Environmental Problems In Collapse By Jared Diamond

In the novel Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, the author Jared Diamond illustrates how environmental problems in today’s society are linked with many of the same problems that have caused the collapse of ancient civilizations in the past. The purpose of his book is to show that if people do not take care of the land while there is time, the whole world could end up collapsing just like many other ancient civilizations. In the prologue, Diamond defines “collapse” as “A drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time.” (Page 3).
Instead of starting with ancient civilizations from the past, Diamond starts off by talking about present day Montana to give people an idea that there truly are many environmental problems affecting the world today. The Bitterroot Valley presents a microcosm of the environmental problems plaguing the rest of the United States: increasing population, immigration, increasing scarcity and decreasing quality of water, locally and seasonally poor air quality, toxic wastes, heightened

risks from wildfires, forest deterioration, losses of soil or of its nutrients, losses of biodiversity, damage from introduced pest species, and effects of climate change (Diamond, 39-47). Some think that it is a horrible thing to happen to such a small town, but really this isn’t just happening here. It’s happening everywhere and some places are worse than others. Diamond uses this first chapter to highlight the five-factor framework that he uses throughout the book.
The five-factor framework are the five things that may contribute to the collapse of a society which includes: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly traders, and the society’s response to its environmental problems.

(Page 11). There are also eight categories that past societies have used to damage their environments. These include: deforestation, salinization, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, negative effects of introduced species, human population growth, and increases per-capita impact of people. Diamond points out that it was not uncommon for a population growth to force societies to adopt more intensive agricultural practices. He also argues that although the world today contains miraculous levels of complexity, knowledge, and technology, it is still threatened by those eight categories of ecological

destruction.
Throughout the book, Diamond provides us with more examples of all of these factors which have occurred in the past to places such as: the Greenland Norse, the Pitcairn island, the Anasazi, The Maya, the island of Tikopia, and more. One that stood out to me is the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia and the Easter Islands. The Fertile Crescent has a strong reputation of being among the greatest collapses ever. They covered about 400,000 square miles and were highly fertile lands that were watered by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and had a very favorable climate. It was here that agriculture was born approximately 11,000 years ago. Remains of the first known Neolithic farming settlements, dating back to about 9,000 BC, have also been found at this location. The area was so populated and so prosperous that it has been named, the Cradle of Civilization, but then it collapsed due to thousands of years of irrigation, subsequent salinization, and displacement of forest with agriculture. It is now part of the deserts and arid lands of Lebanon, Jordon, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Jared Diamond did a great job providing us with details about his five-factor framework and it really helped to understand some of the reasons that caused these societies and civilizations to suffer such a tremendous downfall. This book also makes us think about other examples related to the ones that he gave. Being from California I have never lived in a location of lush, green forests like those of Montana. But looking back at old photos, I do notice that there is a significant change happening here because of the drought, which causes controversies about what we should and should not do with our water. This also gives an example of one of the five factors that may contribute to the weakening of present societies: Anthropogenic climate change (global warming). We tend to ignore problems like these but it is definitely going to hurt us in the end. Just like Diamond says.