How does Earth Day have diddly to do with a blog dedicated to the war and the fallen?  Well, not only can I cheat at will, but there is a connection if you read “Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond.  Some demented mental harpy in my head, doubtless the result of too little sleep, is shaking camo-patterned pom poms and shouting “One, two, three, four, tell me what we’re fighting for?!”

And that is the crux of it—some of you will answer “Liberty” or “To Protect America” but the cynics like me will say “Oil and power.”  Oil, of course, in our fossil fuel driven world, IS power.  And it is in ever shorter supply, which brings us to Diamond’s book.  It is Diamond’s contention that it is environmental issues which cause societies ancient AND modern to fail and collapse….and scarcity of vital supplies like oil obviously can play a part in that scenario.

He lists five criteria for judging whether a society is in trouble, the things that can tip a nation small or mighty over the edge into oblivion, or conversely pull it back from the precipice :

(1) Environmental damage

(2) Climate Change

(3) Hostile Neighbors

(4) Friendly Trade Partners

(5) Societal response to environmental Problems

The majority of the book is spent examining older cultures and detailing how they failed with archeology and  history providing the substance of his argument.  Among them are Easter Island, the Anasazi, the Maya, Viking Iceland & Greenland.  He then examines modern societies that are on the edge of, or actually sliding down the bloody cliff-face of failure: Rwanda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and you feel yourself sliding into a humanitarian horror show.

He discusses China, the “lurching giant” poised to take center stage on the world play while setting in motion wheels of her own destruction.  Australia is his next enlightening example of a first world nation hanging on by the fingernails; but very instructive as it has lessons for America and Europe far beyond what we learn by speculation upon the Maya and furthermore, unable to dismiss (as we do Africa) based on racism and Euro-centric bias.

By now, he has pounded you into a state of “Do we have any vodka left?” But the final three chapters are almost the best ones of the book.  He analyzes why societies, even modern well educated ones, make disastrous choices:

(1) Failure to anticipate the issue

(2) Failure to recognize the issue

(3) Rational bad behavior (can we say ‘greed’ children?)

(4) Disastrous values (the Rapture will fix EVERYthing anyhow–among others)

My favorite chapter was the next one(15), where he presents examples of big business like oil, hard rock mining, timber and fishing doing it both ‘business as usual’ wrongly and doing it rightly.  It is the most encouraging part of the book and encourages rational choices that can make a difference.  The final chapter(16), in some ways is the hardest to read, however, because he enumerates an even dozen huge environmental issues facing the world.  And he says even if we solved eleven of them tomorrow, that big number 12 could bite us in the rear like Jaws and bring us down.  And he painstakingly revealed the interconnections between the dozen crisis level issues, making it apparent you must take them all on at once.

I like Diamond’s work, but I do find him a bit disingenuous  from time to time—a map, for instance in the final chapters, one labeled “Political Trouble Spots of the Modern World” and the other, “Environmental Trouble Spots of the Modern World.”  On both, the same countries are highlighted.  And yet, China, America, the Balkan countries and Iraq are on neither map?  Please, Mr. Diamond…..some of us actually DO keep up on world events.

I was also disturbed, as a constant student of history, when he admiringly described how the 16th century shogun of Japan halted the deforestation of his nation.  Tokugawa was a tyrant, who was able to stop deforestation by killing anyone violating the order to cut no wood unless licensed.  Obviously more peasants did without housing materials and fuel than samurai!  And later, he reveals that while Japan proudly points to proportionally huge swaths of forest in their small country; this is possible because they “mine” the shrinking forests of Australia for as little as $7 per TON.

In fact, most of his environmental “success” stories seem to me to be at the expense of some OTHER country’s raped environment and peoples.  I feel he was trying so hard not to point angry blaming fingers that he never says clearly enough (for me, anyway), “Stop being a bunch of NIMBY ninconpoops and realize that the whole planet is ONE BACK YARD, one Commons we must share, one very limited edition home-world.

It is still one of the most comprehensive and well analyzed books on how we are screwing ourselves out of a livable planet.  Read it.  Weep, scream, and make changes.   Mr. Diamond is not a ranting finger pointer like me, he credits his readers with having the sense to see the neon writing on history’s wall.  He should read his own book, perhaps….specially the section on irrational behavior!  This decade, we are fighting a war for oil.  How long, before we go to war for water and food?

And a last note: kudos to Chevron Oil for the most single inspiring bit in the book!  And no, I won’t tell you—get the book and find it yourself!