Notes for Jared Diamond's Collapse. Major Themes: Scale. Complexity.
Unintended Consequences of Human Action. Prologue (1-24). 11-15: Five
Factors.
Notes for Jared Diamond’s Collapse Major Themes: Scale Complexity Unintended Consequences of Human Action Prologue (1-24) 11-15: Five Factors Human Induced Environmental Damage Climate Change Hostile Neighbors Friendly Trade Partners Society’s Responses to Environmental Problems 17: Comparative Method 20-21: Built-in Summary of the Book (Review) Modern Montana (25-76) 30: Montana- Land of Paradoxes 33: Poor place for food production 34: Bitterroot Valley—“Montana’s Banana Belt” 35: Major environmental problems: Toxic wastes, forests, soils, water, climate change, biodiversity losses, introduced pests 35-41: Toxic Wastes 41-47: Forests 47-49: Soils 49-53: Water 53-56: Native & Non-native Species 56-63: Differing Visions and Clash of Values: Old Timers vs. Newcomers 63-75: First-hand stories of different Montana resident Easter Island (79-119) 79: Easter Island—most remote habitable island in the world 82: Closest thing we have to an ecological disaster unfolding in complete isolation 88: Polynesian method for finding new islands (attuned to their environment) 91: Hare Moa. (chicken houses), Moai (statues), 93: Social Structure: Chiefs and Commoners 95: Moai (statues); Stone Platforms (ahu) 97: Ahu building is probably around 1000-1600 AD 98: Pukao—cylinder of red scoria that rests on top of the Moai’s head.
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102-103: Before humans arrived at Easter Island, it was a subtropical forest full of tall trees and woody bushes 104: Middens—a garbage dump used by villagers in pre-modern times 105: Detective hunt—piecing the evidence together like a Sherlock Holmes tale. 106: Deforestation occurred between 900-1700 AD. 107: Overlapping pieces of evidence (do not to be exact on this one) Radiocarbon dating on ancient pine nuts Radiocarbon dated charcoal samples Ancient pollen cores Evidence of massive rope use in the 1400-1600’s 107: Overall picture for Easter is the most extreme example of forest destruction in the Pacific, and amongst the most extreme in the world. 108: Not only were trees largely eliminated, but most other sources of food were drastically reduced or eliminated, including birds, shellfish, pine nuts and Malay apples. The only food source whose availability remained unchanged were rats. 109: By the 1700’s or so, the islanders turned to cannibalism, since there was so little available food. 110: A military coup occurred by 1680, with the chiefs and priests overthrown by matatoa. Rival clans turned from trying to outcompete each other in building larger and larger statues, to knocking each others’ statues down. (think Iraq) 112: Outsiders’ impact on Easter Island (after 1722) Introduction of diseases by European explorers “Black-birding” (i.e. the kidnapping of islanders to become laborers) by Peruvians in 1860’s 1872: Only 111 islanders left on Easter Island 1888: Chile annexed Easter Island, although islanders only became citizens in 1966 Tensions between mainland Chileans and islanders 118: Diamond’s conclusion: Easter Island is one of the most fragile environments in the Polynesian islands. 118: 2 of the five factors present 119: Parallels between Easter Island and the Earth—isolation. Pitcairn and Henderson (120-135) 120: Nice little plot summary 121: Collapse of these two regions a result of environmental problems in their major trading partner. 123: Three islands had complementary environmental resources. 127: Although Henderson and Pitcairn are extremely rugged landscapes, they offered compensating attractions to Polynesians: high-quality stone on the former, abundant seafood and birds on the latter. 129: Exchanges of marriage partners to avoid incestuous relationships 131: Trade amongst Southeast Polynesian islands stopped before 1500 AD 132: Deforestation on Mangareva led to chronic hunger and civil war, which in turn stopped trade amongst the three islands, and caused a collapse of all three.
