Thursday, March 22, 2007
The Elite Cop Out
How did such a huge population of millions of people disappear? Jared Diamond asks in Collapse. He asked the same question about the disappearance of the Anasazi in Chaco Canyon. There is no sign of all those millions surviving to be accommodated as immigrants in the north. Some died of thirst and starvation, others due to war and still others were not born at all because of infertility due to the poor quality of the available food.
By 1714, the population of the Maya at the center of their civilization in what is now Honduras was 3,000. By the 1960’s it had risen to only 25,000 but in the 1980’s immigrants flood in and the population is 300,000 today, and half the area is again deforested and ecologically degraded. One quarter of all the forests in Honduras were destroyed between 1964 and 1989.
The mismatch between population and resources, one of the five factors causing the collapse, is also accelerating. So is climate change, another factor. As is the disconnect between rulers, the ruled and the environment.
The kings and nobles of the Maya Classic period failed to recognize and solve the seemingly obvious problems undermining their society. Evidently, their attention was focused on their short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars – sound familiar? – erecting monuments, competing with each other, and extracting enough food from the peasants to support all these activities. Like most leaders throughout human history, the Maya kings and nobles did not heed long-term problems.
“Like Easter Island chiefs erecting ever larger statues, and like the Anasazi elite treating themselves to necklaces of 2,000 turquoise beads, Maya kings sought to outdo each other with more and more impressive temples, covered with thicker and thicker plaster – reminiscent in turn of the extravagant conspicuous consumption by modern American CEOs.”
By 1714, the population of the Maya at the center of their civilization in what is now Honduras was 3,000. By the 1960’s it had risen to only 25,000 but in the 1980’s immigrants flood in and the population is 300,000 today, and half the area is again deforested and ecologically degraded. One quarter of all the forests in Honduras were destroyed between 1964 and 1989.
The mismatch between population and resources, one of the five factors causing the collapse, is also accelerating. So is climate change, another factor. As is the disconnect between rulers, the ruled and the environment.
The kings and nobles of the Maya Classic period failed to recognize and solve the seemingly obvious problems undermining their society. Evidently, their attention was focused on their short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars – sound familiar? – erecting monuments, competing with each other, and extracting enough food from the peasants to support all these activities. Like most leaders throughout human history, the Maya kings and nobles did not heed long-term problems.
“Like Easter Island chiefs erecting ever larger statues, and like the Anasazi elite treating themselves to necklaces of 2,000 turquoise beads, Maya kings sought to outdo each other with more and more impressive temples, covered with thicker and thicker plaster – reminiscent in turn of the extravagant conspicuous consumption by modern American CEOs.”
