Author: James Howard Kuntsler
Publisher: Grove Press
Genre: Critical
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Suceed
Author: Jared Diamond
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Critical
The Long Emergency and Collapse are two books that speak of collapse within a society. The Long Emergency focuses on America and how we are so mesmorized by the products that oil produces, that we do not take the time to realize how finite these supplies are. Collapse focuses more on the causes of how socities began to fall apart; however, these books have the same intentions. In chapter five, The Maya Collapses, Diamond believes that four main points caused the collapse: the damaging of the enviroment, severe climate change, hostilities between the society itself and competition between kings and nobles. Like Diamond, Kunstler also suggested some points that would lead to the downfall of the American Society such as: the over use of oil, severe climate change and diesease.
The environment is key in all societies. It provides us with all supplies we need in order to survive, and if not we learn to adapt. The Maya in this case were in a way lucky. They had thick soils, but the rainfall in the land varied. In order for the Maya to survive they needed more water, and with the variation of rainfall, it was not promised. Therefore, the Maya adjusted by excavating depressions and they created reservoirs. However, the Maya were not perfect. They destroyed some of their land by deforestation and erosion, and climate change worsened the situation. With the increased population from the prospering season and occurring droughts brought deaths. Agriculture also affected warfare. Diamond uses the Maori tribe in New Zealand for example. The Maori tribe's staple crop was the sweet potato. With limited growth of sweet potatoes, the Maori tribe was unable to travel long distances for warfare. One of the Mayan's problem was reoccurring warfare with countries when they had unstable agriculture.
Likewise, America is constantly tearing down forest and natural habitats in order to build commercial areas and more condominiums.America keeps building more condominiums and commercial areas because of the constant increase in population.Also due to the pollution,our planet's temperatures are constantly rising, causing severe climate change. Like the staple food of the Maori were sweet potatoes, our staple resource is oil. America is digging itself into a deeper hole with the constant spending of money that comes from a limited supply of oil. Kunstler said " walking out of a burning house and heading off the edge of a cliff. Beyond that cliff is an abyss of economic and political disorder on a scale that no one has ever seen before"(Kuntsler 1). What this means is what means the most to us is now being destroyed and we are now walking into the economic and political tragedies.
Shortly after the Mayan civilization, the survivors disappeared. However, unlike the Mayan civilization, Kunstler believes that humanity will not become extinct, but he does believe that with the limited resources were going to have after the oil runs out that self-genocide will occur. The survivors of our collapse will have to have hope and become accustomed to the new life.
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