By Julien Corriveau
January 24, 2014
Section
38 - Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed; by Jared Diamond
Diamond emphasized in this text how our choices
today determine how tomorrow will be like for our younger generations as they
grow older, and for our future generations. In addition, when making our
choices today we must consider the lessons that can be learned from past
errors. Some of the errors that past societies made helped lead to their
collapse. Diamond defines a collapse as ''a drastic decrease in human
population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a
considerable area, for an extended time'' (Diamond, 2005).
According to Diamond, discoveries made by
numerous scientists from various fields over the years confirm that many past
collapses were partly or entirely caused by environmental problems. Diamond
notes 8 processes associated with human-acitivity that caused environmental
problems in the past: deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management issues, overhunting, overfishing, introduction of exotic species affecting native speicies, overpopulation and increased human ecological footprint. He also notes that in our current society we
have added 4 processes: human-caused climate change, accumulation of toxins,
energy shortages and the full usage of the planet's photosynthetic capacity.
However, Diamond adds that no collapse can be
completely due to environmental damage. Instead, a collapse is the result of
multiple factors. Diamond specifically notes 5 factors: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbours, friendly neighbours (trade's impacts) and society's responses and choices. A collapse may result from the combination of all or
a few of these factors. Diamond also emphasizes that not all societies will
collapse when environmental damage is occurring. Societies that manage to
change their ways and solve environmental problems have a much higher
likelihood of surviving.
In our society today, Diamond notes that
although we must learn from past errors, we must not blindly and automatically
transfer the solutions into our societies today. This is because we are
different from past societies. We have advanced technologies and medicine and
the entire planet is interconnected. However, Diamond notes that these both
increase and decrease our risk. For example, technology can be used to fix but
can also be used to destroy.
Diamond concludes this text by stating that the
only way we can solve our environmental problems is for both environmentalists
and big businesses to work together.
Q: How do the choices of people (individually and as societies) affect whether a society collapses due to environmental damage?
A: Choices made by societies determine whether or not environmental damage leads to their collapse. A society really has its own fate in its own hands. If a society is destroying its environment and this becomes a serious issue, the society has two choices: either it continues living the way it has for years, only worsening the condition of its environment, or it can make the difficult choice of changing its ways.
If a society continues its old ways, its environment will only continue to worsen. At some point, the environment may not be able to sustain the society anymore and the damage may be irreversible (for example, perhaps the people overconsumed the water resources and at some point there is no more water for human-consumption). The society may collapse as a result. People who manage to survive would have likely relocated somewhere else.
On the contrary, if the society managed to make some difficult decisions about changing its old ways, the society may survive. By creating regulations and bans to reduce the human-impact on the environment, the surrounding environment may be able to handle the society's demands. Diamond had given the example of Iceland in his text. When the Norwegians colonized the island, they destroyed the topsoil and forests. After adopting environmental protection measures, Iceland recovered and has done quite well ever since (Diamond, 2005).
Also of note, individual people can also help out to reduce the human ecological footprint. An individual can choose to not buy anything from a company that uses unsustainable practices, become self-sufficient (planting a garden and using solar power for example) and waste less. If every individual chose to do these practices, the entire society's impact on the environment would lessen, potentially avoiding society's collapse.
Selection
35 - Human Carrying Capacity; by Joel E. Cohen
Cohen emphasizes in his text ''Human Carrying
Capacity'' that the concept of a human carrying capacity on Earth is complex,
and determining it is very difficult and dependent on a variety of factors.
Cohen states that the ideal tool to estimate
Earth's human carrying capacity is a model. A model allows us to specify
characteristics and choices of societies. It also allows us to specify what
type of result we want to reach in the future when we run the model. The model
would then create a variety of different possibilities of human population
sizes.
However, the planet's human carrying capacity is only
an estimate because in reality we cannot perfectly predict the future. The
carrying capacity depends not only on the choices we make today, but on the
choices we make tomorrow. Furthermore, the carrying capacity depends on the
natural restraints of the environment, which also changes with time. Yet
another difficulty in estimating the Earth's human carrying capacity is the
fact that it also depends on the activities all around the globe. This is
because we are no longer isolated; trade and transport of goods around the
world help bring goods from areas of excess to areas of deficiency.
Cohen also used the example of Easter Island to show what the entire planet's future may bring. Because the island is extremely isolated, it was a good analogy to the planet Earth, which is isolated from the rest of the universe. We only have the resources that are present, and if we abuse these resources, we may run out, or they will not regenerate quick enough. After a boom in population, resource depletion can lead to a collapse of population in the future, such as what occurred on Easter Island.
Critical thinking question:
Q: In what sense does the Earth not have a single carrying capacity for human beings?
