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What is an Ecodisaster?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
Affiliation:
Professor of Zoology, Birkbeck College (University of London), Malet Street, London WC1, England.
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Extract

The term ‘ecodisaster’ may be defined as ‘a global catastrophe of the human species’. Any ecodisasters occurring in the near future will, almost certainly, be caused, directly or indirectly, by the present overpopulation of the world, accompanied by unwise and irresponsible disregard of environmental deterioration.

The suggestion is made here that Man's first and, it is to be hoped, last, ecodisaster may already have begun. Although not dramatic, it is taking the form of a steady decline in the standard of living nearly everywhere, coupled with massive pollution, and widespread malnutrition in the under-developed countries of the world. It will persist until world population eventually becomes adjusted to environmental resources.

It is ironical that control of the pests and diseases which have inflicted so much misery on mankind in the past, should have helped to engender the present population explosion with all the hunger and privation that accompany it in the under-developed regions of the world.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 66 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1977

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