Overpopulation

The definition of overpopulation is one that is often misunderstood. Most people think it’s simply when there are too many people, and while that is part of it, it’s not the whole meaning. Overpopulation is not a high density of people per landmass, overpopulation as a definition is a state of society where the amount of resources produced is insufficient to sustain the population for the foreseeable future. This means that there are a few other factors and issues which influences over population with the main one being resource management which is directly linked to our definition. This shifts a lot of focus to rapidly developing third world countries which require more and more resources as their society advances, but it also is heavily impacted by the lifestyles of those highly developed countries, each individual’s rapid consumption of resources and the resources used for technology to provide them. In other words, as we use up more and more of the Earth’s resources, its capacity to maintain the population we have now is constantly decreasing. Solving this rapid resource consumption is what I feel is at the heart of solving the overpopulation crisis we are in but in society’s present state; it’s a task that could be proved impossible. Alternatively, I think there are plenty of other solutions and although they may not be as effective they are definitely more practical, easy to implement and I feel they are the way to go. In this report I am going to attempt to identify causes for overpopulation and provide the common accepted model of population expansion known as demographic transition, demonstrate the impact overpopulation has on the environment and society and analyse proposed solutions to the main problem which is overpopulation.

Before explaining what causes overpopulation in more detail, I feel it is necessary to provide data of the rapid population growth over the past few hundred years. The prediction made on this graph is debated and we will get to that later, but it does accurately show a clear history of the Earth’s population. We can see that it was taken thousands of years to reach 1 billion people on Earth, but only around 100 years for that to double to 2 billion, and even shorter time periods of each successive billion. This is known as the exponential human population growth, but what triggered the sudden boom in the population? It has mainly been the development of increasingly advanced technology, most notably the advent of improved farming and agriculture methods which increased quality of life which led to higher birth rates, and technological advancements in the field of medicine. Both of these advancements also increased life expectancy through lowered mortality rates. But now, we are seeing lowered birth rates throughout the world which implies Earth’s population will peak at some point, while in turn we are also seeing increased resource consumption which oddly enough, is also caused by further technological advancements. This hints that while the population may peak due to poor resource management we could possibly still be overpopulated for a while now; even if the population starts to go on the decline. These causes for a sudden population explosion and the prediction of where the population of the world is heading can be explained well with the demographic transition model or theory.

The demographic transition model explains how lowered death rates followed by lowered birth rates increases the population of society as it progresses from a non-industrialised society to an industrialised one through increase of available technologies and resources. The model divides a society or region’s population growth into five stages which will be explained now.

- Stage One occurs in a pre-industrialised society which basically means a society which is devoid of all technological advancements that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. Birth and death rates are high and heavily impacted by environmental causes such as drought. High birth rates are influenced by a children’s necessity to a family’s household economy by doing tasks such as cooking, cleaning and working in the fields for food. It is accepted that all countries have passed this stage.

- Stage Two is the decrease of death rates and the initial increase of a population. Lowered death rates are influenced by improvements in food production and better transportation to prevent starvation and improvements in public health to lower deaths, particularly ones of younger children. Improved water supply, sewerage system and general knowledge of personal hygiene are also important. As many third-world countries are currently progressing through stage two, the gap between deaths and births increases, as in deaths lowering before births has a chance to catch up. The large numbers of countries currently experiencing this population explosion is a main concern of the population explosion occurring worldwide.

- Stage Three is the stabilisation of the world’s population through decreased birth rates, which is what some say the world’s population as a whole is approaching. Some characteristics of stage three which causes this are the realisation that perhaps having a lot of children is not a necessary investment for parents to make to ensure a comfortable old age, increasing costs to support children in the family, changing ideals towards women and their role as primarily child-raisers and housewives to a more independent status and development of contraceptive technology has become an ever increasing factor.

- Stage Four is when both birth and death rates are low and the population is constant. Most well developed countries such as Australia, America and Canada are currently in this stage. Demographers debate that the population will remain at this stage and that this is the final stage where as some debate that a fifth stage of population decline will occur.

- Stage Five is when fertility rates are low enough that children being born no longer exceed the population of their parent’s generation. It is noted to occur from a de-industrialisation of a society, in other words a shift from manufacturing industries to information and communication industries.

As we can see from the demographic transition model, overpopulation is almost a direct result of the mortality and birth rates of a society and how they change over time because of various societal attitudes and economic and technological breakthroughs. But a factor that this model does not entirely touch upon is resource management. As we can see, through technological advancements, population increases through raised birth rates and lowered mortality rates, but as technology advances further, more resources are used to accommodate an ever increasingly demanding lifestyle. The fact is that even if the world’s population peaks, if we are still consuming the same amount of resources as we are now the world will still be overpopulated, therefore we must improve resource management and reduce excessive unnecessary expenditure of resources which could otherwise be used in more appropriate ways. This leads on to solutions which simply are necessary to be put into place in order to combat this overpopulation issue.