A: We cannot say that Earth has a specific number of humans that it can carry. This is because the number is constantly changing depending on human activities and the condition of the environment. For example, in periods of widespread drought and unproductivity, the human carrying capacity on Earth may be much lower than it would be during a very productive period with a balanced mixture of precipitation and sunshine. Keeping this in mind, the human carrying capacity is thus constantly changing because weather is constantly changing and alternating between dry and wet periods.
Human activities also cause the Earth human carrying capacity to constantly change. Trade as well as resource depletion are two factors. Trade between countries helps raise carrying capacity because it allows us to bring resources from areas of excess to areas of deficit. As a result, we now live in a world where we are no longer isolated and reliant solely on what is in our very immediate surroundings. However, if for some reason trade would cease, human carrying capacity might diminish because areas that are deficient in resources would no longer be receiving external resources.
How humans treat the environment also changes our carrying capacity. Abusing Earth's resources may lead to a sharp decrease in carrying capacity in the future because after a certain point, the planet may not be regenerating its resources quick enough to sustain such a large population. An example of this was given by Cohen where planet Earth was compared to Easter Island (as discussed in the text summary above).
Selection 7 - The Tragedy of the Commons; by Garrett Hardin
In this text, Hardin describes a scenario created by William Forster Lloyd in 1833 about a pasture that is open to all. Herdsman who use the pasture feel inclined to maximise their own gains. To do so, they bring in more and more animals with them to the pasture because the personal benefits of doing so outweigh the personal consequences and there is no limit to the number of animals one can bring. However, every single herdsman does the same, leading to severe erosion and overgrazing of the pasture. The conclusion to this scenario is that freedom in a commons leads to destruction for all. The scenario may also be referred to as the ''tragedy of the commons''.
Hardin notes that the tragedy of the commons relates to three problems: resource depletion (as seen in the scenario above), pollution and overpopulation. Pollution is actually the cosequence of privatized properties. People realise that it is cheaper to discharge their wastes directly into the environment rather than purifying them beforehand. In addition, because their properties are theirs, they see it as they are able to pollute their own land as much as they want. The consequence of this is that the pollutants get transported through the air and water and end up polluting the commons. Overpopulation only worsens the problem by increasing the amount of pollutants.
Overpopulation is a consequence of the commons in breeding. Families are able to have as many children as they want. Hardin gave some solutions and non-solutions to the overpopulation problem. He notes that there are no technical solutions to the problem. In other words, we cannot solve it without reducing some privileges. He also notes that we cannot rely solely on people's conscience because not everyone is the same in that regard. Some people who are more conscient would have less children while the others would not. As a result, this would lead to ''a selective system that works toward the eliminiation of conscience from the race...'' (Hardin, 1968).
Two solutions that Hardin gave were education and ''mutual coercion mutually agreed upon''. Education may prevent people from making the wrong decisions and denying the truth. Mutual coercion on the other hand means that as a society we agree that some actions are not allowed. Fines and imprisonment are created so that people follow these agreements. Restrictions are also placed (for example, fines for parking so that people don't park for excessive amounts of time).
Critical thinking question:
Q: List some examples of resources held in common by all the citizens of society that have suffered by overuse.
A: Marine fish are a great example of a common resource that has been overused. Once a fish is caught, it is the property of the fishermen. The fish are not previously owned by any one entity. This makes overfishing a problem because restrictions are not present (world ocean review, 2014). Extinctions have occurred in the past as a result, and many species are dwindling in numbers today (National Geographic, 2014).
As mentioned in Hardin's text, air and water, common resources, have been overused as dumps for many of our pollutants. The result has been excessive pollution which is bad for the health of plants and animals.
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Activity - Ted Talk, John Francis Walks the Earth
John Francis' story is an inspiration.
After witnessing an oil spill, he gave up riding and driving and only walked to help the environment. In addition, on his 27th birthday he stopped talking for 17 years because he used to argue and talk a lot and therefore he wanted to see what that would be like. His journey would bring him around the US and the world as he walked from California to Washington to Montana and east to the east coast. He went to a few universities and graduated a few times, eventually working for the Coast Guard for 1 year and becoming a UN ambassador. In addition, he taught some classes and wrote regulations for oil spills. Afterwards, he sailed through the Caribbean to Venezuela. All of this done without riding or driving and without talking.
There are few lessons that Francis learned from his journey. First, while he taught he learned that if you are not still learning while teaching, you probably are not teaching very well. Learning as a teacher implies listening to your students. Personally, this makes me realise how important it is to listen to what others have to say. In other words, it is important to remind ourselves that our personal thoughts and actions may not always be correct (and may be biased). We must remain open to new ideas or else things will never change.
