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Full Description
The book focuses on the tensions and challenges faced by emerging economies, which, although rich in natural resources, struggle to achieve economic and social development amid a global environmental crisis. The paths to development followed by the success stories of the second half of the 20th century, marked by heavy pollution and the deterioration or destruction of fragile ecosystems, are no longer available in the 21st century. The analysis in the book addresses the three dimensions behind the explosive increase in the human footprint on the planet: the size of the population and its evolution, the per capita consumption of natural resources, and the efficiency in the use (and abuse) of Nature's services. Demography is critical because most of the world's population is concentrated in emerging countries and, therefore, its direct impact on the use of natural resources and land. In addition, most of them are amid a fast demographic transition. Per capita consumption patterns are also fundamental, precisely because if consumers in emerging countries replicate the patterns of rich countries and, at the same time, the latter maintain the current ones, there is simply no way to avoid the collapse of many ecosystem services, that most likely result and a greater deterioration in the general living conditions of the world's population. Last, but not least, is the efficiency in the use of nature's services, both those that are used directly for the provision of raw materials, and those that support life, maintaining the integrity of the biosphere. Ecosystems have been abused because, until now, most of their services have been freely available to Humanity, and their deterioration and scarcity have not been signaled by markets. Most emerging countries are rich in natural resources and in many of them remain most of the last reserves of land ecosystems and biodiversity of the planet. They face great tensions to improve the living conditions of their population and, at the same time, adequately manage the protection of ecosystems. These challenges cover a wide spectrum of matters, such as the sustainable management of forests and fisheries, and the allocation of rents from mining resources to investments in human and physical capital to compensate for their depletion. On the other hand, all this must be done together with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as with investments to protect productive capacities and infrastructure from climate change. A final message for young generations: there is still time to react and avoid a global catastrophe, but it is running out quickly. As technology and scientific technical knowledge open new paths for an orderly transition to a globally sustainable development path, sacrifices must be made to pay for the excesses of current and past generations. Fortunately, there has never been such a large generation with the awareness of the challenges as well as the means at its disposal to confront them.
Contents
Introduction.- Part I. Global economic development and the impacts on Nature. A historical perspective.- Chapter 1. Challenges for economic convergence from Natural limits.- 1.1. The double explosion of the human footprint and the pressure on Nature's services.- 1.2. From Malthus to Solow: Why did Nature disappear from the analysis of economic development?- 1.3. Restoring the role of Nature: Lewis, Nordhaus and Dasgupta.- 1.4. Three levers to rescue a sustainable trajectory of economic progress at a global level.- Chapter 2. Economic development in a historical perspective.- 2.1. The Industrial Revolution and the second takeoff of Humanity.- 2.2. Industrial Revolution, international trade and the "Great Divergence".- 2.3. Globalization, convergence and new actors in the 21st century Economy.- 2.4. Economic globalization and its environmental impacts.- Chapter 3. Development experiences of Latin America.- 3.1. A quick look at the Development of Latin America.- 3.2. Trends and evolution of foreign trade in the region.- 3.4. Is specialization in natural resources an anomaly?- 3.5. Latin American development, natural capital and "weak sustainability".- Chapter 4. Challenges of natural resource dependence.- 4.1. Non-renewable natural resources, rising costs and rent capture.- 4.2. Interactions and tensions and between natural resources and other resources.- 4.3. Macroeconomic challenges of natural resource dependence.- Part II. The "demographic lever": moving towards a sustainable trajectory of the population.- Chapter 5. Demographic transition and economic development.- 5.1. Trends in the demographic transition and its determinants.- 5.2. Demographic transition and its possible effects on economic growth.- 5.3 Demographic transition, population aging and social security.- Chapter6. Population evolution, human footprint and sustainability.- 6.1 . Is Latin America an "underpopulated" region?- 6.2. Population, land use and sustainability.- 6.3. "Demographic crisis" and sustainable development.- Part III. The "lever of material consumption" and the services of Nature.- Chapter 7. Trends in global consumption and human footprint.- 7.1. Global trends in consumption and human footprint.- 7.2. Tensions between global economic convergence and sustainability.- 7.3. Future consumption patterns and human footprint.- Chapter 8. Non-renewable resources and sustainability of economic growth.- 8.1. How much do we depend on Nature's resources?- 8.2. Is there evidence of scarcity of non-renewable resources?- 8.3. Role of technology in alleviating shortages.- 8.4. Limitations of markets to signal scarcity of non-renewable resources.- Chapter 9. Renewable resources: Why are they overexploited?- 9.1. Challenges for an efficient exploitation of renewable resources.- 9.2. Is there evidence of scarcity of renewable resources?.- 9.3. Overexploitation of renewable resources: impatience and the cost of waiting.- 9.4. Overexploitation of renewable resources : common property.- 9.5. Overexploitation of renewable resources: externalities.- Part IV. The "lever of efficiency" in the use of Nature.- Chapter 10. Human footprint and deterioration of ecosystem services.- 10.1. Panorama of the state of Nature and ecosystem services.- 10.2. Economic development, poverty and deterioration of Nature.- 10.3. Measuring the value of ecosystem services.- 10.4. Protection and recovery of the integrity of ecosystems.- Chapter 11. Global warming: origin and nature of the problem.- 11.1. Level and origins of GHG emissions.- 11.2. Direct impacts of climate change.- 11.3. Climate change mitigation and the risks of transition.- 11.4. The challenges of adaptation in the region.- 11.5. Tensions between economic convergence and global sustainability.- Chapter 12. A possible trajectory for sustainable socio-economic convergence.- 12.1. Synergies between nature preservation and emissions mitigation.- 12.2. The macroeconomics of sustainable development with non-renewable resources.- 12.3. Institutional challenges for the sustainable exploitation of renewable resources.- 12.4. Challenges to achieve global convergence in incomes in a warming world.- Final thoughts.
