Abstract
Resources may be defined as means employed by man for his welfare or well-being. Most resources are not free and can only be acquired through the application of man’s brain and brawn. As a first approximation of the distribution of world resources, the division of the world national product between the various continents comes to mind. The national product is hereby seen as a comprehensive index for measuring the level of development, which reflects at the time man’s mastery over nature and the manner in which resources are allocated. Following this idea, Table 2.1 below shows the distribution of world population and world national product between the various continents (divided into rich and poor) and national pro-product per head in 1960 and 1970.
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Notes
See C. Langdon White, ‘Geography and the World’s Population’, The Population Crisis and the Use of World Resources, ed. Stuart Mudd (The Hague, 1964) pp. 15–25.
‘Distinctive Features of Agricultural Development in the Tropics’ (pp. 184–233) in H. M. Southworth and B. F. Johnston (eds.), Agricultural Development and Economic Growth, Ithaca, N.Y., 1967.
See data given by P. V. Sukhatme, D. Basu and W. Schulte, ‘The Problem of Population and Resources with special reference to Land Use and Food Supply’, paper submitted to the conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, held in London, 3–11 September 1969.
See United Nations, The World Market for Iron Ore (New York, 1968).
F. Hilgerdt, Industrialisation and Foreign Trade, League of Nations, 1945.
United Nations, World Economic Trends: Economic progress during initial years of development decade: Major economic indicators for developing countries, Document E/4059, 29 June 1965.
See H. J. Barnett and C. Morse, Scarcity and Growth: the Economics of Natural Resources Availability, Baltimore, 1963.
See on this point e.g. Ch. F. Park Jr., Affluence in jeopardy: Minerals and the Political Economy (San Francisco, 1968).
United Nations, Developing Countries in the Nineteen Seventies; Preliminary estimates for some key elements of a framework for International development strategy, Document E/AC,54/L. 29/Rev.1, 14 June 1968.
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© 1972 South African Institute of International Affairs
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Brand, W. (1972). World resources, their use and distribution. In: Barratt, J., Louw, M. (eds) International Aspects of Overpopulation. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01306-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01306-7_2
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