But what does overpopulation actually mean to us and implications will it have on the world we live in? Unfortunately, overpopulation has been imminent for a while now and it does have serious implications on both society and the environment. Here are some of them:

- The increased difficulty to provide fresh, clean drinking water to everyone.

- The increased difficulty to provide sewerage treatment and deal with increasing waste disposal.

- Increased waste disposal leads to higher levels of air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination etc.

- With an increasing population, more resources are being used, further aggravating the issue.

- An increasing need for resources causes oceans to become overfished and excessive amounts of land to be cleared for urban developments to house the increasing number of people. This could damage or even destroy many different ecosystems.

- The increase in consumption of resources could lead to starvation or malnutrition.

- Diseases are easily spread in a more overcrowded population and also with improper waste management; it only makes the disease issue worse.

- If worse comes to worse, higher crime rates could also become a factor as people may resort to stealing and other illegal acts to survive.

With the causes and implications in mind, we realise the solutions that must be put in place have to either increase mortality rates, decrease birth rates or implement wiser resource management and conservation techniques to overcome the excessive consumption. Increasing mortality rates would definitely be considered immoral, especially on a large scale which is necessary. This leaves resource management or conservation and decreasing birth rates.

According to some demographers, the proposed stage 5 of demographic transition will be the peak of human population expansion where birth and death rates are low and the population with either remain stable or start declining. But that still leaves the issue of lack of resources and I for one do not see how it can just sort itself out when population size is not the sole factor. There are quite a few solutions being splashed around, and some already seriously overpopulated places like China have already put into place regulations to help mitigate the problem.

Perhaps the simplest solution to put in place and successfully enforce is laws to control the amount of children that each parent can give birth to. This is similar to what has already been implemented in China. In China each woman is restricted to one child and this law is heavily supported by most people. This 'one-child policy' has been proven successful in overly populated areas like China, is easy to enforce and solves one of the basic foundation causes of overpopulation. China's birth rate per woman is now low enough that the amount of children being born is not enough to replace the previous generation’s population and although it won’t for a few generations, China's population should eventually peak and decline. Perhaps a worldwide implementation of this policy by the UN would benefit the issue greatly.

A very controversial solution is to release a contagious virus to make most of the world's population infertile, without any other negative implications to health; forced sterilisation in other words. At a glance it does actually seem like an effective solution as it is certain to reduce population. It is easy to produce, release and does not harm any humans who are already alive. Though it may seem effective, it would be near impossible to control if it happened to get out of hand. The main problem is not that it is hard to implement, it's that there are also many obvious ethical and moral arguments against this. The simple fact is that it is not consensual and is unfair on unsuspecting people who may want children of their own sometime. It could also be considered an invasion of privacy and is an example of the state taking away the freedom of people, forcing them to make a relatively personal choice which may not be one everyone wants.

Aside from reducing birth rates the other issue to tackle is rapid consumption of resources, in particular fossil fuels. As society's dependence on fossil fuels increases and we see an unwillingness to change, the environment suffers through other pressing issues such as climate change. But these issues are interrelated. As the population increases, there is typically going to be a greater need for fossil fuels and more will inevitably be consumed. This means more greenhouse gas emissions which contributes to climate change. The more need and usage, the more demand which means it becomes even more economically viable to produce more and more fossil fuels for the ever increasing number of people. But the more that is produced, the less we end up with which makes both our society's dependence on fossil fuels and their inevitable complete depletion an awful prospect for both the overpopulation and global warming issue, and this cycle appears to simply repeat over and over again. Thus, solutions which will benefit climate change like a switch to low emission, greener, renewable energy sources can also greatly benefit the resource crisis which makes overpopulation worse.

Typically, most instant quick fix solutions involving reduction of birth rates, such as the virus idea, are seen as mainly unethical, immoral and too drastic to be practical and widely accepted. This leaves us with either better resource usage or a worldwide implementation of China’s one-child policy. The obvious more definitive solution which is a benefit to much more than solely the overpopulation issue is a switch to renewable energy. This provides plenty of resources for each individual and also helps stifle the impact of climate change, but the issue is that after taking into account society’s attitudes towards giving up fossil fuels in favour of a cleaner greener energy source, for that change to be implemented immediately it seems highly unlikely. I feel that while this solution by far the best and most beneficial, when it comes to practicality, relevance to attitudes today, ease of implementation, something that a very large majority of people can support and without any moral or ethical boundaries to step around, a worldwide implementation of China’s one-child policy may be what is necessary to ensure a sustainable society, protect the environment from human overpopulation and allow some other plant and animal life to survive with us.

Axolotl AMAZING

a.Axolotl

b. The threatening process is the human population expansion of Mexico city, which leads to more pollution, habitat destruction. They were also sold as food in Mexican markets. Prior to this, they were native to both Lake Xochimilco, and Lake Chalco, but now Lake Chalco has been drained to avoid flooding and Lake Xochimilco only remains as small canals.

c. Axolotl is now on the CITES endangered species list. They are also bred in captivity in large numbers due to their necessity in scientific research in regards to their ability to regenerate most parts of their body.

d. Because of their endangered status, they are no longer sold in pet shops. Mexicans also are prohibited from eating them. They are also bred by professional aquatic animal breeders.

e. No

f. I think the current solutions are adequate for protecting this specie, if they continue in this manner for many more years.