134-135: Problems of isolation and interconnectedness. The Anasazi (136-156) 138: Dendrochronology 143: Problems with growth in naturally dry regions 145: Midden Analysis 151: Cannibalism 153: Drought 155: "Short Run" vs. "Long Run" Solutions The Maya Collapses (157-177) 158: Ruins of advanced culture found in Central American jungle in the mid-1800s 158: Written Records 164: Efficiency of Farming. (Compare US with Mayans) 165: Military Success and food supply 166-168: Quick course on Mayan history (3114 BC - 909 AD) 167-168: Classic Period 250-900 AD 171- Multiple Small Collapses and "power cycling" 176-177: Five Strands of Mayan Collapse. 177: Conspicuous Consumption The Viking Prelude and Fugues (178-210) 178: Vikings were raiders, but also farmers, traders, colonizers, and explorers of North America 180: "Viking explosion" around 800 AD 185: Ended around the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD 185: Push and Pull factors 186: Autocatalytic Process 190: Viking social system was relatively violent and hierarchical 192: Christian Conversion of Scandinavians 193: Six Viking colonies in the north Atlantic (Orkney, Shetland, Faeroe, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland) 197: Success correlated with distance from the Scandinavian homeland 201: Early Iceland was superficially similar to the landscape of Norway and Britain, but different underground 205: Iceland society's awareness of the fragility of their landscape 209: Settlers in Vinland meet the Native Americans 210: Problems w/ Vinland and Greenland settlements are similar Norse Greenland's Flowering (211-247) 211: Fjords 216-217: Information about climate change:
a- written records b- pollen samples c- ice cores 219: Native Americans abandoned Greenland before Norse settlers arrived in Greenland in 980 AD 219: Inuit arrived in Greenland around 1200 AD 220: Inuit adapted to Little Ice Age, but Norse did not 222: Pastoralism and hunting were the primary source of food 230: Mystery of why Greenland Norse did not eat fish (taboo) 231: Economic integration over time, and over space 234: Complex integrated economy 235: Norse society: communal, violent, hierarchical, communal, conservative, Eurocentric 247; "Social survival" vs. "biological survival" Norse Greenland's End (248-276) 248: Greenland Norse damaged environment in three ways: destroying natural vegetation, causing soil erosion, cutting turf. 250-251: Deforestation not only caused shortages in wood, but also iron. 252: Losing iron caused the Norse to lose their military advantage over the Inuit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit) 255: In addition to encountering the Inuits, the Norse encountered another group, the Dorset people 258: Inuit represented the climax of thousands of years of cultural developments by Arctic People learning to master Arctic conditions 258: Complexity of the Inuit kayak, and the Inuit harpoon 260: The Inuit proved more adaptable to the arctic conditions than either the Norse or the Dorset people 261: Norse treated the "skraelings" with contempt 264: Positive cultural exchange between the Inuit and the Norse was limited 265: First contact situations often terrifying 266-267: All five of Diamond's factors contributed to the decline of the Greenland Norse 271-272: Although the proximate cause of the decline of the Greenland Norse is not clear, Diamond speculates that it was famine 274-276: Societal factors contributing to the collapse of the Norse (four of them) Opposite Paths to Success (277-308) 277: Bottom-up and Top-Down approaches to dealing with environmental problems. 279: New Guinea Highlands and Tikiopia (bottom-up); Japan (top-down) New Guinea 280: New Guineanean's have lived self-sufficiently for 46,000 years (!!), with agriculture for 7,000 years 280-281: Despite primitive appearance, New Guineans have very sophisticated farming methods
that challenge European agronomists 282: Practice of silviculture 284: Democratic decision-making of New Guineans Tikiopia 286: Tikopia- small Southwest Pacific Island that has been occupied for 3,000 years 287: 1200 people live on just 1.8 square mile island- How does this community sustain themselves? 287-288: Tikopia is blessed with high rainfall, excellent soil, and moderate temperature 288: Tikopians also effectively micromanage their land 289: Taboos against eating fish helped to prevent overfishing 290: Population regulation on Tikopia (coitus interruptus, abortion, infanticide, celibacy, suicide, "virtual suicide") 291: Chiefs now limit people living on the island to no more than 1,115 people 293: Everyone on the island is completely aware of how limited the resources are Japan 294: Pre-Modern Japan developed a top-down system of managing their forests 295: Tokugawa era (1603-1867) a time of peace and control by shoguns 296-297: Japan closed itself off to the world until American arrival in the 1850's 298: Deforestation caused by massive consumption of wood 299: 1657 Meireki fire destroyed much of the capital city, Edo, and served as a wake-up call for Japanese. 299: In response to fire, shoguns developed an official ideology to limit consumption, and conserve supplies 301-302: In order to maintain forests, Japanese developed obsessive accounting system and the development of silviculture 303: Unification of Japan made top-down environmental control possible 304: Japan helped by an ecologically robust (i.e. not fragile) environment (high rainfall, good soils) 305: Stability of Japan during the Tokugawa period helped leaders make long-term sustainability plans 306: Environmental determinism (the belief that geography is destiny) Notes for Chapters 14- 15. Practical Lessons Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions? 420- Failures of Group Decision-Making 421- Four factors related to the Failure of Group Decision-Making 1- Failure to anticipate a problem before it actually arrives. -Society may not be familiar with the problem when it arrives -Society may have "forgotten" about the event; -False analogies. A situation might resemble another situation, but actually is different. 2- Failure to perceive a problem when it does arrive
