Table Of ContentCHANGING THE
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Perspectives on Human Involvement
Edited by
Daniel B. Botkin Margriet F. Caswell
Environmental Studies Program and Environmental Studies Program and
Department of Biological Sciences Department of Economics
University of California University of California
Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara, California
John E. Estes Angelo A. Orio
Department of Geography Department of Environmental Science
Remote Sensing Unit University of Venice
University of California Venice, Italy
Santa Barbara, California
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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United Kingdom Edition published by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Changing the global environment : perspectives on human involvement /
edited by Daniel B. Botkin ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-12-118730-6 ISBN 0-12-118731-4(pbk)
1. Man—Influence on nature. 2. Environmental policy.
3. Pollution. I. Botkin, Daniel B.
GF75.C47 1988
363.7'05—dcl9 88-14588
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
89 90 91 92 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTRIBUTORS
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
Tayler H. Bingham (367), Center for Economics Research, Research Triangle
Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709
Daniel B. Botkin (3), Environmental Studies Program and Department of
Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
David Brokensha (339), Environmental Studies Program and Department of
Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
William G. Brooner (213), Earth Satellite Corporation, 7222 47th Street,
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
George Bugliarello (383), Polytechnic University, 333 Jay Street, Brooklyn,
New York 11201
George F. Carrier (155), Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Margriet F. Caswell (419), Environmental Studies Program and Department
of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
D. A. Crossley, Jr. (269), Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens,
Georgia 30602
Ralph C. d'Arge (325), Department of Economics, University of Wyoming,
Laramie, Wyoming 82071
ix
X CONTRIBUTORS
Melvin I. Dyer (269), Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens,
Georgia 30602
Alfred Endres (437), Technische Universitaet, SEKR WW15, Uhlandstrasse
4-5, 1000 Berlin 12, West Germany
John E. Estes (283), Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Geography, Univer
sity of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Ricardo Guerrero (49), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Michael D. Gwynne (241), United Nations Environment Program—GEMS,
6 rue de la Gabelle, CH-1227 Carouge, Switzerland
M. L. Imhoff (203), Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, Mary
land 20771
L. R. Iverson (231), Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois
J. G. Lackey (257), EG&G Energy Measurements, Inc., PO Box 1912, Las
Vegas, Nevada 89125
R. Lai (135), Department of Agronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
43210
Orie L. Loucks (99), Butler University, Holcomb Research Institute, 4600
Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208
Thomas E. Lovejoy (89), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
Brian W. Mar (403), Department of Civil Engineering and Science, University
of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Lynn Margulis (49), Department of Botany, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
D. Wayne Mooneyhan (241), United Nations Environment Program—
GRID, 6 rue de la Gabelle, 1227 Carouge, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Donald G. Moore (203), EROS Data Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Sioux
Falls, South Dakota 57198
Angelo A. Orio (167), Department of Environmental Science, University of
Venice, Calle Largia, S. Marta 2137, 1-30123 Venice, Italy
Charles K. Paul (203), Office of Forestry, Environment, and Natural Re
sources, Bureau for Science and Technology, U.S. Agency for International
Development, Washington, DC 20523
David Pearce (309), Department of Economics, University College London,
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
G. Carleton Ray (69), Department of Environmental Sciences, University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Bernard W. Riley (339), Environmental Studies Program, University of Cali
fornia, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Paul G. Risser (231), Scholes Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
New Mexico 87131
CONTRIBUTORS xi
A. N. Sellman (203), Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, PO Box
8618, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107
Jeffrey L. Star (283), Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Geography, Univer
sity of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Lee M. Talbot (15), World Resources Institute, 1735 New York Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20006
James V. Taranik (185), Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada,
Reno, Nevada 89557
Larry R. Tinney (257), EG&G Energy Measurements, Inc., PO Box 1912,
Las Vegas, Nevada 89125
Alexander J. Tuyahov (283), National Aeronautic and Space Administration
Headquarters, 600 Independence Avenue, Washington, DC 20546
Peter Westbroek (35), Department of Biochemistry, University of Leiden, Was-
senaarseweg 64, 2333 Al Leiden, The Netherlands
Sylvan H. Wittwer (117), Agriculture Experiment Station, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan 44824
PREFACE
The extent of global environmental changes and the extent to which
technology can be employed to improve our global environment is the
theme of this book. But having said that, the question arises, Why write
another book about the environment? After all, the environment be
came a household topic in the 1960s and 1970s; there has been a flood of
books on the subject. We are all now well aware of the problems that our
modern civilization poses for our environment and the risks that altera
tion of the environment pose for us. There are three reasons for this
new book. First, modern environmentalism, in order to sound the cry of
warning and catch public attention, has emphasized the negative. Its
supporters believed that a concern with the environment was not only
morally correct, but necessary to save civilization. Opponents, in turn,
have tended to view environmentalism simply as a negative movement,
opposed to progress, economic development, and the advance of civili
zation. But we have begun to move past such confrontation; it is becom
ing a more widely accepted idea that a concern with the environment is
simply good economics and planning. With this in mind, it is useful to
examine a wide variety of environmental issues from this changed, more
constructive perspective.
