TRIENNIUM BIOCLIMATICUM TROPICALE (TBT).

Journal/Book: Sonderdruck Triennium bioclimaticum tropicale. Verhandlungen des XVIII. Internationalen Kongresses für Geographie 1956 in Rio de Janeiro III. Band Seite 325-331. 1965. 1965;

Abstract: JULIUS GROBER Jena Germany WE ARE forced by the present increase of the world's population which is expected to grow even more rapidly in the future to exert ourselves especially on behalf of the subsistence or sustenance of mankind. Added to which is the general claim urged ever more strongly all over the world for an improvement of this subsistence; an adequate distribution can be expected only by fully utilizing every possibility at our disposal upon earth although naturally within planetary limits. The densely populated parts of the continent can scarcely be regarded as sufficient for such demands even if progressive technical science were to make it possible within a reasonable length of time to meet the ever-growing requirements of these nations. Precaution is a necessity. For this purpose the less populated districts of the globe are available to-day. In the polar regions there can be taken into consideration for the near future - as to additional population production of food and raw materials - no more than a narrow strip of territory extending round the Northern Ice-Cap. Thus the warmer areas (tropics and subtropics) which for various geophysical and biological reasons have had till now - for the most part - only a very scanty population and a limited production of food and raw materials remain for utilization. Up to now there climate and soil appear to be supremely unfavourable for human civilization. There is however no other way out. Therefore it is necessary first and foremost to acquire a better knowledge than we have now of the inorganic and organic phenomena of the tropics and subtropics with their mutual relations. Above all it must be borne in mind that till now our actual knowledge is confined to sporadic details of the direct and indirect effects of the tropical climate (in the widest sense) upon vital functions in plants animals and human beings. Even the characteristic qualities of the geophysical surroundings (climate and soil) are compared with the temperate zones neither as a whole nor regionally sufficiently explored. ... ___MH

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