A Biography of Nelson Mandela

By Harry Bird

“The struggle is my life”

Childhood – Growing Up:

Nelson Mandela was born 18^th July 1918 in Mvezo, a tiny village on the banks of the Mbashe River in South Africa. He was born Rolihlahla Mandela; his name only changed to Nelson on his first day of school where it was a policy there that all black children be given white names. Rolihlahla is literally translated as ‘pulling the branch of tree’, which is a metaphor for ‘troublemaker’.

Mandela was born into a royal line amongst his clan. His father was an advisor to the king. While still an infant though, his father was involved in a dispute which cost him and his family their fortune and their title; he challenged the authority of one of the magistrates over a tribal matter which in their clan was considered the height of insolence. They then simply deposed him which essentially ended the Mandela chieftainship. Mandela says in his auto-biography, ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’, that he saw a sense of stubbornness and rebelliousness in his father which he still sees in himself. This could possibly have been Mandela’s first influence to stand up for what he believes in and rebel against what he feels is unjust.

His father died when he was 9. Him and his mother then left Qunu and went to Mqhekezweni; the capital of Thembuland. The acting regent of the Thembu people at the time, Jongintaba, offered to become his guardian, which his mother agreed upon. The regent had universal respect from all members of the clan and through witnessing the regent and his court discuss political matters, it greatly influenced Mandela’s notions of leadership. In Mandela’s auto-biography he says that when in the court, no matter who you were, you could speak. Everyone’s opinion was heard and taken into account. It was ‘democracy in its purest form’. I believe this influenced Mandela’s political ideals in regards to how everyone, regardless of class and race, should be treated equally within the community.

After turning 16, he had his circumcision. This was to signify his entry into manhood in his culture and Mandela says it was a proud moment. However, during the chieftain’s speech after Nelson had completed his ordeal he brings up the suppression of black people in South Africa, their lack of independence and how their land was stolen away from them. This speech had a significant influence on Mandela and I quote from his auto-biography:

“Without exactly understanding why, his words began to work on me. He had sown a seed, and though I let that seed lie dormant for a long season, it eventually began to grow.”

Education:

After completing secondary school at the Clarkebury Institute at 16 and the Wesleyan College at 19, he enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare. It was here he met one man who became his lifelong friend and ally in the fight against the apartheid; Oliver Tambo.

Upon returning home from Fort Hare, he had discovered that the regent had arranged a marriage for him. After hearing his he fled to Johannesburg where he received a job as mine policeman at a gold mine. At the time Johannesburg was regarded as a ‘gold city’ and Mandela expected upper-class, government offices, but the Crown Mine offices were nothing more than mere shacks. He later discovered that the only reason why the gold industry was booming was due to the cheap black African labour. This, he says, was his first taste of the ‘true’ capitalism in South Africa.

While completing his Bachelor of Arts degree, a white lawyer took Mandela on as his article clerk. During that time it was unheard of that a white man would give a black man such a job. There he befriended Gaur Radebe who he shared an office with. Gaur was a member of the ANC (African National Congress) and the Communist party, and in 1943 Mandela took part in his first protest with them. He took part along with 10,000 others in protest against the raise of bus fares from 4 to 5 pence for blacks. It proved effective 9 days later. Mandela found his first protest exhilarating and inspiring, seeing the effectiveness of Gandhi’s method of non-violent resistance in action. This is probably what first inspired Mandela, showing him there was something he could do to fight for what he believed in.

Throughout his time growing up he lived in many different places and as a result, Mandela witnessed many different things; namely the mistreatment of black Africans in South Africa first hand on almost a daily basis. These little things he saw in his youth as a whole, all influenced him to take the actions he did in his political career to free South Africa from the apartheid government.

The ANC:

After the white African apartheid government came into power in 1948, Mandela became an even more active member in the ANC. The ANC were a group, mainly consisted of black members that strongly opposed the policy of apartheid imposed by the now in power National Party government. Apartheid was a form of racial segregation in South Africa in which members of society and visitors to the country were divided into racial classes, (White, Black, Indian and Coloured) and were given rights accordingly. In regards to this, black Africans were given the least amount of rights; they were stripped of their freedom to travel, were denied voting rights for some time and were forced to live in different townships. Mandela joined the ANC after his first protest and it marked what was the start of the struggle that he famously said, is his life.

Mandela has a long list of many various achievements and programs that he achieved and participated in while a member of the ANC. With almost all of his approaches he used to combat the apartheid government, he drew inspiration from Gandhi’s work in South Africa before him. Mandela agreed with the morals associated with Gandhi’s method of non-violent resistance, the idea that peaceful negotiations were the best solution to achieve peace and fairness for everyone. He led numerous protests and organized many various strike days, most of which unfortunately brought forward a new legal case pushed forward by the government. They constantly claimed that by promoting equality for all, they were promoting communist ideals which were forbidden by the Suppression of Communist Act. As a result, Mandela was trialed for high treason.