Xlll
XIV PREFACE
Second, our knowledge has grown rapidly in the past generation and
there are new attempts to integrate knowledge among disciplines. Ecol
ogy, the scientific study of the relationships between living things and
their environment, has made major advances; so, too, have the many
other disciplines in the physical, social, and natural sciences that concern
the environment. New technologies have great potential to help us solve
our environmental problems. Environmental economics has begun to
develop and provide useful insights into workable policies. It is time to
consider the implications of the new knowledge from each traditional
discipline and the integration of these individual sets of knowledge in
our approach to environmental issues.
Third, our perspective has become global. We have learned that the
remarkable feature of our planet is life and its persistence over a long
time. In the last human generation, we have learned that life has existed
on the Earth for more than three billion years and that life has pro
foundly changed our planet. We are also being rudely awakened to the
fact that our impact on the environment is affecting our entire planet.
Satellites give us a planetary perspective on life; new discoveries in biol
ogy and geology point out the global effects of life on our planet.
The more we understand our planet's life-support system, the more
likely it is that we can take positive, constructive actions to provide for
sustainable uses of natural resources and for the enhancement of envi
ronmental quality. Without this understanding, our range of viable al
ternatives may be unduly limited. Such understanding is absolutely es
sential to the design of policies and for taking actions necessary in the
future. And so it is time for our generation to take a retrospective view,
to consider what we have learned, and what we might be able to know
and do in the future. The purpose of Changing the Global Environment is
to provide such a retrospective as we near the end of the twentieth
century.
Changing the Global Environment is dedicated to two previous landmark
books of the modern industrial age, each of which examined the human
environmental dilemma of its time: Man and Nature, published in 1864
by George Perkins Marsh,1 and Man's Role in Changing the Face of the
Earth, a symposium volume edited by W.L. Thomas, Jr.,2 published in
1955. The latter was the result of a meeting of a renowned group of
scientists and scholars in Princeton, New Jersey. The book that resulted
provided a wealth of information about what our species had done to the
Earth during its tenure on the planet. It covered the use of fire as a
landscape-shaping tool, the environmental effects of peasant agriculture
and herding of domestic animals, the cutting of much of the world's
PREFACE XV
forests, the history of the environmental effects of our disposal of wastes
to that point, and the effects of our cities on the environment. That book
provided an invaluable summary of the history of human alterations of
the environment. It represents a summary that is still of great use today.
Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth was dedicated to George
Perkins Marsh, whose book Man and Nature began the modern discus
sion of environmental issues. A native of Vermont, Marsh became am
bassador to Egypt and Italy. He was struck by the differences in the
landscape of Italy and Egypt that resulted from the long use of
natural resources by human beings in comparison to the wilderness of
his native New England. Marsh eloquently recounted the history of
human impacts on the environment and the possible effects that
these impacts have had on civilization. "The ravages committed by man
subvert the relations and destroy the balance that nature had established
between her organic and her inorganic creations," he wrote. "She
avenges herself upon the intruder, by letting loose upon her defaced
provinces destructive energies hitherto kept in check by organic
forces."3 The decline of the Roman empire, Marsh suggested, was has
tened by the destruction of forests and soils. Speaking for his time,
Marsh made use of scientific information available in the mid-nineteenth
century. His theme is a warning of the negative consequences of these
changes. But his book was pragmatic and progressive, seeking to tame
nature to our benefit, not to abandon all alterations. The "arrangements
of nature," he wrote, "are highly desirable to maintain, when such re
gions become the seat of organized commonwealths. In developing an
area, it is of primary importance that the transforming operation should
be so conducted as not unnecessarily to derange and destroy what, in too
many cases, it is beyond the powers of man to rectify or restore."4
Both books looked back into human history and described the envi
ronmental dilemma that faced our species. Unlike so many subsequent
works, neither of these books could be characterized as negative or anti-
progress. Marsh was pragmatic; the Princeton book represented many
points of view and was in part an appreciation of the new technologies,
such as the airplane, that permitted a different perspective on the envi
ronment. Soon after the publication of Man's Role in Changing the Face of
the Earth, with the printing of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962,
environmentalism became a popular movement. Around the world, laws
were passed to conserve endangered species and require environmental
assessments of new activities. The passage of some legislation conflicted
with development and commercial goals, thus making environmentalism
controversial.
