Environmental policy
Lane, Allen
2005
575
From groundbreaking writer and thinker Jared Diamond comes an epic, visionary new book on the mysterious collapse of past civilizations - and what this means for our future. Why do some societies flourish, while others founder? What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island or to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Collapse also shows how unlike our ancestors we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors.
So we have another lot of people telling us that there is no climate change and that fossil fuels are not the cause… and even if they were there are “so many” technical solutions. I have heard this before. Far too many times. I heard it from advisers to the former Prime Minister when they were given research findings that predicted a severe drought in the Murray Darling System. Guess what? This is not a new thing. Jarrod Diamond, in his book Collapse asked the question “What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?” … was it: “Jobs, not trees!” Or: “Technology will solve our problems, never fear we will find a substitute for wood”. or: “We have no proof that there are no palms somewhere else on Easter, we need more research, your proposed ban on logging is premature and driven by fear-mongering” (Chapter 2). Palm trees were essential to life on Easter Island and yet they destroyed them. Collapse should be the wake-up call that we needed. Strong evidence (of course labelled “controversial” by some) is presented for, as Mr Diamond puts it so eloquently, “How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive”. The point is that environmental disaster is not new. It has recurred through human history. Perhaps the big difference is that now we can destroy the whole ecology of a planet rather than just a local and fragile one.
Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?
It seems that it is for the usual reasons. Self-interested parties managing to delude otherwise intelligent people. A belief that “it can’t happen to me”. “I wont be there when it happens so it is not my problem”. General apathy. Fear that acknowledging the reality will cause you harm (hide under the blankets and the monsters can’t get you). Trading the long-term for the present. Most of the recurring themes in human nature are there.