Sharpeville Massacre:

Mandela’s non-violent protests and strike organisations were often met by brutal retaliation by authorities; and massacres sometimes ensued. Although the details of exactly what happened at this massacre are in dispute, the protesters were unarmed and 69 people were killed, 8 of them women and 10 of them children.

Pass laws had been in effect since 1923; these laws restricted the movement of black Africans through ‘white areas’. In protest, on March 21 1960, those who participated left their passes at home and did not go to work on that day and instead gathered together in Sharpeville. Then without warning, policemen stood in a line and began firing on the 20 000 strong crowd. The crowd had supposedly begun to stone the police officers, but this was later proved untrue. As soon as the news was heard, riots and protests immediately ensued around the country.

The Sharpeville massacre led to the banning of the ANC and other similar groups. Being a member was illegal and Mandela was now an outlaw. Both the massacre and the banning were a catalyst for Mandela to form a militant wing for the now forced underground and illegal ANC; Umkhonto we Sizwe, MK for short. He says in his auto-biography that this was most definitely not the course of action he wished to take, but if the government wished to respond to his peaceful attempts at negotiation with such violence, he had no choice but to shift from non-violent resistance to armed-resistance.

Umkhonto we Sizwe:

Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) or MK for short, is the militant wing of the ANC which was in part, formed by Mandela. It was formed in co-operation with the Communist Party in order to fight the South African apartheid government. The group was headquartered in Rivonia and was formed in response to the Sharpeville Massacre and the following banning of the ANC. Their views were that the times had changed, and the previous methods of non-violent resistance obviously weren’t working after a run of previously failed efforts. The original intention of the group was not to engage in civil war, but merely sabotage certain government activities in order to do things such as weaken the economy etc. with minimal loss of human life in order to still abide by Mandela’s and the ANC core principles of non-violent approaches. The MK is described as ‘the fighting arm of the people against the government and its policies of race oppression’.

Between December 1961 and July 1963 over 200 sabotage operations were undertook by the MK and they were all carried out in such a way to minimize the loss of human life. Throughout this time, recruits were dispatched to receive military training overseas which in turn, increased awareness of the ANC’s cause in South Africa internationally and receive aid in the fight against the South African apartheid government. MK was then labeled as a terrorist group.

In July 1963, police raided MK headquarters in Rivonia at Lilliesleaf Farm and found almost the entire leadership of the MK studying a planned proposal for guerilla warfare. They were all immediately arrested; Mandela, who was already serving a 5 year jail term for leaving the country without a passport, and the other leaders of MK who weren’t present were also charged. They were then trialed for 223 accounts of sabotage which is known as the infamous Rivonia Trail.

Rivonia Trial and Imprisonment:

The Rivonia Trial is the infamous trial where Nelson Mandela and the other leaders of MK were trialed for 223 different cases of sabotage which took place between 1963 and 1964. In this trial, Mandela was found guilty of 4 different acts of sabotage and was sentenced to life imprisonment, like almost all the others involved in this trial, and as a result spent nearly 30 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island. It is during this trial that Mandela made his famous ‘I am Prepared to Die’ speech, which many cite as a pivotal moment in history. Mandela’s speech was reproduced in nearly every important newspaper in the world and is a true symbol of what he himself, and the ANC, believe in and a symbol of the struggle for freedom and democracy for all. Here is the final paragraph of that speech:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

The original sentence that was called upon was the death penalty for all accused, but after worldwide riots and protests, it was later changed to life imprisonment. This is a prominent example of Mandela’s iconic status in South Africa amongst black Africans and really highlights the influence he had upon the world in regards to bringing international attention to the apartheid government in South Africa.

Mandela then spent nearly 30 years in gaol on Robben Island as a political prisoner. He was ranked in class D which was the lowest rank a prisoner could have there. This again, essentially meant he received the least amount of rights and privileges. For example he could only receive one heavily censored letter every six months and was permitted only one visitor every six months also.

In 1985 the president of South Africa at the time, P. W. Botha, offered Mandela his ‘freedom’ in return for the renouncing of a return to armed struggle. He responded by saying;

"What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”

This quote highlights his strong will and selfless inspiring devotion to the cause for which he was put in gaol for.

While imprisoned, both national and international pressure was placed on the South African government to release Mandela, presented simply via slogan, ‘Free Nelson Mandela!’. A while later, Botha suffered a stroke and Frederick Willem De Klerk took over as president. Mandela was shortly released in 1990, a historical moment in history which was broadcast live on television all over the world. De Klerk then removed the ban on all organizations, including MK and the ANC, and Mandela became the president of the ANC.