However, for me the most striking lesson that Francis learned was that we must care for each other because the way we treat each other is how we treat the environment because we ARE part of the environment. This was interesting for me because it makes me realise how much we have forgotten this fact. We have become so disconnected from nature that we forget that we are a part of it. The fact that we are part of the environment means that if we are damaging the environment, we are ultimately causing harm to ourselves. Francis also mentioned that while he remained silent, what amazed him was how important listening really was. When you truly listen to someone you learn a lot. Personally, I see this as being able to be applied to the environment. We must listen to the warning signs that the environment sends us. Extinctions and climate change are just some of the warning signs and we must listen to these to better understand our impacts and learn how to reduce them.
Blog Reflection
Q: In your opinion, is Canada doing all they can to tackle one of these world issues (choose one) discussed in class? How or why not?
A: I do not believe Canada is doing enough to combat climate change. One of the reasons is the continued expansion of oil extraction (Munro, 2011). Although an economic benefit, this is certainly not helping the climate change situation. The increased extraction leads to more burning of fossil fuels which is just adding to all the carbon dioxide that we're already adding to our atmosphere. If we were to actually do something about climate change, it would be more wise to consider more environmentally friendly energy solutions such as solar power, wave power, hydro power and wind power for example. We need to turn our backs to the old ways of using so much fossil fuels.
In 2011, Canada was the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, it established a much less aggressive commitment (The David Suzuki Foundation, 2014). In addition, according to CBC, Canada's carbon dioxide emissions actually increased 16.9% between 1990 and 2009. I find this quite unfortunate because it shows that the country is not doing enough to reduce its emissions. An increase in emissions is not doing anything to combat climate change. In addition, by creating weaker commitments to reduce emissions, this again shows that the government is not taking the climate change issue seriously enough.
News article discussion:
On January 7, 2014, an interesting article was posted on Global News about protesters in BC interupting Harper's conference. Two protesters entered on stage during the conference. They were protesting about climate change as well as the pipeline that is planned to be built to the coast.
What I find sad about this story is that really the only thing that came out of it was the security implications. I find it unfortunate that we did not get to hear what the protesters had to say. On video, Harper looked really unphased about what was going on, which to me really shows how the environment is not at all a priority for the government.
Course materials discussion:
One thing that stood out for me during these first 2 weeks of courses was the idea that hypothesis testing is not perfect. We learned that scientists can never be 100% certain about anything. This is because when we test, we can often only find things that contradict a hypothesis, and thus making it false. However, what I had not realised was that the majority of hypotheses that are considered true are considered true only because we could not find evidence against it. I just found it interesting that we are actually never 100% certain, yet some hypotheses are shown in the news and everybody thinks they are true. Sometimes, they are only true because we could not disprove them. This is something we must consider everytime we see these types of scientific ''discoveries'' in the news.
I more or less enjoy this course so far, mainly because it focuses a lot on current issues we face, which I find more interesting and appropriate than learning problems that occurred decades or centuries ago. I can relate to what we're learning.
REFERENCES:
- David Suzuki Foundation. Canada and the Kyoto Protocol. David Suzuki Foundation [internet]. Retrieved January 18, 2014 at [http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-change/science/canada-climate-change/canada-and-kyoto/]
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Francis, John. John Francis: Walk the Earth... my 17-year vow of
silence. TED [internet]. Published in 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2014
at [http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/john_francis_walks_the_earth.html]
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Munro, Margaret. Canada not doing enough to stop 'dangerous' climate
change: study. iPolitics [internet]. Published April 6, 2011. Retrieved
January 18, 2014 at [http://www.ipolitics.ca/2011/04/06/canada-hasnt-done-enough-to-stop-dangerous-climate-change-environment-canada-study/]
- National Geographic. Overfishing. National Geographic [internet]. Retrieved January 18, 2014 at [http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/]
- Stastna, Kazi. Kyoto exit leaves climate fight up to provinces. CBC News [internet]. Published Dec 29, 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2014 at [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kyoto-exit-leaves-climate-fight-up-to-provinces-1.1021985]
- The Canadian Press. Environmental activists follow Harper on Vancouver Island visit. Global News. Published January 7, 2014. Retrieved on January 18, 2014 at [http://globalnews.ca/news/1067859/environmental-activists-follow-harper-on-vancouver-island-visit/]
- World ocean review. The causes of overfishing. World ocean review [internet]. Retrieved January 18, 2014 at [http://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/fisheries/causes-of-overfishing/]
- Easton, Thomas A. Classic Edition Sources - Environmental Studies, 4th Edition. New York. McGraw Hill. 2012. p. 24-28, 169-172, 184-189.
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