Economic Development and Environmental History in the Anthropocene

Perspectives on Asia and Africa

Gareth Austin

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781474267519
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: Economics

For the populations of the developing economies – the vast majority of humanity – the present century offers the prospect of emulating Western standards of living. This hope is combined with increasing awareness of the environmental consequences of the very process of global industrialisation itself. This book explores the interactions between economic development and the physical environment in four regions of the developing world: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. The contributors focus on the 'Anthropocene': our present era, in which humanity's influence on the physical environment has begun to mark the geological record. Economic Development and Environmental History in the Anthropocene examines environmental changes at global level and human responses to environmental opportunities and constraints on more local and regional scales, themes which have been insufficiently studied to date. This volume fills this gap in the literature by combining historical, economic and geographical perspectives to consider the implications of the Anthropocene for economic development in Asia and Africa.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1 Introduction Gareth Austin
• 2 Environmental Impacts of Colonial Dynamics, 1400–1800: The First Global Age and the Anthropocene Amélia Polónia and Jorge M. Pacheco
• 3 Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1500–1800 Mats Widgren
• 4 Containers, Energy and the Anthropocene in West Africa Emily Lynn Osborn
• 5 Africa and the Anthropocene Gareth Austin
• 6 Monsoon Asia, Intra-Regional Trade and Fossil-Fuel-Driven Industrialization Kaoru Sugihara
• 7 Forests and a New Energy Economy in Nineteenth-Century South India Prasannan Parthasarathi
• 8 Land Quality, Carrying Capacity and Sustainable Agricultural Change in Twentieth-Century India Tirthankar Roy
• 9 The Forests of Southeast Asia, Forest Transition Theory and the Anthropocene, 1500–2000 Peter Boomgaard
• 10 Developing the Rain Forest: Rubber, Environment and Economy in Southeast Asia Corey Ross
• 11 The Development of Energy-Conservation Technology in Japan, 1920–70: An Analysis of Energy-Intensive Industries and Energy-Conservation Policies Satoru Kobori
• 12 The Development of South Korea’s Nuclear Industry in a Resource- and Capital-Scarce Environment Se Young Jang
• 13 Water, Energy and Politics: Chinese Industrial Revolutions in Global Environmental Perspective Kenneth Pomeranz
• 14 The Present Climate of Economics and History Julia Adeney Thomas
• Notes on Contributors
• Index