Presidency:

After his release, negotiations with De Klerk were made to end apartheid in South Africa and have South Africa’s very first multi-racial election. Both Mandela and De Klerk received a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their actions. The election was held on 27 April, 1994. The ANC won over 60% of the votes and Nelson Mandela became the very first black president of South Africa. During his time as president until 1999, he made the transition from the apartheid policies put in place by the National Party to a nation free from racial discrimination and was praised worldwide for his tremendous efforts.

Legacy:

Nelson Mandela had what many would consider an extremely fulfilling life. He was the first black president of South Africa, was president of the ANC and was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement. He is essentially responsible for the way South Africa is today; a nation where people of all races are equal and had freedom. Having spent almost 30 years in gaol as a political prisoner, standing up for what he believed in, he brought international attention to apartheid in South Africa and inspired people world wide. He is a widely recognized symbol of peace, unity, democracy and human rights and throughout his years as member of the ANC he has selflessly devoted his life to freeing his people. He is an important pivotal figure in the history of South Africa; he was a leader and a symbol of hope for all black people suffering under apartheid. He managed to revolutionize a nation of people, change their entire mindset and challenge ideals which seemed set in concrete at the time, and that’s something I believe not many will be able to achieve again, something I found truly inspiring.

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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: – Visited Aug 4 08

(http://www.soweto.co.za/html/p_mandela.htm)

Sharpeville Massacre: – The Origin of South Africa’s Human Rights Day: – Visited Aug 4 08

(http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SharpevilleMassacre-a.htm)

History of MK: – Visited Aug 4 08

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/organisations/MK/formation.htm

The Rivonia Trial and Lilliesleaf Farm: – Visited Aug 4 08

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/rivonia-liliesleaf/rivonia-trial.htm

MANDELA (1994) The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom, Little, Brown

Sustainable Societies
By Harry Bird

A sustainable society could be defined as a society that has maintained a balanced ecosystem and has managed the preservation of its resources well to survive for the foreseeable future. Aside from these physical requirements to support the population the society must have strong ties with neighbouring communities to avoid invasion (or no neighbouring societies at all like one of my examples.) and a majority of the community must have similar attitudes, beliefs and possibly religion in order to avoid inner conflict. Also when provided with a problem the society and its leaders must have a certain degree of flexibility in order to adapt to said problems. This in many historians’ eyes is the key to determining survival or collapse of the society.

These key factors can be grouped into three main areas which a society must maintain in order to call itself sustainable; societal beliefs and values which would include religion and morals of the people that influence its decision making in order to avert crisis and avoid internal conflict, ecological balance which includes the renewing of resources to provide for an ever growing population indefinitely and waste and water management and thirdly, relationships with other societies which would include a nations enemies and allies and the establishment of strong trading ties.

However due to a word limit I’ve decided to select only a few points from each of these main areas to base my report on. The three I have chosen to address in this report are ecological balance and how that relates to resource conservation, allies and dependence on protection from more powerful neighbouring communities and the degree of flexibility in regards to a nations response on key problems that are a threat to the society. I selected these as I feel they are the more important factors when it comes to determining a society’s sustainability.

Ecological Sustainability:

A key factor in the maintenance of a sustainable society is the preservation of the environment and the resources it provides a society to support life. This means renewing natural resources such as trees through reforestation and proper waste management plans. Reforestation and preserving already intact forests prevents the degradation and erosion of topsoils, salinity and therefore reduces the amount of unusable land for food and resource production. Proper waste management plans reduce the build up of waste in landfills and in turn lowers the amount of pollution in the air creating a cleaner environment for the citizens of a society while prolonging the life of the society.

Sweden – Sweden is an example of a society made sustainable by a good waste management program.

Sweden has implemented a waste management program that aims to convert waste to energy and meet the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission targets. All organic waste material such as orange peels etc is sent to a sewerage plant as opposed to a landfill. It is then treated with sewerage sludge which produces methane from this waste which is then used as a bio-fuel. This fuel can be used to power buses, power heating systems and can be used in air conditioners. In this process landfill pollution is prevented, air pollution is reduced and the biogas does not contribute to global warming. This could be a good sign that Sweden is a society that is definitely ecologically sustainable.

The Dominican Republic/Haiti – Haiti and The Dominican Republic are two countries who share one island in the Caribbean. These countries respectively show the contrast between severe deforestation and poverty as opposed to lush green forests, no poverty and a high chance of being ecologically sustainable.

The Dominican Republic occupies the west side of the island. It is slightly larger than Haiti and Google Earth images prove that it definitely a lot greener. In fact there is clearly a distinct divide between the two countries. Haiti is almost completely deforested and is well below the poverty line whereas while The Dominican Republic isn’t the wealthiest country, it seems to be definitely a lot more sustainable that Haiti. It also poses little danger of invasion and will be able to sustain its natural resources. Haiti on the other hand has almost no trees left. This has degraded the topsoil, affected the climate and pushed their population into poverty. They are still infact clearing even more land in an attempt to create more usable land for agriculture at the expense of destroying the land everywhere else. If Haiti does not adapt and change to become aware of their resource crisis like the Dominican Republic is, I can not see them being able to sustain themselves for much longer.

