5 minute read
Collapse Cassi Smith
aegis 2006
smith
Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Socieies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New Yor: Penguin, 2005. 592 pp.
Cassi Smith
After his Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel, author Jared Diamond addresses environmental and social issues in his latest work, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. From studying fallen civilizations such as the remains of Easter Island, Diamond develops a five point framework explaining why these societies fell and applies them to current situations. According to Diamond, this five point framework (damage people inadvertently inflict upon environment, climate change, hostile neighbors, decreased support from friendly neighbors, and society’s response to these problems) applies to places such as Rwanda, Australia, Haiti, China, and the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. Diamond pulls the issues close to home fast as he first explains the current situation in a part of the world he personally holds dear, the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. This first chapter includes an explanation the author’s personal attachment, the history of Montana’s development, and an explanation of the state’s environmental problems. Toxic waste from the mining business is seeping into the water system. Salinization from agricultural practices is ruining the soil. Road construction, irrigation, logging, and forest fires are damaging the streams; as a result the native fish species are declining. Also, an introduced pest is harming the elk and deer population. Dealing with these problems, however, contains an interesting twist. In 1996 a 2,600 acre farm was bought and developed into a playground for the wealthy. Lot buyers build “cabins” starting at $800,000 (34). But these wealthy homeowners do not contribute financially to the state. “Rich out-of-state homeowners are careful to stay in Montana for less than 180 days per year, in order to avoid having to pay Montana income tax and thereby to contribute to the cost of local government and schools” (61). Those who own lots at the farm simply use the land, adding to the environmental problems, and stick the locals with the bill. This using of the land, with people focusing on social gains rather than environmental welfare, is a pattern of poor human behavior that has been going on throughout history. A great example of this behavior is Easter Island. It was not the building of expensive cabins that caused Easter Island’s eerie fate. Instead, it was the very statues that the island is famous for. Nearly four hundred of these statues are between fifteen and seventy feet tall and weigh from ten to two hundred and seventy tons (79). But there are no trees and very little vegetation on the island, while all other Pacific islands are tropically lush in vegetation. Without any resources to construct moving materials how could these large statues be built by simple men? According to Diamond, because the statues progressively get larger in size, these statues were the result of a building contest among the eleven or twelve territories on the island. It is thought that the island was deforested in order to create building supplies to erect the statues. Instead of working together to keep the resources abundant, the Easter Island people worked and competed against each other which lead to the destroying of their island. The parallel can easily be noticed between the situation in Montana and Easter Island, a lack
of cooperation among groups to keep the environment healthy. Another such civilization that demonstrates this poor pattern of behavior is Australia. The building of statutes was an inappropriate value for the people of Easter Island; similarly, the first Australians did not have their priorities in order. “Five sets of cultural values were particularly important: those involving sheep, rabbits and foxes, native Australian vegetation, land values, and British identity” (390). Like the focus on statues mentioned previously, the British settlers held their cultural values higher than the environmental needs of the land. Part of Britain’s national pride involved sheep, rabbits and foxes. As a result the Australian land is overrun with rabbits and fox, while the sheep farming causes soil erosion. The problem with agricultural practice down under is that the land mass is not suited for agriculture. As a result it costs farmers much more to farm than the profit they make from farming. Thus many abandoned farms dot the landscape as their owners face bankruptcy. This disregard for the Australian land is an example of that poor behavior that has caused previous civilizations to go extinct. Similar to Easter Island’s residents, Australian citizens are constantly clearing the land for purposes not suited for surviving on the land:
I mentioned above that the Australian government formerly required tenants leasing government land to clear native vegetation. While that requirement has now been dropped, Australia still clears more native vegetation per year than any other First World country…Most of Australia’s current land clearance is going on in the state of Queensland for the purpose of creating pasture land for beef cattle. Queensland government has announced that it will phase out large-scale clearing, but not until 2006. The resulting damage to Australia includes land degradation through dryland salinization and soil erosion, impairment of water quality by runoff of salt and sediment, loss of agricultural productivity and land values, and damage to the Great Barrier Reef. (399)
The amount of vegetation clearing has obvious similarities to the clearing Easter Island underwent during the sculpture building competition. The constant soil erosion will further hurt the Australian farmer’s ability to make money off of his investment. Will Australia one day become abandoned because the land is so damaged from overuse and the introduction of nonnative animals like the rabbit and the fox? While Diamond does not venture to physically present this question to his readers, he does make the parallels among past collapsed civilizations and the civilizations of today so strikingly clear that the question need not be asked, only fathomed. Diamond presents his ideas and questions in an easy to understand language. He does not preach in his book, only tells the story and presents the issues. His tone is of concern, and sometimes sorrow, not blame or hatred. The book is organized well as each sentence provides another simple fact to build Diamond’s point that all societies can collapse if their behavior is not somehow changed to a proactive attitude for improvement rather than ignoring the problems.
