Question

(1)Hay una ecuación de la ecología política que afirma que I=PAT donde I, es impacto, P, es población, A es “affluence”, o sea, consumismo y T, la tecnología. Explique como la ecuación capta bien la frustración de contar con solo una de las tres variables para analizar cada variable.

(1) There is an equation of political ecology that states that I = PAT where I, is impact, P, is population, A is "affluence", that is, consumerism and T, technology. Explain how the equation captures well the frustration of having only one of the three variables to analyze each variable.

Answer 1

Given the equation I=PAT which is broadly used to analyse the determinant of environmental impact. In other words, the equation states that that environmental impact (I) is the product of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T). The affluence is measured as GDP/Population, and technology as I/P*A. Firstly, this is an indisputable description of the overall impact of humanity taken as a whole. The formula is also based on, and biased toward a population focus. It divides impact by person, not by income bracket(rich or poor), or any of the other possible ways of dividing up society’s overall impact. This predisposes the formula to an individualist and consumerist approach to solving environmental impact and it predisposes the formula to suggest population control measures. Yet the population is just one arbitrary factor among many that could have been chosen, and our impact as individuals is only caused by our interactions with others, through work as much as through consumption. But more profoundly, the formula says nothing about how pollution/impact grows in relation to the three factors: each is given equal weight, independent of way they interact with each other, which is only measured in the end figure of “I”.