Common Wealth : Economics for a Crowded Planet Jeffrey D. Sachs

With the premise that societies will only coexist with increased cooperation, Sachs sought to "rejuvenate, modernize, and extend" (p. 5) cooperation. Although Ellis supported the capitalist system for economic development, he did not believe that it should grow unfettered. He advocated three checks to economic development, "sustainable (high-S) technologies that can allow us to combine high levels of prosperity with lower environmental impacts" (p. 32) and reductions in population growth and poverty.

Deficiencies that Sachs acknowledged in capitalism included its focus strictly on the profit motive rather than sustainable and environmentally amenable technological innovations. Second, he pointed to the corresponding reluctance of corporations to provide incentives for innovations. Third, market forces ignore population policies and issues. Fourth, capitalism intrinsically does not address world poverty.

Sachs explained a number of fundamental hydrological concepts. Interdependence applies to many aspects of hydrological science--the use or damming of water by one party that reduced the availability of water by another --either in an upstream/downstream , well to well, first user to last user, or private to public relationships. Agriculture monopolizes 70 percent of surface water use, industry 20 percent, and households 10 percent, together a large amount considering total water capacity.

The pumping of groundwater entails mining a depleatable resource. This and other water demands resulted in a cooperative effort in 1992, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which attempted to abet efforts to increase water in drylands. Another consequence of water mining, land subsidence involves "literally a collapse of land above the aquifers--a phenomenon that is increasingly frequent in major cities such as Beijing. It can also lead to the contamination of those aquifers with salt water, the salination and poisoning of soils, and collapse of aquifers that reduces their storage capacity" (p. 122).

Dams serve human needs through "hydroelectricity, irrigation water, storage water for protection against drought, and downstream flood control" (p. 122). The estimated 45,000 large dams and 800,000 small dams cause environmental damage, according to Sachs, such as "fragmented rivers, destroyed wetlands, taken up high swaths of land, reduced the fertility of flood plains by trapping silt, and . . . evaporation from reservoirs (p. 123).

Sachs listed nitrogen and ammonia from fertilizers, sewage, industrial byproducts, as prevalent sources of pollution. The lack of environmental regulation and control exacerbates the problem in developing countries, such as India and China.

Sachs, based on the current literature, predicted the effects of climate change on water resources. He concluded, "warmer temperatures will intensify the cycles of evaporation and precipitation, there will be more rainfall on average, but in shorter and more intense episodes. There will be more evapotranspiration at high temperatures and storms will increase in intensity" (p. 125). Furthermore, he surmised that dryland will be dryer and wetlands, wetter; that "populous regions, depending on annual snowmelt and long-term glacier melt will lose water security . . the frequency of droughts will rise . . . drier and more variable conditions combined with higher temperatures will lead to lower and more variable crop yields" (p. 125). Conflicts over food security and crop failure would result.

Sachs offered a five-prong action plan. World populations should have safe drinking water, more efficient agricultural production, drought management, rainfall insurance, economic safety nets to mitigate the adverse impact of a shortage of rainfall. Sachs observed that "sound water solutions require local specificity and . . . cooperation among neighboring countries that share watersheds" (p. 136). He concluded, "the necessity for an apical international body on water is urgent" (p. 137). He suggested expanding the power and authority of GEF, the Global Environmental Facility, an existing agency with limited resources and scope. GEF would monitor the following: "(1) sustainable energy for low-income countries; (2) adaptation to climate change; (3) biodiversity conservation; and (4) drylands management" (p. 301).

Areas of potential conflict include the Sahel Zones, Horn of Africa, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Pakistan, Central Asia, Indo-Gangetic Plains, North China Plain, United States Southwest, and the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia.

Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Sachs, J. D. (2008). Common wealth: Economics for a crowded planet. New York: The Penguin Press.