Dependence on Strong Trade Alliances and Allies:

Another key aspect in the sustainability of a society is its relations with neighbouring communities and nations. If a society’s allies are strong and enemies are weak, that society poses a lower danger of being invaded or taken over by rivalling communities thus giving it a greater chance of survival. Also if isolated from other societies, as long as it is both ecologically and socially sustainable, has a much lesser chance of collapsing as one with enemies. With strong alliances and strong trading partners, even the smallest, weakest society has a strong chance of sustainability.

Bhutan – Bhutan is an extremely small country that resides between two of the largest, more powerful countries in Asia; China and India. Both are a lot stronger than Bhutan is and could easily invade at any moment, but through strong friendships and alliances with both sides, Bhutan manages to avoid almost certain collapse.

Bhutan currently and always has had very strong, friendly ties with India. Although their borderline with China has been in dispute for a while, they have both signed a treaty that binds them to settle with peaceful agreements. Bhutan is a small country that holds strong alliances with two powerhouses and that leads to protection and a good chance at this aspect of sustainability.

Indigenous Australians – The Australian Aborigines are one of the oldest civilisations known to man. They lived off the land and could live together in complete harmony, and while this is one of the reasons they lasted so long, another big reason I think is the fact is that while on Australia, they had no enemies.

The old Indigenous Australian society is the best example of a society succeeding due to having no enemies to take it over. They could maintain the other key aspects of maintaining a sustainable society perfectly. They lived off the land and had strong social and cultural bonds with one another. Also without any enemies that posed a threat of invasion, the Aborigines had virtually no chance of collapsing anytime soon. I think that infact if the British settlers never discovered Australia, their ancient civilization would still be thriving today.

Governmental Flexibility and Societal Adaptation to Solve Problems:

The last key aspect which decides a society’s sustainability that I wish to discuss is a society’s response to vital issues that could potentially cause such a society to collapse and the flexibility of a said government in order to be able to avert crisis. A society can be ecologically sustainable and have strong allies or a great defence, but when something unexpected happens, the society as a whole must be flexible enough to change their ways and avoid certain death. Within a society there a many different things that can influence what degree of flexibility it has. Whether those influences are religious, cultural or otherwise, it’s a society’s decision making process and flexibility which can decide whether they can be deemed classified as either sustainable or not.

Japan – Japan was once on the very brink of collapse ecologically. This may surprise some as it’s a thriving nation today which is also at the very peak of technological advancement. How it arrived at this stage and avoided certain ecocide is through the flexibility of their government to devise a clever forest management plan and put it into action.

Some five centuries ago, Japanese governors had cut down nearly all of Japans old growth forest for religious reasons. Of course, this essentially led to the erosion of topsoil and caused rivers to become polluted with silt. Soon after realising such a problem their government’s decision to introduce a harsh penalty to those caught logging in protected forests and flexibility to be able to implement it immediately allowed them to avert certain collapse and become a sustainable society. They infact manage to maintain one of the highest percentages of forest coverage of all countries which is amazing due its small size and large population. Japan definitely seems to be a very sustainable society because of the way its government has dealt with its past issues.

Greenland Norse – The Greenland Norse was a society that died out all so suddenly. An outside threat, lack of flexibility and their inability to adapt to changing conditions that would have caused them to survive had led to their sudden downfall. This is an example of a society that had responded poorly (almost not at all) to a crisis, highlighting the importance of flexibility in governance and religion to maintain a stable society.

An isolation from Europe led Greenland to a deteriorating environment. Their land had lost fertility due it having already been exploited to the fullest which led to erosion with livestock overgrazing on any attempt the shrubs had at regenerating themselves. Greenland’s climate changed as well; meaning shorter, cooler summers which limited the time cattle could be kept outdoors. They also had the Inuit, who they were competing with for animal resources. The Norsemen were going down fast and in the end it came down to their inability to adapt to changing conditions. They were victims of a society dominated by the church and the biggest land owners who saw themselves as purely European. This blindness prevented them from adopting Eskimo hunting gear to catch fish, which was clearly the most viable animal resource due to the land being completely unable to support livestock. If the dominant groups in society adapted to the obviously worsening conditions and weren’t as influenced by European churches as they were, they could’ve avoided being wiped out. This shows us the importance of flexibility in governments when it comes to maintaining a sustainable society.

These previous examples are ones of societies that have either been classified as sustainable or have collapsed under this framework, however I wish to point out a few things that are occurring today which are promoting the societies we live in to be sustainable.

Kyoto Protocol – This is essentially the UN’s protocol on greenhouse gas emissions which aims to limit the amount of emissions released from each nation that signed the protocol. It attempts to reduce the build up of greenhouse gases in the ozone layer which many believe to be the cause of climate change. Human caused climate change is what most say is the biggest environmental threat to all societies as it has a negative impact on our way of life. This is a step towards making the societies of today ecologically sustainable and though this protocol may not be a complete solution to one of the biggest environmental issues, countries bound by this protocol are certainly better off.

