首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
(46)In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as
(46)In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as
admin
2012-07-06
72
问题
(46)
In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward subsistence.
We were, he argued, condemned by the tendency of population to grow geometrically while food production would increase only arithmetically.
(47)
For 200 years, economists have contended that Malthus overlooked technological advancement, which would allow human beings to keep ahead of the population curve.
The argument is that food production can indeed grow geometrically because production depends not only on land but also on know-how. With advances in seed breeding, soil nutrient replenishment, irrigation, mechanization and more, the food supply can stay well ahead of the population curve. More generally, advances in technology in all its aspects can keep production rising ahead of population.
(48)
Another factor undermining Malthus’s argument, it would seem, is the demographic transition, according to which societies move from conditions of high fertility rates roughly offset by high mortality rates to conditions of low fertility rates together with low mortality rates.
Malthus did not reckon with the advance of public health, family planning, and modern contraception, which together with urbanization and other trends, would result in a dramatic decline in fertility rates to low levels, even below the "replacement rate" of 2. 1 children per household. Perhaps the human population would avoid the tendency towards geometric growth altogether.
Yet the Malthusian specter is not truly banished—indeed far from it. Our increase in know-how has not only been about getting more outputs for the same inputs, but also about our ability to mine the Earth for more inputs. Humanity has learned to dig deeper for minerals and fossil fuels, fish the oceans with larger nets, divert rivers with greater dams and canals, and cut down forests with more powerful land-clearing equipment. (49)
In countless ways, we have not gotten more for less but rather more for more, as we’ve converted rich stores of natural capital into high flows of current consumption.
Much of what we call "income," in the true sense of adding value from economic activity, is actually depletion instead, or the running down of natural capital. And although family planning and contraception have indeed secured a low fertility rate in most parts of the world, the overall fertility rate remains at 2. 6, far above replacement.
If we indeed run out of inexpensive oil and fall short of food, deplete our fossil groundwater and destroy remaining rainforests, and gut the oceans and fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases that tip the earth’s climate into a runaway hothouse with rising ocean levels, we might yet confirm the Malthusian curse. Yet none of this is inevitable. (50)
The idea that improved know-how and voluntary fertility reduction can sustain a high, indeed rising, level of incomes for the world remains correct, but only if future technology enables us to economize on natural capital rather than finding ever more clever ways to deplete it more cheaply and rapidly.
[496 words]
选项
答案
由于我们已经将丰富的自然资源储备转化成了当前的高消费,无论如何,我们都是在高投入、高产出,而不是低投入、高产出。
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/K0p4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Cultureisthesumtotalofallthetraditions,customs,beliefs,andwaysoflifeofagivengroupofhumanbeings.Inthis(1)
Cultureisthesumtotalofallthetraditions,customs,beliefs,andwaysoflifeofagivengroupofhumanbeings.Inthis(1)
Cultureisthesumtotalofallthetraditions,customs,beliefs,andwaysoflifeofagivengroupofhumanbeings.Inthis(1)
ApossibleconflictinIraq;deterioratingeconomiesinSouthAmericasfamineinsub-SaharanAfrica;turmoilinIndonesia;polit
ImmediatelyaftertheCivilWar,however,thedietbegantochange.(46)Railtransportationincreasedthesupplyandimproved,t
ImmediatelyaftertheCivilWar,however,thedietbegantochange.(46)Railtransportationincreasedthesupplyandimproved,t
TheprofessortalkedtoAmericanandBrazilianstudentsaboutlatenessinbothaninformalandaformalsituation:lunchwitha
TheprofessortalkedtoAmericanandBrazilianstudentsaboutlatenessinbothaninformalandaformalsituation:lunchwitha
Mostofuswouldliketobeboth(1)_____andcreative.WhywasThomasEdisonabletoinventsomanythings?Washesimplymore
Mostofuswouldliketobeboth(1)_____andcreative.WhywasThomasEdisonabletoinventsomanythings?Washesimplymore
随机试题
影响健康行为和环境的因素概括为:___________、促成因素、强化因素。
上颌第一磨牙牙冠上特有的嵴是
患者,女,21岁。发热腹痛,里急后重,便痢脓血,舌红苔腻,脉滑数。用药宜首选( )。
诊断成人腰椎结核最可靠的依据是
监理工程师应对施工单位施工过程中的()等工作质量进行监控。
烧伤,爆炸,碰撞属于人身意外伤害的()
下列企业财务管理目标中,考虑了资金的时间价值和风险因素,义避免经营行为短期化的有()。
托克维尔在《美国的民主》中描述了这样一段见闻:假如公路上发生故障,车马行人阻塞不通,附近的人就会自动组织起来研究解决办法。这些临时聚集在一起的人,可以选出一个机构,在没有人去向有关主管当局报告事故之前,这个机构就开始排除故障了……而且,还有反对各种道德败坏
在等腰三角形中,已知腰长为x(x>0),则它的周长的取值范围是()。
______inEurope,wheretheglobalcreditmarkethasshownthemostdramaticgrowthoverthepasttwoyears,thatDeutschehasd
最新回复
(
0
)