Monday, April 23, 2007
Australia and the Five Factor Theory of Collapse
In Collapse, Jared Diamond says, “Still another virtue of Australia as a chapter is that it illustrates strongly the five factors whose interplay I have identified throughout this book as useful for understanding possible ecological declines or collapses of societies.”
First, people have had massive impacts on the Australian environment. Second, climate change is exacerbating those impacts. Third, friendly relations with Britain have molded Australian society and shaped its environmental and population policies. Fourth, though Australia has not been invaded by outside enemies (bombed but not invaded) Australian perception of actual and potential overseas enemies has shaped its environmental and population policies.
Fifth, Australia also displays the importance of cultural values - including some imported ones that could be viewed as inappropriate to the Australian landscape - for understanding environmental impacts. “Perhaps more than any other First World citizens known to me,” Diamond says, “Australians are beginning to think radically about the central question: which of our traditional core values can we retain, and which no longer serve us well?”
Three features of the Australian environment make it extremely susceptible to human impacts: soil quality, water availability and distance, both inside and outside the country. Though water shortage and deserts are the qualities that first come to mind when thinking of Australian environmental problems, the quality of its soils have caused even bigger problems than has water availability.
Australia is the most unproductive continent: the one whose soils have on average, the lowest nutrient levels, the lowest plant growth rates, and the lowest productivity. That’s because Australian soils are mostly so old that they have become leached of their nutrients by rain over the course of billions of years. In fact, the oldest surviving rocks in the Earth’s crust, nearly four billion years old, are the Murchison Range of Western Australia. A sustainable economic system and sustainable cultural values would take cognizance of these facts.
First, people have had massive impacts on the Australian environment. Second, climate change is exacerbating those impacts. Third, friendly relations with Britain have molded Australian society and shaped its environmental and population policies. Fourth, though Australia has not been invaded by outside enemies (bombed but not invaded) Australian perception of actual and potential overseas enemies has shaped its environmental and population policies.
Fifth, Australia also displays the importance of cultural values - including some imported ones that could be viewed as inappropriate to the Australian landscape - for understanding environmental impacts. “Perhaps more than any other First World citizens known to me,” Diamond says, “Australians are beginning to think radically about the central question: which of our traditional core values can we retain, and which no longer serve us well?”
Three features of the Australian environment make it extremely susceptible to human impacts: soil quality, water availability and distance, both inside and outside the country. Though water shortage and deserts are the qualities that first come to mind when thinking of Australian environmental problems, the quality of its soils have caused even bigger problems than has water availability.
Australia is the most unproductive continent: the one whose soils have on average, the lowest nutrient levels, the lowest plant growth rates, and the lowest productivity. That’s because Australian soils are mostly so old that they have become leached of their nutrients by rain over the course of billions of years. In fact, the oldest surviving rocks in the Earth’s crust, nearly four billion years old, are the Murchison Range of Western Australia. A sustainable economic system and sustainable cultural values would take cognizance of these facts.
