Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years

Declining levels of soil organic matter, essential for the maintenance of soil fertility and structure, result from inadequate crop residue recycling, low or no manure applications, and no cultivation of green manures or leguminous cover crops.

At the end of the nineteenth century food grains (from the United States and Canada) and frozen meat (from the United States, Australia, and Argentina) joined textiles as major consumer items of new intercontinental trade, which was made possible by inexpensive steam-driven shipping.

the global transition to a nonfossil fuel world will be gradual and uneven, driven as much by external political and strategic considerations as by autonomous technical advances.

(growing a kilogram of wheat needs about as much water as does the production of a kilogram of computer hardware, about 1.5 tons),

China is already the world's largest user of synthetic fertilizers, with average per hectare rates four times as high as U.S. rates and with some double-cropped rice fields receiving annually in excess of 400 kg N/ha

I have tried to understand complex environmental and engineered systems as they interact with social and economic forces;

When people are engaged in voluntary activities-when they feel that they are in control of their actions and when repeated experiences have shown that the outcomes are predictable-they readily tolerate individual risks (driving, overeating, smoking) that are up to 3 OM higher than those arising from involuntary exposure to natural or anthropogenic

These gains include a large number of environmentally desirable changes and important health and socioeconomic benefits. Examples include less land destruction by surface coal mining, lower emissions of acid-forming gases, reduced chances for major oil spills,cleaner air in urban areas, improved visibility, and slower acidification of the ocean. By

One of the most undesirable consequences of earlier melting of mountain snowpacks, of warmer and drier springs, rain-deficient summers, and reduced soil moisture will be a higher frequency and longer duration of wildfires.