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2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

15. Global Socio-metabolic Transitions

Authors : Fridolin Krausmann, Ph.D., Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Ph.D.

Published in: Long Term Socio-Ecological Research

Publisher: Springer Netherlands

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Abstract

This chapter provides a macro-perspective on the evolution of society-nature interactions during industrialisation. It explores the emergence of the industrial metabolic regime and investigates the links between economic development, population growth, resource use and environmental change. It discusses the constraints that the environment imposes upon socioeconomic development and the role of technology in both alleviating these constraints and altering the natural environment. Starting from a discussion of the sociometabolic characteristics of the agrarian socio-ecological regime, the paper develops a socio-ecological perspective of global industrialisation taking the development in different world regions into account. It shows how a shift from a solar energy system tapping into flows of renewable biomass towards a fossil fuel powered energy system based on the exploitation of large stocks of energy resources allowed for an emancipation of the energy system from land use and abolished traditional limits of growth. This metabolic transition facilitated unprecedented population growth and triggered a surge in the per capita use of material and energy. The paper argues that industrial society’s high demand for material and energy resources is structurally determined and cannot be reduced simply by a more frugal or efficient use of resources.

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previous chapter The Intimacy of Human-Nature Interactions on Islands

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1In the seventeenth century Netherlands, for example the exploitation of large peat deposits, intensive use of wind energy and a dense network of waterways suitable for shipping formed the energetic basis for an exceptional economic development, the Dutch Golden Age. It is estimated that during this period up to 1.5 million tonnes of peat were dug annually, involving the excavation of 700 ha of peatland each year. Peat is naturally a source – albeit not one of the oldest – of fossil energy, (see De Zeeuw 1978).

2 The local characteristics of agrarian subsistence types depend partly on the distribution of precipitation and temperature through the year, on population density and the available labour resources, as well as on forms of governance and land ownership. Thus the appearance of pre-industrial agrarian societies differs widely, ranging from simple shifting cultivation and nomadic herding to complex and differentiated societies based on farming with and without livestock, irrigation or crop rotation.

3 On the concept of EROI, see Hall et al. (1986, 28).

4 It is important to bear in mind that it makes no energetic or economic sense for draught animals and the people working with them to require more foodstuff for the transport route (and return journey) than they can carry. They can thus only transport either very valuable goods, which can be exchanged in terms of weight equivalent for large quantities of nutrients, or foodstuff for short journeys. It must also be considered that additional cultivated land is required for these animals and people in order to feed them, which also means the distances which have to be travelled increase too (see Sieferle 1997, 87), (Fischer-Kowalski et al. 2013, Chap. 4 in this volume).

5 One should imagine that a Pharaoh with 2,000 labourers to build the pyramids had little more capacity at his disposal than a worker would today using a larger road construction machine.

6 One Joule represents 0.24 cal and is a very small unit. Commonly derived units like megajoule (MJ) = 10⁶ J, gigajoule (GJ) = 10⁹ J and exajoule (EJ) = 10¹⁸ J are used. Adequately feeding a human being requires approximately 10 million Joules (MJ) per day. The energy content (calorific value) of wood is roughly 15 MJ/kg, that of coal 20–30 MJ/kg and that of petroleum 45 MJ/kg.

7 The highest biomass conversion rates are seen in pastoral societies with a very high per capita livestock holding and the lowest are recorded in societies whose means of subsistence relies predominantly on human physical work and plant-based diets (for example in the rice-cultivating societies of south and southeast Asia).

8 There has even been speculation that this has hindered the statistically foreseeable development of a new ice age (see Ruddiman 2003; Prentice et al. 2001).

9 In the context of the New Deal, a million km of highways and 77,000 bridges were constructed in the USA in the 1930s and the country was eventually covered by a comprehensive motorway system from 1956, with help from the Federal Highway Aid Program.

10 The term green revolution was first coined in 1968 by William S. Gaud, the director of the United States Agency for International Development USAID (see also Leaf 2004).

11 From a sociometabolic perspective, the Soviet Union and the countries economically and politically connected with it still largely represented the English coal-steel-railway regime, but were nonetheless distinguished by a particularly high use of resources together with a low income.

12 Up to 60 different metals, including extremely rare types, are used in electronic equipment such as PCs or mobile telephones. Recycling these components, given the tiny amounts and fine distribution, is impossible in many cases (see Hilty 2008, 168).

13 Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are often recorded in tonnes of carbon (C). One tonne of C represents 3.67 tonnes of CO₂.

14 In April 2008 the first scientific conference on the theme of degrowth “Economic De-growth for ecological sustainability and social equity” took place in Paris. See http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/en/

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Title: Global Socio-metabolic Transitions
Authors: Fridolin Krausmann, Ph.D.
Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Ph.D.
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Book: Long Term Socio-Ecological Research
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1176-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-94-007-1177-8

Copyright Year: 2013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1177-8_15

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