ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the environmental issues case by case rather than in terms of the three scarcities. It looks at the empirical circumstances for the food supply, the threat of erosion, the question of resources, such as energy, raw materials, and water, and finally the distribution of wealth. There seems to be an underlying assumption in many environmental debates that food production has lost or is losing the race against population. The population rarely grows exponentially—actually the rate of population growth has been declining since 1964. Prices reflect the scarcity of a product, foodstuffs have actually become less scarce during this century despite the fact that the population has tripled and demand increased by even more. The World Bank's index for the world's twenty-four top-selling nonenergy products shows a general, falling tendency across the century. The present evidence does not seem to indicate that soil erosion in any significant degree affect our global food production.
