The Wasteious Society: An Introduction To The Wasteful Society

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The Wasteful Society
Introduction
Two fundamental and closely related problems confront our present ecosystems: overpopulation and the destruction or exhaustion of natural resources.Some natural resources are so abundant that they still seem infinite, such as the planet’s stock of air and water.“At this stage of our technological development, we are learning that our powers extend to such heights and depths that we can even destroy the near-infinite resources” (Al Gore). Scientists predicted in the end of last century, that fresh water would be the “new oil” — the global strategic resource for the twenty-first century. This means that control over sources of fresh water will be one of, if not the, most important sources of conflict in the future. The last few years many books have been written about this issue, with titles like “Water Wars, Blue Gold, Last Oasis, Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, and Thirsty Planet” (Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke)(1), as well as in press articles with the same alarmist titles. In this essay i will use this book, statistics, press articles and examples to discuss this issue. How come Population density, economy and politics affect water pollution?
Population density is the total number of people per unit of area, usually per square mile. As population density rises to high levels, as it has in today’s cities, the familiar problems of urban living appear, including high rates of crime and homelessness.Interacting with these problems are crises of the physical environment, such as air and water pollution and the growing output of hazardous wastes with the resultant global warming. ” Ten Years from now,India will have an extra 250 million people. In five of the worlds “hot spots” of water d...

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...rs were forced out of business for good. The spill rapidly polluted major marshes surrounding the Gulf, killing off much flora, and wildlife, including birds of several species and all varieties of fish, shrimp, and mussels.
This destruction continues right up until this day. The destruction of significant parts of the Gulf will last for decades hence. The Gulf spill has been called without question America’s greatest oil spill ever.[5]
Here’s an article discussing the recent US BP oil Spill off the Gulf of Mexico as a classic example of a negative externality. After reading it, try recalling the concepts of Marginal Cost, Marginal Social Benefit , Marginal Personal Cost and Marginal Personal Benefit. Then remember the concepts of Allocative, Productive and Distributive efficiency. The exercise should be a fairly good proxy indicator your familiarity with the topic.

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