-Phenomena may be imperceptible -Distant managers/ decision-makers -Slow trend disguised by wide up and down fluctuations (a fast downward trend may be easier to recognize than a slower trend) 3- Failure to try to solve a problem -Rational/self-interested behavior may interfere with solving group goals -"Perverse subsidies" -Tragedy of the Commons (while it is in the best interests of everyone to refrain from using a resource, individuals have an incentive to exploit the resource) -Interests of decision-making elite clash with the interests of society at large -Religious or cultural values may interfere with the actions needed to prevent the problem. -Clashes between long-term and short-term problem solving focus. -Crowd psychology -Groupthink -Psychological denial 4- Unsuccessful attempt in trying to solve the problem -Problem may beyond the societies' capabilities to solve -Problem may be too expensive to solve. -Efforts to solve problems may be too little too late 438: Diamond reiterates his argument against "environmental determinism." Big Business and the Environment 441- "Resource extraction" is a fundamental part of human existence, but different societies perform this activity in a variety of ways 441- Renewable resources (e.g. trees and fish) vs. Non-renewable resources (e.g. oil and metals) 441- In the industrialized economies, resource extraction is extremely expensive, and is typically performed by major corporations. Diamond discusses four industries in this section: Oil Industry Hardrock/coal mining (hardrock includes gold, copper, lead, diamonds, etc.) Logging Marine Fishing 442- Sometimes the interests of business, environmentalists and society are similar, and in other cases they clash. Oil Industry
Diamond has both good and bad environmental experiences with oil companies Bad experience w/ Pertamina (442) Good experience w/ Chevron (443-445) 446- For Chevron, taking care of the environment is connected with maintaining good profits 446- Chevron needs to avoid costly environmental crises, as well as keep a good reputation as a corporate citizen 447- Papua New Guinea's democracy has an effect on keeping Chevron in line. 449- Chevron's green reputation gives in an advantage over its competitors 450- Chevron's leaders set a good example for their employees in establishing a green culture Hardrock/Coal Mining Industries 452- Leading industrial polluter in the United States 452-453: Environmental problems include: disturbance of land surface, water pollution, processing chemicals, acid drainage and sediment 455: Hardrock mining companies typically only clean up the mined area after the mine has shut down. 455: Mining companies can avoid costs of cleanup by declaring bankruptcy and transferring assets to other corporations (often held by the same individuals) 457: At the time that Diamond wrote his book, US taxpayers face a liability of around $12 billion to clean up and restore hardrock mines. 458: The hardrock mining industry is the prime example of business whose short-term favoring of its own interests over those of public have led the industry towards extincti. 459-463: Three major reasons for hardrock mining industry's behavior: economics, mining industry attitudes, society's attitude 463: Although the coal-mining industry has some similarities to that of the hardrock industry, there are some important differences 464: Coal industry has adapted to environmental regulations 464: "Short, transparent supply chains" 465: Corporations have a strong interest in maintaining the integrity of their brands 466-467: Although most mining companies flout environmental regulations, there are some exceptions 467: Consumers hold some power over companies when the company's brand can be easily identified Logging Industry 469: First and Third world countries have different uses for forests, but forests are extremely important for both types of society. 469: Not only is wood from trees important, but forests are home to most living creatures on the earth. 469-471: Story of Aloysius shows how shady and initimidating logging companies can be to those that oppose them. 472: Like the hardrock mining industry, the logging industry's damaging behavior is driven by: economics, industry's attitude, society's attitude. 472: "Rape-and-run" logging behavior is more common in the Third World than in the First World. 473: Half of forest losses have occurred in the past 50 years.
473: Global logging industry needs to change its behavior in order to maintain our forests. 473: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) created in 1993 by forest industry representatives and foresters to address major problems 474: FSC certification has proved valuable in establishing goodwill 477: Buyers groups consisting of large consumers of forest products (i.e. IKEA, Home Depot) have helped to change culture of the industry 478: FSC was initially organized to recognize companies with environmentally sound practices, but is now serving to change the practices of other companies that are less environmentally sound. Seafood Industry 479: Demand for seafood has drastically increased in recent years, which has put strain on the fish population 480: Managing fisheries that extend into several countries' jurisdictions pose unique problems 480: Many fishing practices harm other animals (e.g. turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks, etc.) not targeted 481: Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) established to help manage the fishing industry effectively 482: Like the FSC, the MSC is a sought after certification for companies, since it gives them environmental credibility 483: Although fishing regulations have progressed slower than forestry regulations, there is some reason for optimism 483-485: Major theme: Indiscriminately blaming business for all our woes will not help us solve the environmental problems that we face. While society needs to hold businesses accountable for their deeds, we also need to consider how our own habits and behaviors also contribute to the degradation of our environment. Exxon Valdez http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPgIfT5mGVc
