The following is a brief essay and critique of Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" (2011). Furthermore, the essay focuses on Diamond's assertion that past societies have met their doom as a result of their poor environmental awareness.
Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or
Succeed” gives us great insight into our interaction with the world around us,
and how we have both been affected by it, and how we have come to affect it. It
is not a surprise, then, that we have already identified the patterns that have
led to the collapse of past, once formidable, societies; unfortunately, our new
globalized society seems to be suffering from amnesia, for we have started to
suffer from the effects of a damaged ecosystem. Diamond presents us with a
brief outlook into the past, and explains the process through which these
societies failed to survive. The process through which past societies have
damaged their environment, he elaborates, rests in 8 categories which he
labeled: deforestation and habitat destruction; soil problems; water management
problems; over-hunting; over-fishing; the effects of introduced species on native
species; human population growth; finally, increased per-capita impact of
people. Furthermore, he identifies another four agents of environmental
destruction, and these four have only come to be recognized in modern times,
meaning that as we have evolved and progress, so have the problems that we
face. These four include: human-caused climate change; buildup of toxic
chemicals in the environment; energy shortages; lastly, full human utilization
of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity.
Diamond has taught us that this process stems from
the continued human interaction with his/her environment, but what is most
concerning is that the rate by which we have seen the changes has accelerated.
One may conclude that it is due to the hostile capitalist practices of the
Western nations, or the core nations as Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory
would label the most powerful and rich nations in the world. However, eight of
the above mentioned environmental problems, were still present before the great
technological advancements of modern times, and predated the booming of
globalization and its process of human interconnection, albeit these existed in
smaller scales. Still, it is important to recognize that these elements have
been present for as long as humans have been aware that they could manipulate
their surroundings.
Diamond describes the general trajectory of the
fall of societies, due to their inadvertently damaging practices, as follows: as
human populations began to grow in each society, the need for materials
increased, the need to feed the many increased, and resources were strained.
Humans began to adopt hyper-agricultural measures, began heavily irrigating the
earth, thus erosion began to play a part in the destruction of soil quality, as
well as the intense practices of double-cropping, which meant that the soil was
inevitably exhausted of its nutrients, rendering it unable to sustain crops.
Eventually farming was expanded onto more unsuitable land, and these
unsustainable practices led to long term damage of their surroundings.
As Diamond writes, these practices led to
consequences for society as a whole, these included food shortages, starvation,
wars among too many people fighting for scarce resources, and struggles for
power between the few powerful folk and the disappointed, and outraged larger
public. As a result of all these conflicts coming together—starvation, war,
disease—society began to lose the power and might that they once had, but it
was not just simply political and governmental power that declined, it was also
its economic, and cultural “complexity” as Diamond calls it, that was lost. In
general, “Collapse” tries to show us, in the preface, how some societies have
failed to learn from their neighbors and ancestors, and continue to
overestimate their resources, while also underestimating the negative effect
that they have on their surroundings. After all, too much of a good thing is a
bad thing, right?
Going back to the book, societies are described as
“collapsed” or “dead” when the members of this group either all emigrate to
other regions, or when all the members of this group die as a result of the
unsustainable practices that led to its decline. It is important to note that
not all societies met the same end, and in fact some societies have been able
to survive and adapt to maintain some form of equilibrium with their
environment. Unfortunately, we see that as become more connected to one
another, as globalization continues to build bridges across the world, as
economic globalization and not-so-subtle hostile capitalism continues to rule
world processes and its overall function, our world as a whole is in danger of
collapsing.
As Diamond points out, and as many of you should
become aware, the negative side of globalization, mainly the exploitation of
the periphery, has already claimed a few victims. Particularly, Somalia, which
is, by far, the greatest example of what Diamond labeled “buildup of toxic
chemicals in the environment”. Somalia’s fishing industry once thrived and led
the nation to sustain itself, today, it is mostly known for its pirate attacks
on Western ships. Its fishing industry collapsed as more core nations dumped
their trash in this nation, now, all that remains is a shell of its former
self. Pirates, terrorist groups, anarchy in place. If the core still believes
that this is not the future of, not just the Third world, but the second and
first, they are sadly mistaken. Until the world’s political AND economic
leaders realize that resources are NOT unlimited, we could be seeing the
Somalia effect in many other nations, and perhaps, maybe even our own.
Megacities like New York, Tokyo, and Mexico City will turn into slum ridden
megalopolis like Lagos, Nigeria.
Those who do not believe in global warming must
become aware that it is not simply a natural phenomenon, it has increased due
to the vast human contribution to the warming of the planet. Once cannot think
that by simply claiming that because you can make a snowball in Nebraska, that
there is no such thing as global warming; that would be like me holding up a
sandwich and saying that there is no such thing as world hunger. As Diamond
writes, another, fairly modern, effect of human interaction with the
environment is the aptly named “human-caused” climate change. Today, whole
nations are at in the border of extinction. The pacific island nations of
Tuvalu and Kiribati are an example of this threat; as a matter of fact, the
nation of Tuvalu has asked that the island nation of New Zealand allow them to
buy land in order for its citizens to escape the inevitable drowning of their
island home. Many believe that this may be the last generation of Tuvaluans to
be raised in their home nation.
Don’t think that this is not of your concern and
that because it is occurring thousands of miles away, it does not affect you.
There have been plenty of local events that I am surprised many have not become
aware of. What Diamond describes as the “effects of introduced species on
native native species” is an example of Florida’s continued struggle to control
the Burmese python’s invasion of the Everglades. It baffles me that people do
not understand the destructive power of alien species; furthermore, we are
currently dealing with an infestation of giant African slugs, and more. I
remember reading of a group of scientists that were planning to release genetically modified mosquitos in the
Keys. We have failed to maintain our local ecosystem, what makes one think that
this is not happening all over the world and that it will eventually lead to
irreparable damage? If you read the first chapter of the book, then you would
have seen Diamond explaining that the introduction of certain fish into the
streams and local ponds of Bitterroot Valley have done away with most of the
Rainbow trout population. One may think,
well how does this affect me? Think about it. A great collapse always starts
with a crack in the foundation. I think I see a fissure, what about you?
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