XVI PREFACE
Today, much is changing in our perception and concern with the
environment. The technologies discussed in the chapters that follow
either did not exist or were in a comparatively primitive stage 30 years
ago. In 1955, W. L. Thomas, Jr., editor of Man's Role in Changing the Face
of the Earth, wrote that "the most striking symbol of the new scale in time
and space that has been brought into being since the time of Marsh is the
airplane." The newer techniques of digital remote sensing had yet to be
invented; the first artificial satellite was yet to be put into orbit. Satellite
and aircraft remote sensing now provide synoptic views that radically
change our perception of our planet. New chemical methods discussed
in this book let us measure the concentration of chemicals rapidly and on
location in parts per billion, at accuracies and speeds not dreamed of in
1955.
Looking ahead today to the twenty-first century, we see technology
again radically changing the relationship between people and nature,
but now on a global scale and with great potential for constructive man
agement for achieving sustainable uses of natural resources and for the
enhancement of environmental quality. This book is intended to lead a
change in emphasis from negative to positive aspects of our abilities to
manage our environment and from a local and regional to a global
perspective. In the last 30 years—one human generation—we have
learned a great deal about our environment, and we have a wealth of
new technologies and methods that we are applying to understand and
mitigate our effects on our environment. It is time to look at these
developments and summarize how well we are doing. This is a task
useful to each generation.
To accomplish this task, an international conference was held in Ven
ice, Italy, in October 1985. At this conference, a unique group of experts
from 70 nations was assembled: experts on biological conservation and
the science of ecology; experts on some of the new technologies that are
being used to deal with environmentalism issues; and economists and
other social scientists who were interested in assessing the approaches
that could be taken to integrate a concern with the environment into
economic development and planning. The results of the conference
were divided into two parts: technical papers have been published in two
special issues of The Science of the Total Environment,5 while a selection of
the broader papers of more general interest are published here. They
provide an overview of the role of human beings in changing the global
environment: what we have done, are doing, and could accomplish in
the future. Changing the Global Environment is divided into three sections:
I. Perspectives on the Biosphere; II. Some of the Ways We Can Learn
PREFACE XVll
About Our Global Environment; and III. Social and Economic Policy
Issues. The first section sets forth the broad perspective of the book and
focuses on specific conceptual issues of central concern. The second
discusses technologies of remote sensing, computer-based data systems,
and advanced chemical analytical techniques, which together radically
change our perception of our environment and our ability to analyze
complex issues of environmental concern. These technologies also im
prove our ability to mitigate the effects of our actions on the environ
ment. The third section discusses the interactions among social, environ
mental, and economic goals, and the role that technological advances
might play in attaining these goals.
It is our hope that this book will be helpful in the attempt to under
stand how our new technologies are changing our perception of our
environment and to further integrate a concern with the environment
into all our activities.
Daniel B. Botkin, M argriet F. Caswell, John E. Estes, and Angelo A. Orio
Notes
^.P. Marsh, 1964, Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action,
Charles Scribner, New York, reprinted in 1965 and edited by D. Lowenthal, Belknap
Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2W.L. Thomas, 1956, Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1193 pp.
3 Marsh, 1964, op. cit., p. 42.
AIbid., p. 35.
5 The Science of the Total Environment, 1986, Vols. 55 and 56, Elsevier Science Publishers,
Amsterdam.
