Environmental Systems and Societies · Case studies
ECS.9 — The Dust Bowl (1930s USA)
Environmental Systems and Societies · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes
Overview
The 1930s wind-erosion disaster on the US Southern Great Plains: the textbook case of ploughing a grassland soil system past its limits.
Systems and sustainability angle
A soil system whose outputs (wind erosion) outran its inputs, driven by a positive-feedback loop that stripped the fertile topsoil.
Management and response
The Soil Conservation Service and the conservation toolkit: shelterbelts, contour ploughing and crop rotation.
HL lens angle
The economics of a common-pool grassland: uncosted externalities and market failure on the plains.