NATO – NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is basically a military alliance between its members (of which include Canada, USA and UK) to mutually defend one another in the response of an attack from an external party. This is an example of societies that have strong alliances with one another and have responses for any kind of invasion, making them sustainable and flexible in those aspects. This is a positive move towards creating all nations bound by this sustainable in regards to response to military issues, external threats and enemies.

There are many more aspects of a sustainable society and I have only listed a few examples here. I only hope that from analysing these past examples of societies that have succeeded, adopting the actions that made them sustainable and avoiding the pitfalls that caused past societies to collapse we can have a society that is still going strong for many generations to come.

Sources:

The Vancouver Sun – Garbage can be seen as a resource in the wrong place

(http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=6876b9f3-569b-4be9-a479-b4d7079303ff&p=1)

Embassy of Sweden – Waste Management

(http://www.swedenabroad.com/Page____51405.aspx)

Case Study – Deforestation in Haiti

(http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/haitidef.htm)

Bhutan-China Relations: Bhutannewsonline.com

(http://www.bhutannewsonline.com/bhutan_china.html)

The Fall of Easter Island

By Harry Bird, March 19, 2008

(http://exsephiroth.blogspot.com)

The Fate of the Greenland Vikings

(http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization Homepage

(http://www.nato.int/home.htm)

The Fall of Easter Island
By Harry Bird

Easter Island is the home of the great Moai Statues which were erected hundreds of years ago. It’s amazing to think that such a primitive civilization such as the one inhabiting Easter Island without machines, cranes or even wheels and animal power could create such structures, some weighing in excess of 80 tons. They had been created with nothing more than the muscle of the people who lived there. But just as many societies had before; it collapsed all of a sudden. How though? There are a few contradicting theories that I will address in this report.

The first framework for collapse is one that we have studied in class and that I am most familiar with; Jared Diamonds five-point framework. Jared Diamond’s framework focuses mainly on the environmental aspects for collapse and the self destruction of the natural ecosystem by the members of a society. In other words, forms of ecological suicide (ecocide). And also most importantly he focuses on a society’s response to the self caused issues. Though the framework also slightly emphasizes factors to do with hostile neighbours and loss of trade partners, these are irrelevant due to Easter Island being over 3000 kilometers away from any other inhabited island. Due to the primitive technology back before the collapse, there was no contact with any other society rendering these factors irrelevant when applying his theory.

If we apply the appropriate factors from Diamond’s theory to Easter Islands collapse, we essentially arrive at the following series of events;

Firstly is the building of the Moai statues and an increased population. After my research I found that these went hand in hand. Naturally without any source of power, no wheels, no machines or anything apart from their very own muscles, the sheer amount of people needed to create even one of these statues would be a high amount. And as time went by, there more statues there were built, the more people were needed. This led to what seems like an obsession between rivaling tribes to create bigger, grander and more statues. With this rapid increase in population and resources used to make the statues, it leads to the next event.

Rapid resource depletion is the next event. People need resources to live and statues need resources to be made. The more statues that were made, the more people were needed, the more resources were depleted to keep the society alive. At this point in my research it seemed to me like a vicious circle in which everything increased exponentially. Being the isolated place Easter Island is, there was never to be any aid from anyone else, which meant an extremely fragile environment. Once the resources were gone, that was just about it.

The next event is the one that ultimately caused their demise according to Diamond’s theory; the deforestation of the land. As more and more resources were needed, the society on Easter Island deforested the whole island in order to build canoes and vessels to transport these monumental statues and farm more crops. Of course, these threw the delicate ecosystem severely out of balance and that lead to even greater problems.

Two serious events that marked the end of the civilization on Easter Island due to the deforestation were the ruined topsoil from erosion, the extinction of native animals. The ruined topsoil made it impossible to farm and support the wildlife wish led all the people to starvation and out of desperation even cannibalism.

In summary of applying Jared Diamond’s framework, it was essentially their response to the problems that arose that saw them to meet their end. It was a drive to complete the Moai statues to rival other tribe’s statues that blinded them from seeing that they were destroying the environment and that depleting their resources would lead their island to collapse.
In regards to theories on response to problems, Joseph Tainter has devised a framework particularly for this. He suggests that there is three ways a society can respond to a collapse. The first one is when the society’s resources are being depleted at an exponential rate, but the leaders are too arrogant to change their ways because of cultural or religious reasons etc. This then causes an increased number of resources to be devoted to current goals regardless of what has happened. The second response is a society that cannot sustain itself when it is not constantly growing. Finally, the third one is when a society falls due to having far too many complex systems, causing it to become unstable, and then collapsing due even the slightest things.

