Jared Diamond's "Collapse"
In the course of the few years that 2GreenEnergy has been doing its thing, I’d estimate that at least two dozen people have asked me what I think about Jared Diamond’s writing — especially his book “Collapse.” I always reply that I’m a huge fan. And it looks like I’m going to get a chance to meet him face-to-face; he’s speaking at a local university next Saturday, and I plan to attend.
From the Wikipedia article on the book:
Diamond identifies five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt to environmental issues.
He also lists 12 environmental problems facing mankind today. The first eight have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies:
- Deforestation and habitat destruction
- Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses)
- Water management problems
- Overhunting
- Overfishing
- Effects of introduced species on native species
- Overpopulation
- Increased per-capita impact of people
Further, he says four new factors may contribute to the weakening and collapse of present and future societies:
- Anthropogenic climate change
- Buildup of toxins in the environment
- Energy shortages
- Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity
My personal belief is that our manifestly unsustainable behavior on this planet is, in fact, leading us towards collapse, but I’m not sure anyone can determine this with any certainty. Every moment in history is unique, and obviously, this is the first time we’ve had a population that:
• Will top 10 billion in a few decades
• Is consuming fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at an ever increasing rate
• Continues to destroy its rainforests
• Is experiencing the warming of its atmosphere, the melting of its ice, and the rising of its seas
Having said all this, it’s also the first time we’ve developed technology at this torrid pace, and that we’ve had literally 200,000 groups on the planet working hard for environmentalism and social justice.
I’ll certainly let you know how Dr. Diamond weighs in on this.
