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Below
is a very good report by Dick Beames of Vancouver, BC on two recently
published books:
“A
Short History of Progress” by Ronald Wright
and “Collapse:
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”
by Jared Diamond & Thoughts on
“A Short History of Progress” by Ronald Wright and
“Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”
by Jared Diamond
By Dick Beames
March 11, 2005
Over the last few months, I have read
A Short History of Progress
(2004) by Ronald Wright, a Canadian living in Vancouver, and Collapse
(2005) by Jared Diamond, an American living in Los Angeles. Both authors have a Ph.D.
Wright added skills as a historian, essayist and novelist to his
degree in archaeology. Diamond
expanded from his degree in geography into evolutionary biology and
biogeography. Both are outstanding authors who have won many prizes for
their publications. Both of
the above books are about societies throughout the ages and how their
interactions with their habitats have resulted in failure or in success.
In some cases, the books overlap,
but they are markedly different in many ways.
Both discuss Easter Island in considerable
detail, largely because it was a civilization that was isolated, and thus
had to depend only on what the island had to offer. It failed for a variety of reasons, including warfare and an
obsession with the building of monuments.
The coup de grace occurred when the last tree was cut down.
Deforestation was a common feature in the decline of many other
civilizations also. Abuses of
water usage or a lack of an understanding of how the water can change in
the amount available or in quality were major components in so many of the
failures. These included falling water tables, salting out from the
misuse of irrigation and deforestation, erosion, and silting up of dams.
In all cases of failure, the reasons include the lack of respect
for (or ignorance of) the environment, such as the decimation of forests
to grow small crops, and in one case (Easter Island) the complete removal
of trees. Wright states at
one point "The lesson I read in the past is this: that the health of
land and water - and of woods, which are the keepers of water - can be the
only lasting basis for any civilization's survival and success."
A stark example of this is the comparison between Haiti and the
Dominican Republic discussed by Diamond.
In Haiti, virtually all of the trees have been removed, while in
the Dominican Republic, the trees and most of the rest of the environment
have been looked after, in spite of the country having been controlled for
much of its existence by ruthless dictators.
Other similarities among
failed states were the problems that resulted from settlers in a new land
not adapting to the prevailing conditions.
Part of this is understandable because of unfamiliarity with the
new conditions, but part was because of stubbornness or stupidity.
Examples were the settlements of the Vikings in Greenland. Over the
centuries to the present time, the unwillingness or the inability of
societies to organize a balance between population size and carrying
capacity of the land has been a major factor in the ability of that
society to manage. Present
examples of overcrowded states, as discussed by Diamond, are Rwanda and
Haiti, where the densities are greater than anywhere else in the world.
Voluntary control methods for population growth have covered the
whole spectrum (abstinence, coitus interruptus, lactation amenorrhoea,
abortion, barriers and infanticide).
Diamond discusses another
great example of problems with management of the environment –
Australia. This, at least for me, having been born and educated in
Australia, is the most disturbing part of his book.
Australia has (or had) an outstanding record in agricultural
research by CSIRO and the various state government departments of
agriculture, yet, at the present time, there is so much wrong.
The problems are largely, but not all, as a result of the land
being so dry and much of the soil being so poor.
Also there is not any regeneration from volcanic action.
I have to assume that most of the folly at the present time results
from poor and partisan political action, and not from scientific
ignorance. However, Australia
is not alone in this regard. The
U.S., at least with the present administration, is just as bad, where
there seems to be an absolute disregard for the environment.
To return to Australia. Irrigated
areas (e.g. the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area) is salting up, as are the
wheatlands in Western Australia, the latter because of tree clearing and
the absence of the roots to recycle water.
Deforestation goes on apace, even to the extent of chipping the
felled trees and sending the chips to Japan for paper production.
In the grazing lands in the dry interior, there is extensive
over-grazing and land degradation, and this is at a time when the value of
wool has sunk to an unprofitably low level. It has been suggested that
kangaroos replace sheep as the grazing animal of choice.
At least kangaroos have adapted to the dry environment to the
extent that implantation of the fertilized ovum can be delayed in a
drought until the drought is broken.
But the ability of the kangaroo to clear the standard 4ft. fence
with ease and the problems with mustering would make this idea rather
impractical. Cotton growing
is an ecological disaster, not only in Australia, but also in many other
countries, with the pollution of rivers with fertilizers and pesticides.
The question this raises is “No matter how much we know, will
political opportunism and greed be what eventually ruins the world for all
of us?” I think the answer
is “Yes”. That is, unless
the people of the world make their concerns heard so effectively that
elected politicians dare not ignore the voices of a public that is rapidly
becoming increasingly aware of the dire, and in many ways irreversible,
consequences of ignoring the environment.
A major difference between the books is the
length. Diamond’s book is
approximately 10 times as long. It
also has much more detail, but I found a lot of it rather heavy reading,
with my being neither an evolutionary biologist nor an archaeologist.
However, each book is a masterpiece.
A Short History of Progress
is a literary experience in its discussion of civilizations rising and
falling for various reasons, including warfare, religion, population
growth out of balance with the capacity of the managed environment, and
mistakes with regard to the management of the environment.
The incorporation in the text of references to many of the
world’s great writers is impressive.
The message is simple yet profound.
This book, as suggested by one reviewer, should be compulsory
reading for all of our youth. It
would provide an excellent base for further reading on the measures that
need to be taken for the protection of the environment and the saving of
the world for the future of mankind and other forms of life. Why do I
think A Short History of Progress
is so brilliant? I will
present some sections from the final chapter to illustrate how well Wright
is able to compose his thoughts and tie them in with those of outstanding
authors and thinkers of the past (see underlined below).
