ASYNCHRONOUS REGIONAL-DEVELOPMENT

This paper discusses the implications of asynchronous regional develop ment for the study of pre-industrial environmental conditions. It sugg ests that while recent exponential growth in global population has swa mped the effects of regional technology differences, those differences are relevant when studying the pre-industrial past. It develops a sim ple population/environmental impact model to show that an assumption o f uniform global development may understate long-lived irreversible an thropogenic environmental impacts, relative to a more realistic assump tion of asynchronicity.