Reading Notes for Collapse (Ch. 16)

Sean Porter November 27, 2006

Diamond, J. (2005). The World as a Polder: What Does It All Mean to Us Today? In Wendy Wolf, Stefan McGrath, and Jon Turney (Eds.), Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. (pp. 419-440). New York, NY: The Penguin Group.

Summary

In this chapter Diamond takes a last opportunity to impress upon us that the first world cannot sustain its current rates of consumption, even if there were no other people on the planet striving to attain the same standard of living. He reinforces the idea that we must re-evaluate all of our values and decide which ones still make sense. He breaks down the forms of environmental problems that societies face into twelve main groups:

Destruction of natural habitats, as well as conversion to human-made habitats.
The decline and destruction of wild foods, which supply a large fraction of the protein consumed by humans.
The loss of species, and more generally genetic diversity.
Loss of topsoil (in many ways, such as salinization, or being blown away) due to its use as farmland exposing it to the elements.
The natural limit to the amount of fossil fuels that can be extracted from the earth, although more can be obtained, it comes at a continually greater cost.
Limits on the amount of freshwater readily available. Most of the earth's freshwater supplies are already in use, thus necessitating expensive measures like desalinization to generate more.
The maximum photosynthetic capacity of the earth being fully utilized by the human population, preventing wild plants from being able to grow.
The release of synthetic (man-made) and normally trace chemicals and substances into the biosphere causing mutations, killing animals outright, and retarding normal development.
The transfer of species from one region to another region where they are not native, intentionally or unintentionally, which causes many adverse effects in most cases (though not all).
The production of gases that affect the ozone layer or increase the greenhouse effect. This is mostly a byproduct of our farming animals and burning fossil fuels.
Increasing human population, causing increases in all the other effects that we have on the planet.
As well as increasing population, we are increasing our per-capita impact.

After grouping environmental problems, we go on to examine many so-called “one-liner” responses that people may use to deflect or distract from environmental concerns when they are raised. These include things like: “The environment has to be balanced against the economy.” He then refutes each quote, stating the logical inconsistencies within the arguments quite convincingly.

Relevance

This chapter gives us resources to help show people the importance of the environment and the problems we are causing, mostly by giving us ammo to show the faults in the arguments against being prudent in our treatment of our planet.

“New” Words

pol‧der /ˈpoʊldər/ [pohl-der]

–noun

a tract of low land, esp. in the Netherlands, reclaimed from the sea or other body of water and protected by dikes.

[Origin: 1595–1605; < D]

polder. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved November 27, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/polder

se‧nes‧cent /sɪˈnɛsənt/ [si-nes-uhnt]

–adjective

growing old; aging.

[Origin: 1650–60; < L senēscent- (s. of senēscēns) prp. of senēscere to grow old, equiv. to sen- old + -ēscent- -escent]

—Related forms

se‧nes‧cence, noun

senescence. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved November 27, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/senescence

Questions

Was this book released before the film “Who Killed the Electric Car?”?
Has Diamond seen the film and changed his viewpoint on the transition from fossil fuel usage for transportation?