The Blight of Ireland
By Sam Arnone
Between the years 1845-1851 a fungal outbreak devastated potato production throughout continental Europe. Of all the nations affected, none suffered as much as Ireland. As a result of scientific discovery during the time period, improvements in agriculture and industrial production led to a substantial growth in population (Vanhaute et al., 2007). Most land in Ireland was owned by Protestants, with Irish Catholic peasants having to rely on growing crops in rocky or sandy soils. This led to the development of monoculture farming, creating a dependence on potatoes and milk (Tignor et al., 2014). Although potatoes were easily cultivated and provided high energy to sustain population growth, it left Ireland vulnerable in the event of crop failure. This occurred in the summer of 1845, where mild and wet weather provided optimal conditions for Phytophthora infestans to spread (Briggs, 2013).
In Ireland the result of the outbreak was 1 million dead, with another million emigrating to other countries. The deaths alone reduced Ireland’s population by one-eighth (Vanhaute et al., 2007). Responses varied across Europe. England’s response was laissez-faire, where slow reaction accelerated death and emigration in Ireland (Tignor et al., 2014). Vanhaute et al. (2007) showed that responses were different in other countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, who enacted local social policies (relief programs, market regulation, and employment) that greatly reduced the severity of the impact. Economic development either was not affected, or quickly rebounded. GDP across most major European nations experienced increases by 1847 and onwards (Vanhaute et al., 2007). The overall outcomes during this time period were social unrest. Stressed populations, along with the help of democratic principles and ideas, sparked a mass revolts across Europe in 1848 (Vanhaute et al., 2007). In Ireland, growing resentment towards England began to give birth to Irish nationalism, which would continue into the 1900s (Tignor et al., 2014).
References
Briggs, H. (2013, May 21). Irish potato FAMINE PATHOGEN IDENTIFIED. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22596561
Tignor, R. L., Adelman, J., Aron, S., Brown, P., Elman, B. A., Liu, X., . . . Tsin, M. T. (2014). Worlds together, worlds apart. In Worlds together, worlds apart (pp. 641-642). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Vanhaute, E., Paping, R., & Ó Gráda, C. (2007). 1. the European subsistence crisis Of 1845–1850: A comparative perspective. Comparative Rural History of the North Sea Area, 15-40. doi:10.1484/m.corn-eb.4.00017
The Secret in the Kitchen: The Advent of use of Coal to Power Objects
By Ted D.
This event occurred in the onset of the Industrial Revolution, around the beginning of the 18th century. (Harari, 2015)
The human-environment interaction occurring here is between the coal workers (and later other workers) and the coal, which has been taken from the Earth and is being burned to provide heat energy to engines. This originated when the British required an alternative fuel besides firewood to keep up with their booming population. Thus, the burning of coal began to occur. With the increased demand for coal, a new technology began to emerge, using some of this coal to power a steam engine to extract coal from underground. The steam engine technology developed further as the Industrial Revolution progressed.
The resource system here is the parts of the Earth that have been designated as coal mines, and the machines that use steam engines, which would originate in the mines themselves but later be used elsewhere. The resource units are the coal. The effects on the social-ecological system consist of both a short-term, positive effect on the system (economic benefit and meeting necessities of the people), and a long-term negative effect (the effect of CO2 emissions on global climate change). One unique thing is that the resource units are both the input and output of coal mining – this essentially farms resources at the cost of the CO2 emissions caused by the burning of the coal.
The governance systems are the markets, and the actors are the workers. In this case, the market governs how much coal is demanded by the people, and the actors are participating in the focal action situation that is mining for coal. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the number of focal action situations involving coal increased, as did the number of actors (workers), but the governance system of the market stayed the same.
Economic development, demographic trends, and market incentives all played a role, with the demographic trends causing a market incentive to necessitate the genesis of coal-burning technology, and the economic development resulting from the technology’s creation causing market incentives to develop the technology further. In colloquial terms, the genie was let out of the bottle when steam engines were created. At the time that the technology was expanding, no ecological factors played a role, because nobody was at the time aware of the hidden cost of burning coal (CO2 emissions), and coal was still quite plentiful.
The outcome of coal technology being developed was the creation of fossil-fuel technology as an industry (and therefore the release of gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, and the phenomenon of man-made global climate change as caused by that). Coal technology also led to rail networks being established across the United States and Europe, allowing for transnational and international travel at an unprecedented scale, which shaped the economies of the Global North for centuries to come.
Sources:
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind.
McGinnis, M., & Ostrom, E. (2014). Social-ecological system framework: Initial changes and continuing challenges. Ecology and Society, 19(2). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06387-19023
Ostrom, E. (2007). A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(39), 15181–15187. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0702288104
A Permanent Revolution
By Kyle Ellingsen
Interaction(s)—Humans over thousands of years, were controlled by the timeline of the harvest. According to Harari (2011), “The world went about its business without clocks and timetables, subject only to the movements of the sun and the growth cycles of plants” (p. 251). Everyday tasks were constantly affected by weather patterns, seasons, droughts, floods with no exact routine.
Resource characteristics—The Scientific Revolution saw a quick change in how resources were only provided by the family to now being provided by the state and the market. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, anything that you needed or wanted, could only be accessed through your family or local community. If you lived in a certain kingdom or empire, you could be working for someone who then protects you from things like bandits or other kingdoms. Families were welfare systems, social security, doctors, police etc. With the Industrial Revolution, came immense new powers for a market system and gave the government plenty of people to employ. The push for the individual was created, an idea that the state and market can give you everything you need.
Governance/user characteristics—From the start of the Scientific Revolution, governance constituted of kingdoms and empires. The word is law in this world and not much can be done to change it. Now, the market and state rule all. Democracy and capitalism have given regular citizens the freedoms of choice. Wealth is also no longer in full control of the government either with the creation of the banking system.
Social/economic/political settings—The main reason that this movement came about was that for the first time, scientific research and exploration could provide direct wealth. The start was finding and looking for resources that could be traded between nations. Another large contributor was the dawn of a new peaceful age. This is not to say that the modern age is not riddled with war and conflict, but compared with the rest of mankind’s history, we have started a unique peacetime. International war is something that has become drastically affected by this new global market. No longer can you invade territories and claim vast riches of gold, silver, and jewels. Through the markets, peace has become more profitable than war. According to Harari (2011), “In modern capitalist economies, foreign trade and investments have become all-important. Peace therefore brings unique dividends” (p. 266).
8) Outcomes—With an increased pursuit in science, came with it the fast push towards social/environmental change. Whether or not these can be seen as positives or negatives in the whole is something that is still being debated today. We have seen with this change the rise of the individual. Women and children became people and secured rights and protections. You no longer had to follow your parents’ dreams or ambitions and were given the ability to marry who you pleased. With the growth of the market and government, came the need for specializations and structure. With this new change, came fear of a new enemy. The state and corporations are usually seen taking too much and giving too little.
References Harari, Y.N. (2011). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/5a30bcf95ea52/18266599?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1618250400000&X-Blackboard-Signature=HkgBXLXWq7pR3Xeo96eEPh62JTZe3jW1UYPfpg1TrFg%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=200078&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Sapiens-A-Brief-History-of-Humankind.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210412T120000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAYDKQORRYTKBSBE4S%2F20210412%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=f02cbe01a7f6d7c375df883e10d567ab