The Environmental Reach of Asia

More than 10,000 years ago, humans began an experiment on the environmental consequences of resource use. The environmental changes were at first local. By 6000 years ago, the consequences had begun to be manifested at the regional and global scales. At the beginning of the experiment, Asia played a founding role. Populations were centered there, and agriculture and associated land-use change began there. Now Asia, with 60% of the world's population, is rapidly growing in terms of both population and economic development. Over the next few decades, population growth will slow, but economic growth will continue, resulting in large-scale losses of S, C, and N compounds to the atmosphere. A global challenge is to implement growth scenarios that, on one hand, will not limit the ability of the Asian population to attain a higher standard of living, but, on the other hand, will not result in a continued degradation of the environments within Asia as well as downwind and downstream of Asia.