I was going to hold off posting my continuation until later. (Currently checking the status of applications and apportioning money to their proper locations) However, in the euphoria that is facebook induced ADD, I have stumbled upon this. Thus, the procrastination begins. Last conversation I talked about the flaws of contemporary economic thought and infinite growth based on finite resources. Today I will draw upon real life examples of current and past societies that have collapsed or are currently collapsing due to the squandering of their natural resources. (This is further outlined in Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed) I will also try to get to a discussion on the use of multiple “renewable” resources their drawbacks and relative viability for preventing our impending doom. Fun stuff!!! The world today functions (or dysfunctions) as a unified global society. For better or worse, our resources are pooled into the global market. If a hurricane hits the gulf coast of the United States, the rest of the world can expect a rise in energy costs as the area with the most refining capabilities is recovering. If a factory in Chile must shut down due to an accident, a landing gear manufacturer in California can expect to have to temporarily shut down and lay off workers as their suppliers struggle. As wells dry up in the Middle East, orders for drilling equipment made in Singapore will decrease while the price of energy to make them will increase. The unsustainable use of natural resources, the true creators of wealth and capital, will lead to an eventual fall in economic activity the effects of which are actually quite hard to predict. However, we can look to mistakes made in the past to draw conclusions to what the future might look like. No tale of collapse is quite as tragic as that of the Easter Islanders. Easter Island, more known for the face statues of village leaders seen here, is a long way from any other inhabited landmass. The coast of Chile is around 2,300 miles to the east and the Pitcairn Islands around 1,300 miles to the west were the closest civilizations. Needless to say, foreign policy was not particularly high on the list of concerns. If you are to travel to this island you would think that it never supported much in the way of animal life or native plants. Today, the tallest “tree” is only about 7 feet tall. However, evidence shows that this island once supported a vibrant rain forest and a people with rich culture (which I will not get too deep into other than the factors that concern the collapse.) The Easter Islanders first arrived to this land via long boats made from trees. They made their living based off of the forest and the ocean. They had built boats good enough to travel far out to sea in order to capture a staple to the Easter Island diet, dolphin. As the population grew, villages were established, demand for boats grew and culture began to form. Rise of villages required timber for buildings and land for more agriculture. More curiously the people began to erect statues of their village leaders, the largest of which is taller than the average 5 story building. All of this required the use of trees in order to mechanically move the stone. As population grew and competition between the cities increased, the forests began to recede. Mulch from the leaves of trees became scarce and crop yields dropped. More trees had to be used for increased fishing. As food supplies dropped, turmoil rose. The kings lost power, but the people remained. Eventually the forest was gone, mud slides from upland quarries posed hazards as there was nothing to hold the soil. One can only wonder what the person who cut down the last tree was thinking. I believe they knew the ramifications of the act, but felt it was their last ditch effort for survival. The people eventually had to resort to cannibalism. By the time Europeans found the island, the population fell to a few thousand. Shortsightedness has become the downfall of many societies much like this. Looking out to the ocean there is a sense of hopelessness. Thousands of miles away, there is no chance at rescue. Much like the Easter Islanders, we on earth have no one to turn to, nobody to rescue us. We only have us and our collective knowledge throughout the years. Yet, we ignore the past, forsake the future, and continue shortsighted economics The Great Recession of 2008 has exposed many of the weaknesses of a single resource based modern society. This event, caused by overzealous banking and property speculation, caused something unusual to happen. For the first time in years demand for oil fell and so too did its price. These market pressures reduced the amount of money flowing to oil exporters around the world. In 2011 we began to witness the societal collapses of several Middle Eastern and North African countries that relied heavily on oil exports. Desperate people have been known to render desperate deeds. The people of Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Egypt and other nations began to rise as their incomes began to fall and feeding their families became more difficult. These uprisings led to regime changes in both Libya and Tunisia. Sudan, which had long been in ethnic conflict with the southern territories, split into two nations (oil rich areas are still in dispute between the two.) Syria’s civil war has degraded to a three way war between the “government,” secular and jihadist factions. Iran’s conflict ended in a government crackdown which eventually led to a less dramatic regime change in the most recent election. Is this what we have to look forward to? Probably, and probably not. Let’s back up. The endings of many of these events are still to be written, what were the causes of these collapses and hopeful recoveries? While I eluded to the reduction in oil exports and the overall global recession it takes more than that to make a society completely implode. Anyone who says that a single factor ever collapsed a society quite frankly either has an agenda or doesnt really know what they are talking about. Each of these places had their own cultural, societal, environmental and economic reasons for falling apart. The recession was just the breaking point. The way different societies fail are as different as the societies themselves. Nevertheless, we can use these events and others as a view into our future if things are not changed. (to be continued) Tessa Moeller, Jacqueline Arcanine Corrigan, Chris Langlois, Jennifer M. Zeitler,
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:30:26 +0000
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