challenged by

Commoner, where Hardin states that there are inadequate resources to support world population

at a standard of living needed to bring about demographic transition (which is needed for

voluntary reduction in birth rates). Commoner proves this hypothesis incorrect using the

explanation of the relationship between GNP and birthrates and accompanying facts and figures.

He explains that there are sufficient resources for supporting the present world population at a

level that would persuade people to not have excessive counts of children and that it is not

needed to be on the same level of consumption as USA. However the issue is that the world's

wealth and resources are not evenly distributed causing poorer countries to have high birthrates

as a result.
Commoner then discusses about the causes for rapid rise in population within developing

countries. He states that current world population crisis and the rapid growth in developing

countries is because of colonial exploitation by developed countries. During the colonial period,

introduction of better living standards for better exploitation of resources started off the first

phase of demographic transition. However the resultant wealth went to the colonizer's country

disallowing the progression into the second phase but causing the colonizing country to enter the

second phase. This caused the gap between the advanced nations and poorer nations to grow only

bigger as they accumulated more wealth. This colonial exploitation caused another unexpected

effect which is the swift increase of population in former colonies.

Commoner then considers another hypothesis. That hunger is an indicator for overpopulation as

it is cited as proof by people who believe the presence of insufficient resources to support world

population. However a study in India explains to us how in Madras state, there is one half of

population receiving more than the required dietary intake because of higher income while the

other receives substantially lesser than the required dietary intake because of lower income. This

tells us that social factors are responsible for the distribution of accessible food among the

population, revealing that the issue is not the matter of production of food but social factors that
prevent the needed distribution of food. So Commoner states that hunger cannot be considered

evidence for world population size to have exceeded the capacity of the Earth for food

production. Instead, the actual reason for hunger is distribution of food according to social

factors.

The poverty which affects these populations and their access to food is tied to the overarching

theme, colonial exploitation. The world's wealth and resources are not evenly distributed and so

this is the state of the developing nations. Furthermore, Barry Commoner goes on to state that the

approaches for population crisis only compounds and pushes the burden of social and political

evil that is colonialism onto the victims. He concludes the document with a personal view, that

the root cause of overpopulation is poverty and to rid of it, the wealth taken from the poor

nations ought to be returned to allow them the reason and resources to limit their own fertility

out of their own volition thereby remedying the population crisis.

Commoner makes a very argument of poverty being the root cause. Debunking the claims made

by Hardin was done with facts and figures to back it up which is makes me inclined to believe
his argument as it is because very convincing. Despite this, given his history of basic errors in

conducting research, I am hesitant to agree with his views.

China population policy: societal and economic impacts

China has the highest population in the world and as such as detrimental effects of it on its

society and economy. In 1979, the Chinese government began the one child per family policy

where citizens would be penalized in many forms if they had more than one child while offering

incentives if they did have one child. Then in 1980, the birth quota system began for controlling

population growth. More control methods included birth control programs, sterilization programs

in the 80s for people with two children and the economy shift from agricultural one to industrial

one. All these measures taken by the Chinese government were hard to implement and not so

effective. This led to underreporting of the number of births by 27% in 1992. Individuals in rural

communities were also able to cheat the birth quota system. Reactions to the strict policies were

negative ones. Many countries shunned China for its direction and violence also was observed

from Chinese citizens. Female infanticide cases increased causing China to become less strict
with policies. As for economy, living standard was increased by having growth rates decrease.

Increases in coverage in tap water, natural gas and medical have been observed increasing life

expectancy and decreasing infant mortality rates.

Further progression into demographic transition will cause a voluntary decline in China's

population size so China should work on better policies and urbanization for achieving its

required goals.

Economic growth and environmental degradation (Nazrul)

The Environmental Kuznet's Curve (EKC) theory that environmental state declines in the

primary stage of economic growth, and develops later at further stages of economic growth with

higher levels of income is investigated by Nazrul whether it holds true for Asia. Nazrul shows us

that EKC does not hold true across regions and pollutants. He explains in detail of how there is

no universal singular income-environment relationship (IER) and that various amounts of

pollution are viable for changes in income level and even the same income level. Nazrul focused

on Asia to compare its IER to other parts of the world since it is the most densely populated and
quickest rising continent. The main findings included IER in Asia differing from their non-Asian

counterparts in terms of parameters, said differences cannot be generalized as they are specific

pollutant and sample wise and lastly, EKC pattern is not shown in general for approximated IER

for both Asian and non-Asian samples. Pollutants that require attention in the continent include

solid particles in urban air and nitrate and arsenic in river waters. Finally, the paper stresses the

importance of policies in shaping and impacting levels of pollution.

What I did find informative from the paper was that for a continent as diverse as Asia with

various different forms of terrain, weather and other geological conditions was that there are

common pollutants that Asia as a whole needs to be concerned about. The solid particles in

urban air means that the conditions that a city creates in any place is more or less the same. Aside

from this, I didn't find the results of the main hypothesis of the paper to be something I already

wasn't aware of, because there are multiple countries in the world that despite being developed

and having high GDPs and levels of income, still struggle with pollutants. This point of issue just

boils down to how much the government or state pays attention to or cares for the surrounding
environment quality which as Nazrul has said impacts and shapes the increases and the levels of

pollution in a region through policies.

Measuring poverty in Bangladesh

From direct calorie intake (DCI) to food energy intake to finally settling on cost of basic needs

method, the government has gone through many attempts to measuring poverty line in

Bangladesh. DCI was not the best method to measure poverty as it was too simplistic, failing to

actually measure poverty as it only measured undernourishment which does not encompass

deprivation in all the other facets of welfare. FEI method which has been applied in conjunction

with DCI also is defective. For the consumption expenditure aspect of it, it suffers from a

consistency problem where the more affluent areas have higher per capita expenditure causing

poverty lines to be higher than poorer areas while using the same standard calorie requirement.

The third method, which is CBN is more comprehensive than the first two in the sense that it

captures nonfood needs and maintains consistency considering the suspected living standards.
However it has its downsides too, where it needs more data than the other two and it is unable to

capture differences in urban and rural food consumption because of the fixed consumption

bundle which the FEI method does a better job of. Bangladesh needs other indicators to measure

poverty aside from these three because they are lacking. Bangladesh can apply the

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as it measures conventional monetary based poverty

measures in accompaniment to the precise deprivations in terms of education, health and living

standards as it is more comprehensive than the other three.