Paul Turner recently asked:
(1):
I am trying to put together a bibliography on WST and
deforestation. So far, the bib is not very large, but maybe that's
just a function of the fact that there's not much out there.
PAUL: You are correct. The application of WST to deforestation is
still new, so much remains to be done. The two articles you found
are good beginnings. I would also bring your attention to some
other books and authors. While this other work has not been
written from an explicitly WST perspective, they each tell stories
and contain analyses consistent with it:
(a) THE FATE OF THE FOREST, Susanna Hecht & Alexander Cockburn,
Harper & Row (Harper Perennial), 1990;
(b) TROPICAL DEFORESTATION, Thomas Rudel and Bruce Horowitz,
Colombia University Press, 1993.
(c) DEFORESTATION IN THE 19TH C.
DEFORESTATION IN THE 20TH C.
Both published by Duke, I believe, and edited by Forest
Tucker.
The Authors:
Thomas Rudel
Tom Dietz
Forest Tucker
(2):
Smith, David A. 1994. "Uneven Development and the Environment:
Toward a World-System Perspective." HUMBOLDT JOURNAL OF SOCIAL
RELATIONS 20(1): 151-175. (This article cites a proposal submitted
by Roberts and Grimes to look at deforestation from a WST
perspective; does anyone know if any publications have come from
this yet?)
Roberts/Grimes got a 2-year grant from the NSF in 1992 to study CO2
emissions from a WST perspective. We started our research with a
cross-sectional, cross-national analysis of emissions for just the
year 1989. We then expanded our analysis across time to cover the
period 1950-1990, and intend ultimately to assess the
correspondence between the respective growth rates of atmospheric
carbon, population, GDP, and exports at a global level from c 1800
to 1990-5.
While deforestation is a major contributor to carbon
emissions, reliable data is scarce. Much of what passes for
deforestation data is inferred/imputed from population growth
(itself often inferred from spotty and suspect national censuses).
So, in our work, we tackled deforestation only in the 1989 piece.
That original piece has yet to be published, but in the
meantime our first take on the post-war time series is forthcoming
in WORLD DEVELOPMENT 25 (2) [Feb 1996], titled "Carbon Intensity
and Economic Development 1962-1991: A Brief Exploration of the
Environmental Kuznets Curve". We are working now on a more
detailed analysis of the period 1950-1990 for (we hope) ultimate
publication in a special issue of JWSR on WST & the environment.
We have also presented papers at each of the ASA mtgs since 1992 as
well as ISA & SHE.
The bottom line of our research to date is that the re-
organization of the international division of labor during the
1970's & 1980's has resulted in a shift of the dirtiest industries
out of the core and into the semiperiphery and upper periphery.
Meanwhile deforestation is becoming increasingly due to
international corporate activity.
I hope that this has helped. Good Luck. -Peter Grimes