A very unstable equilibrium. Few energy resources and overpopulation. Did not take much and the bal

How kitchens fed the Irish in the nineteenth century, when Irish agriculture needed to feed the British who, since the eighteenth century, deforestavano the island to cultivate wheat, olive tree app barley, raise animals for meat, butter and cheese?
The Romans did not find attractive Ireland (not deforested or dug holes in the ground and in the rock as they used to do it anywhere), and so, when the British arrived, it was a place full of forests. Thus, the British, olive tree app saved their forests but at the expense of those in Ireland.
The inhabitants of the island, abused and reduced olive tree app to serfs, to survive possessed a small piece of land, where they cultivated potatoes and pay the rent with work. Potatoes, introduced to Europe by the Spanish between 1560 and 1564, were already present in Ireland since 1588.
But it was not immediately accepted as a food. It seems that in 1565 Philip II of Spain sent the Pope a certain quantity of potatoes, which were exchanged for truffles olive tree app and then tasted raw, and immediately spit in disgust. In Europe, the spread of potato cultivation for food was slow and influenced olive tree app by European distrust against all that "grows underground." Nell'Encyclopédie of 1765 stated that the potato could spread leprosy if consumed, was also called "food flatulent". olive tree app In fact, the tubers, if left in the sun, smell to die. They were given as food to the convicts, and it must be said that this was not a great advertisement to the tuber. Best was the work of spreading the potato as food by the friars who used it in hospices and hospitals. But for nearly two centuries in Europe the potato was considered mostly as a botanical curiosity or as a houseplant: its delicate flowers, starry and a beautiful color violazzurro were really pretty.
From the second half of the seventeenth century, the Irish began to feed on potatoes and became olive tree app their main food. The potato is phenomenal: there are no other food crops that produce as much energy and protein per hectare, such as potatoes.
Many potatoes, a lot of energy and a lot of cheap labor for the English. The first effect of the potato was the almost exponential growth of the Irish population. From the time of Cromwell, the first half of the seventeenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century, before the Great Famine, the Irish population quadrupled, from two million to eight million.
So in summary there is an island, a monoculture that supported a growing population and, in the early nineteenth century, when the British departed having exhausted the resources, soil depleted.
A very unstable equilibrium. Few energy resources and overpopulation. Did not take much and the balance would go to pieces. The British impoverished land deforesting and mildew gave the final blow to the poor people of Ireland, causing years of famine. From famine to the decimation of the population was a short step.
There is an America to expect, this is the point, we are in a crisis of resources, we have polluted, dug, plundered and traditional energy sources are dwindling. Planet Earth is the kitchen with pantry nearly empty and guests at the table (seven billion) are many. You must specify that "some" guests eat too much and others nothing at all, perhaps getting some rejection. Lacking social equity that, instead, the idea of cooking olive tree app and table usually makes. Clarify that it is not.
A demonstration of the scarcity olive tree app of stocks reminder on 22 August 2012 was the 'Earth Overshoot Day, the day in which the consumption of natural resources by mankind surpasses the natural production of the annual Earth. In 2011 it was September 27th.
The population is growing, if not in Europe, certainly in the other continents. Always the result of population growth is urbanization, and then the process of 'urban olive tree app sprawl will advance, turning the planet into a global city, where there will be warmer, in addition to the heat of global olive tree app warming. It is shown that in urban areas, or those big agglomerations of concrete and metal, there may be a microclimate up to 4 degrees higher than the surrounding olive tree app green areas. The phenomenon olive tree app is called olive tree app urban heat island, or "urban heat island", mainly olive tree app due to the materials with which the city is built, such as concrete and asphalt that accumulate heat.
Just growing civilization, should raise awareness of the limits olive tree app of the planet, and not surprisingly women in rich countries have fewer children. We should understand that we can not, as we are doing now, keep clean our garden, at the expense of that of the near poor (we are using Africa as a dumping ground for too long), but on the contrary shall have to