The Physical Resource Base

1. The Physical Resource Base In this section we examine what makes the Tropics the Tropics, and whether the Natural Resource Endowment is responsible for the poverty of this part of the world.

2. Natural Resource Base, 1 The Tropical Climate

3. Part 1: The Physical Resource Base Ellsworth Huntington, a Yale Geographer, believed in the formative relationship between climate and civilization. He led the “Environmental Determinist” school of Geography, and went on to become an advocate of Eugenics. • In this part, we will examine whether or not there are any natural-resource endowment factors that may be responsible for the poverty of the tropics. • This relates to the theory of Environmental Determinism, which argues that we are the product of our environment, and the Tropical Environment is unhealthy, disease-prone etc.

4. Readings on Climate • (Both Groups) Webster and Wilson, “Agriculture in the Tropics,” Chapter 1 (See your “Supplementary Readings”) • Chapter 2 of the Text Book “The Heat Engine.”

5. The Climate • This is what really defines the Tropics, for it is, as the writer Marston Bates once said, the place “Where Winter Never Comes.” • It is the part of the world where temperatures are always adequate for plant growth. • The winter of the tropics is the dry season, for growth in the tropics is limited by precipitation (or lack of)

6. The Tropical Climate • The tropics is defined by the movement of the earth relative to the sun during the year. • Of course, it seems to us on Earth as though the sun moves relative to us. • So, the tropics is created by (a) the movement of the Earth around the sun, (b) the fact that the Earth’s axis is tilted.

7. The Heat Engine

8. The Seasons • In the temperate areas, these are usually defined by warm or cold (summer and winter) • In the tropics, seasons are marked by wet and dry. • All this goes back to the movement of the earth relative to the sun.

9. The Monsoon • This is the belt between the low Pressure Equatorial System, and the High Pressure Desert System—and is a boundary climate • It is marked by intense seasonality and results from a shift of wind patterns following the movement of the sun.

10. Monsoon in West Africa January: Sun in South Dominant wind from Sahara, very dry, hot and unsuitable for agriculture Moist air from the sea unable to penetrate the land

11. July: Sun in the North. Hot winds pushed back toward the desert Winds from the sea bearing moisture, now penetrate the land bringing rain

12. The “Triggering Effect” • As the moist air from the sea penetrates the land, it is heated from below, and rises. • Eventually, it cools as it rises, and passes the point where it condenses bringing the much-needed rain. • Without this “trigger” the monsoon will not occur.

13. Key Points regarding Climate • The greater the constraint of the climate (moisture), the smaller the range of agricultural options • The degree of risk increases as the shortness of the growing season increases • If you like these things technical: there is an inverse relationship between rainfall totals and the probability of variation, or • The less precipitation you get, the greater your chance of not getting it.

14. Key Points regarding Climate Savanna The Desert The Semi-Arid • Put another way, the risk factor increases as you move away from the Equator • As you move north and south from the Equator, the weight of biomass decreases, as does the density, the number of species and the height of the vegetation, which gives way to types better-adapted to drought. Tropical Rain Forest

15. Implications • The climate sets the basic parameters: heat is always available, so what matters are the amount and timing of moisture availability, which includes evaporation. • What matters to the person managing the land is not so much average conditions, but the likelihood of extremes that have to be survived. • As conditions become drier, the average is less and less relevant.

16. How to read the Environment • The key to understanding the characteristics of the climate is to look at the natural vegetation, which will have evolved within those parameters. • The tendency of the Europeans was to bring in ideas from their own environment, not to look at what was there. The Whole Story is Written Here if You Have the Knowledge to Read it.

17. Conclusion • Agriculture is a way of channeling energy into useful plants and animals. The tropics has more energy than anyplace • However, the places with the most energy cannot support crops because they are too dry—the deserts • The tropics is no better nor worse than the temperate areas, it is different.

18. Conclusion • What about the relationship between the climate and disease? Isn’t the tropics poor because of the prevalence of disease? • Let’s get the Cause and Effect relationship straight here. The temperate areas were just as unhealthy until they became rich enough to eliminate the breeding grounds of many diseases, and have high quality health care • In other words, the tropics is not poor because it is unhealthy; it is unhealthy because it is poor.

19. So, • Although the climate of the tropics is different from that of the temperate areas, there is nothing about it that would predispose these parts of the world to being intrinsically poor. • On the other hand, the tropical climate requires different methods of management from the temperate, and the people who live there know that. The problem is that the tropics fell under the authority of the temperate lands.