“The
Victorian scientific romances had two modern descendants: mainstream
science fiction and profound social satire set in nightmare futures.
The latter include several of the last century’s most important
books: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s Nineteen
Eighty-four, and Coetzee’s Waiting
for the Barbarians.”
Incorporating Marx’s opinion of
capitalism, he states that “Both Communism and Capitalism are
materialist Utopias offering rival versions of an earthly paradise”
“In the past it was only the poor who lost the game; now it is the
planet”
“Now in a report unsuccessfully hushed up
by the Bush administration, the Pentagon predicts worldwide famine,
anarchy and warfare “within a generation” should climate change fulfil
the more severe projections.”
“In his 1872 novel Erehwon (an anagram of nowhere), Samuel Butler created a remote
civilization that had industrialized long before Europe, but where the
effects of progress had sparked a Luddite revolution “. “The clanking monsters of Erehwon have taken subtler forms
that threaten the whole biosphere: climate disruption, toxic waste, new
pathogens, nanotechnology, cybernetics, genetic engineering.”
He then quotes from Atwood’s Oryx
and Crake with one of the characters asking “As a species we’re
doomed by hope, then?” and then gives some examples such as “Hope
elects the politician with the biggest empty promise.”
By contrast, Collapse contains much more detail but not as much philosophical
thought. What is most
interesting in Collapse are the
examples of where societies were intelligent enough to reason and adapt to
the environment, with the dominant aim of retaining sustainability.
One may well ask “What can
we do?” If everything were
working as it should be, the governments in both Canada and the U.S. would
do the obvious, such as introduce regulations on automobile fuel economy
and encourage the building of hybrid cars (with reduced taxes?).
In addition, there could be heavy funding of public transit and
clean energy research and installations,
a reduction in the use of coal, particularly the high sulphur type,
and the introduction of more stringent forest management practices.
And the list goes on. In
Canada we are not doing nearly enough, but at least we are signed on to
the Kyoto Accord. In the
U.S., it would seem that the Bush administration is not only doing little
to improve the environment, it is actually relaxing many of the
regulations that were in place. Rather than taking measures to reduce the
use of fossil fuels, the administration is following a course to gain
control of world supplies of oil by the implementation of aggressive
measures. Gilles Kepel, a French expert on the Muslim religion and the
Middle East, states in his 2004 book The
War for Muslim Minds “The
Bush administration planned to erect the two pillars of a grand structure
for the region: security for Israel and protection of the world's oil
supply. The war against
terror, from its inception, was in many ways a hostage to this larger
aim." In It's the Crude, Dude,
Linda McQuaig spells this out in detail, complete with a map of western
Iraq, showing areas that the U.S. government had allocated to U.S.
companies for oil exploration even before the recent war in Iraq
commenced. To make matters
worse in the U.S., according to Jared Diamond, there is a law that it is
an offence for a company to do anything that is not in the best interests
of the shareholders (i.e. to maximize profits).
This makes it difficult for a company to implement
environmentally-friendly measures if these measures will adversely affect
profits. However, one has to
wonder how effective this law is with the difficulties encountered with
the laying of blame in companies such as WorldCom and Enron.
However, some progressive
companies have seen the light. An
example used by Diamond is Chevron in its oil-drilling in Papua New
Guinea. By reducing the width
of roads, and extensively using helicopters, and introducing many other
progressive practices, it has actually increased profits and has had a
markedly lower impact on the environment.
Just as Chevron gets complimented, Exxon\Mobil comes in for severe
criticism. It would be of
value for environmentalists to check these stories and get the word out
for citizens to support the ‘good’ companies and shun the ‘bad’.
There are some other nice stories.
One is regarding the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
This sets standards for management of forests.
Various forest companies have adopted these standards as have
various retail outlets. The
lumber is stamped with the FSC brand.
Home Depot and Ikea use this lumber exclusively (as do many other
companies). In 1997 Unilever and the WWF teamed up to establish the
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Other
companies and foundations, plus international agencies, have now joined in
funding the MSC.
After reading these two
books, and taking into account the recently established connection between
the production of greenhouse gases and global warming, I am rather
pessimistic about the future of the world, at least for humans and for the
plants and animals. I draw
attention again to a quotation from A
Short History of Progress,
“The lesson I read in the past is this: that the health of
land and water - and of woods, which are the keepers of water - can be the
only lasting basis for any civilization's survival and success."
Yet, the precious and scarce fresh water reserves continue to be
abused, and not to receive the respect they deserve.
Rivers are increasingly being polluted and the levels in many of
the world’s aquifers are being lowered at alarming rates. Vast areas of
virgin forest, particularly in the Amazon and South-east Asia, are still
disappearing each year. Neither
the U.S. nor China, that collectively produce perhaps half of the
world’s greenhouse gases, are signed on to the Kyoto Accord, the former
because of either an unwillingness or an inability to understand its
importance, the latter because of its desire to rapidly become a member of
the “developed” world.
Yet there is some hope.
The activity at the grassroots level is rapidly expanding through
the use of the Internet. The constant pressure from activist groups, both
environmental and political, has forced governments and business leaders
to listen to their messages. Many
of the businesses that have chosen to incorporate environment-friendly
policies have been rewarded with increased profitability.
But is it all too little too late?
Dick Beames
Vancouver, BC
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