Perspectives
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It is an article of faith that global trade will be an ever-growing presence in the world. Yet this belief rests on shaky foundations. Global trade depends on cheap, long-distance freight transportation. Freight costs will rise with climate change, the end of cheap oil, and policies to mitigate these two challenges.
At first, the increase in freight costs will be bad news for developed and developing nations alike but, as adjustments in the patterns of trade occur, the result is likely to be decreased outsourcing with more manufacturing and food production jobs in North America and the European Union. The pattern of trade will change as increasing transportation costs outweigh traditional sources of comparative advantage, such as lower wages. The new geography of trade will not...
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From competition among hunter-gatherers for wild game to imperialist wars over precious minerals, resource wars have been fought throughout history; today, however, the competition appears set to enter a new—and perhaps unprecedented—phase. As natural resources deplete, and as the earth’s climate becomes less stable, the world’s nations will likely compete ever more desperately for access to fossil fuels, minerals, agricultural land, and water.
Nations need increasing amounts of energy and materials to produce economic growth, but the costs of supplying new increments of energy and materials are burgeoning. In many cases, lower-quality resources with high extraction costs are all that remain. Securing access to these resources often requires military expenditures as well....
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Meet the Perspective Authors
Founder and executive director of the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University
Professor II of biology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; founding editor of the international scientific journal Conservation Biology
Other Perspectives
Within the U.S. military, there is no debate about the risks, threats, and challenges of climate change and energy dependency as they relate to our national security.1 Climate change and energy efficiency have become standing military...
Two decades of research into the management of what economists call common-pool resources suggests that, under the right conditions, local communities can manage shared resources sustainably and successfully. These revolutionary findings...
Interest in both the science and practice of ecosystem services is on the rise. Many studies have confirmed the economic value of investing in the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of ecosystem services.1–5 This burgeoning...
The Willamette River is the 13th largest river in the United States, and its 29,727 square kilometer basin supports a mosaic of agricultural, timber, and recreational resources as well as several growing urban centers and their water...
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Seattle’s water was provided by wells, springs, and private water companies. Lake Washington served as both a source of water and a sink for waste. After epidemics of cholera and typhoid,...
In October 2010 the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study published a groundbreaking series of reports, which presented governments, local authorities, and businesses with a powerful economic case for protecting the natural...
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