Blog 1: Nicole L

Selection 42: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

This selection is about the authors “5-point framework” to how civilizations collapse. The first two points emerge as changes in the climate and depleted resources. It explains how populations boom during times of prosper, using up resources, then leaving too many people to sustain when weather conditions change and hard times with depleted resources follow. Jared Diamond makes the point that climate changes and depleted resources do not act independently to take down a civilization, but go hand in hand to cause a collapse. Another two factors of collapse could also potentially fall on relations with adjacent societies, and whether or not they are friendly or threatening. Either a civilization could be collapsed from a war or from a partner nation on the verge of their own destruction. The last factor the author outlines is the civilization's action and responses in regards to its problems. (1)

I find myself agreeing with the author and his framework for how societies fail. I find he gives many examples of past civilizations where their collapses have aligned with his theory and some which have not, such as the Soviet Union, which gives his theory credibility. The logic that is used to come to his conclusions is also straightforward, easy to understand and does not contradict itself. He also refrains from coming to any definite conclusion on how any one civilization collapsed, instead giving the most probable causes. I also found his article stayed relevant to his 5-points, especially how our choices today affect the world tomorrow, without going too far off. There could have been more detail in the article, perhaps mentioning more specifics behind the falls of some of the societies he gives as examples, but overall I found the article to be clear and precise for the prologue to a book. I had never really thought about what caused the destruction of the world’s disappeared societies and this article helped me to not only think about it, but look deeper into the probable causes which could help our western civilization make better decisions for the future. I also liked how the author pointed out how one of the main components of the collapses was how people responded in face of their problems. He explained how the choices we face to make a better tomorrow are often difficult and go against what we’ve been doing forever until now. I find this apparent in the behaviour of the Boomer generation, my mother being part of this group. She often finds it hard to change her ways to be more environmentally friendly, scoffing at me when I ask her to buy environmental detergents or to bring the reusable bags to the grocery store. Hopefully everyone can reconcile with this for the future.

Selection 32: Our Stolen Future

In this article, the author explains how the fate of animals reflects the fate humans because we share not only our evolution backgrounds, but an environment as well. Some skeptics believe that animal testing results have no relevance since “mice are not little people” and their testing does not reveal if a chemical can trigger cancer in people. No matter where we live in the world, be it remote or heavily populated, we are exposed at all times to synthetic chemicals which have accumulated in our bodies, just like in the bodies of the animals. These chemicals could possibly cause cancer, but a newly discovered threat is emerging, some think these chemicals act as endocrine disruptors. This discovery comes from the fact scientists have been seeing their effect in animals. While science is still learning about cancer, it does have a well developed idea of how hormones function in organisms and how certain chemicals may inhibit hormone processes. More and more wildlife specimens emerge with development problems, and the article puts the blame on endocrine disruptors. Because of the better understanding or hormones, it is irrelevant to state that effects we observe in animals do not pertain to humans as we share some of the same biological functions. The article finishes with how these chemicals are a threat to the future and man and animals and how we’ve ignored signs of warning before. (2)

I tend to lean toward agreeing with the author’s of this article. This article does have a heavy environmental biased apparent through the backgrounds of the author’s and the way the article was written. It definitely goes to the edge of trying to scare the reader into believing the theory, as the consequences of not believing could be devastating to the world. They do bring up anecdotal evidence, such as doctors in the United States observing more and more children with development problems, however they do point out there is no actual registry to look into. The article could also have more detail, like mentioning some of the studies that prove their theory, or perhaps exploring the opposing points of view. In another environmental class I am taking, we discussed the problem of endocrine disruptors and my professor expressed his skepticism on the issue. It was refreshing to hear a different point of view on the issue. However, I tend to agree with the article because the logic behind it makes sense, if problems are genuinely rising in animals; I find it hard to believe our fates will be much different. Like the article states, we are all connected, especially through our environment.

Selection 36: The Population Explosion: Why We Should Care and What We Should Do About It

This article is a discussion on the population explosion. It explains that the population explosion is important because of the negative effects all our millions of people have on the environmental systems which sustain our lives. By having so many people, we strain our resources until one day we will have no more. Our environmental impact is determined by the number of people, our consumption and the damaged caused by our technologies. The author also explains what should be done about this problem. A move toward the optimal population size seems to be the course of action. Based on energy use that number appears to be 2 billion people. To achieve these numbers conception control would be put in place. This is difficult because the countries with the most children are developing nations where people don’t have much access to education or family planning programs. However, a move to a smaller population size shouldn’t be our only action; we should also reduce our consumption. The goals the author sets will be hard to bring to fruition, but if we want to leave our children with a world anything like our own, we have to try to meet these goals. (3)

I find myself also agreeing with this article. I found the article very well thought out with easy to follow logic with examples and mentions of evidence we see every day in our crowding world. The article was also very clear and the author defined his terms so they were simple to understand and follow. For a short article, there was great depth and thought put into the issue and his solutions to our overpopulation were not superficial fixes, but long term goals that if achieved could save us from destroying the planet. Focus was never taking away from the issue of our population explosion and the effects it has on the world.

Critical Thinking in the Media:

I personally find the media does not do well in many of the areas of critical thinking. In our age the news is less to inform people and more based on getting ratings. This desire for ratings leads to an obvious sensationalizing of issues. Depending on the news source’s political or otherwise bias, we find them either dismissing possible environmental issues, or blowing them up into possible Armageddon. I also find there is pressure on the media to break stories, even before all the facts are in. It is difficult to have a well researched article or news story when you have to publicize your story before all the evidence has been examined. Also, often news stories or articles are much too short to have any depth to them, having to fit in a certain amount of space or time.

The Precautionary Principle:

I find myself thinking the precautionary principle should be applied to environmental legislation. While I think it is important not to act before all the evidence is in and all the details have been worked out, sometimes these are processes that take a long time. If the outcome is negative and we waited to act, there could be real damage to the environment. The only really negative consequences that can emerge from using the precautionary principle is if we waited on something that doesn’t cause or helps to reverse environmental damage. The precautionary principle does operate on the assumption that something could cause environmental degradation if it is surrounded in scientific uncertainty; however working on the opposite assumption that something won’t be harmful until proven otherwise has had dire consequences on our world, such as oil and coal burning. The precautionary principle is definitely a case of “better safe than sorry”.

Activity: John Francis Walks the Earth

I found the phrase “we don’t want to believe what we know” to be a very powerful statement in thisvideo clip and one I believe to be true. People have a difficult time coming to grips with the issue presented in this clip, and therefore ignore them. The way the presenter began his speech, struck a significant cord with me. It’s easy to forget just how much pollution you emit from traveling by plane. I love to travel and have been on a number of planes this year. This clip has inspired me to try and offset some of those emissions created by my travel. The montage of interviews was also poignant. It was a great way to see what people around the world think and how their thoughts are not much different than our own. The interview really highlighted the universal hope for love and a better tomorrow. The movie “Home” appears to be a film that has the potential to be very important and I hope to watch it in the near future.

(1)Jared Diamond, "A Tale of Two Farms," Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2005)

(2)Dr. Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, Dr. John Petterson Myers, Our Stolen Future (Dutton, 1996)

(3)Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, "The Population Explosion: Why We Should Care and What We Should Do," Enviromental Law (Winter 1997)