If we apply Tainter’s theory, we can conclude that the society on Easter Island had all three of his factors;

The leaders are too arrogant and continue to deplete their resources exponentially while building the Moai statues, they then grow with hope that the statues will bring them prosperous futures, and the finally the delicate ecosystem on the island causes the collapse of the society.
Although Diamonds theory is the logical answer, some claim he is biased in his thinking in regards to ecocide. They say that although when the first colonists arrived, the Island may have been in a decline, this may not have been the sole reason Rapa Nui declined so rapidly.
The proof that Diamonds theory might not be completely accurate lies with the radio-carbon tests conducted in the last several years by the writer of the Rethinking the Fall of Rapa Nui article, Terry L. Hunt. It points to different explanations as to why the society collapsed. If these dates prove true, it places the deforestation of the Island virtually immediately as soon as the Polynesian settlers stepped foot on the Island; and that is impossible. It also points to saying that the population might never have risen to more than a few 1000 people because of the Island being unable to support it, as opposed to the 20,000 stated in Diamonds book. For Diamonds truth on population growth, should these radiocarbon dates prove to be accurate, the population would have to increase from a few dozen to 20,000 in a mere 500 years.

Hunt and the many other researchers who support this theory state that instead of, or at least part of the cause of collapse were British colonizers who introduced disease, took islanders away as slaves and rats which quickly multiplied; infact, rats seemed to be a key point in the decline. They had no predators on the Island, easily spread disease and as the population of rats sharply increased, they essentially ate all of the palm seeds on the island. These claims of collapse being caused by not the inhabitants themselves but by British colonizers are backed up by log entries in journals of the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who led the first European expedition to Rapa Nui in 1722. He describes it as "exceedingly fruitful, producing bananas, potatoes, sugar-cane of remarkable thickness, and many other kinds of the fruits of the earth…. This land, as far as its rich soil and good climate are concerned is such that it might be made into an earthly Paradise, if it were properly worked and cultivated." Also his commanders had allegedly spotted large tracks of woodland in the distance. This is contradictory to Diamond saying that the island was wasted when they first arrived and in fact, the few thousand found on the island might have been the full extent of their population.

These are the two main contradicting explanations I found with my research and when examining the evidence and comparing them they both seem to be very valid theories. There seems to be more evidence in the second theory of the European colonists but then again, the log entries by Roggeveen are very contradictory as he says it was a wasteland upon arrival but as he is leaving he changes his mind to explain the islands vast forests and ability to sustain life. Jared Diamond’s theory however fits in with the ideas and views of modern society. He has written his book, Collapse, to be a warning to society as we know it which I think has made it the more popular of the two. The proof of his theory is the isolation of the island which ideally makes it the perfect example of ecocide due to having no external causes and also the replication of this happening in other parts of the world today. Despite proof some think that this is only the most widely accepted theory because of the scare tactic of "this is what is going to happen to us if we don’t change".

When it comes to comparing Diamond’s and Tainter’s theory to another society we find one outstanding example of a society that did it right; Japan. In the late 16th century and early 17th century the governors of Japan had already felled almost all of the old-growth trees in order to build monumental buildings and images of Buddha. After a century of deforestation soil began eroding and rivers became polluted with silt. After the late 17th century Japan’s response to this growing environmental problem was what set it aside from Easter Island. The Japanese government declared large amounts of forestland national assets and anyone caught logging there was sentenced to death. They instead received their wood through imports to their country thus allowing the forests to restore to the density of what they once were. They essentially "gave" their deforestation to other countries and solved their own problems. Japan made the correct choice which caused them to avert collapse and have such a highly populated society today, whereas Easter Island’s decision to continue to cut down their palm trees caused their eventual downfall.

When it comes to comparing the causes of Easter Islands collapse to the society of today there is one fairly obvious example; the deforestation of Amazon rainforest. If we can apply Jared Diamond’s theory of Easter Islands collapse and apply it to today we find the Amazon rainforest is well on its way. Between May 2000 and August 2006 over 150,000 square kilometers were lost in Brazil and in total since 1970 that makes over 600 thousand square kilometers in all. By analysing the causes of Rapa Nui’s downfall we can conclude the same could happen for the Amazon and it appears to be unavoidable. The causes for deforestation in the Amazon mainly have been to increase livestock pasture and soybean production. Brazil is one of the largest exporters of soybeans and as the price for both soybeans and beef which is now free of Foot and Mouth Disease increase, the "need" to deforest more land increases too. This widespread deforestation shows no sign of slowing down as the Brazilian government has deemed it "effective use of land". Supply and demand and a blinded desire to make more money makes this a very real possibility. Should this continue and happen in other parts of the world as well, we too could suffer a similar fate as our Easter Island friends and we should learn from this.

Sources:

From Genocide to Ecocide, The Rape of Rapa Nui – sci.archaeology Google Groups
August 23, 2005 - Visited 7th March
(http://groups.google.com/group/sci.archaeology/browse_thread/thread/86407c0d901eb015/2f9e4f4ece572a54?lnk=st&q=Benny+Peiser+easter+island&rnum=1&hl=en#2f9e4f4ece572a54)

View of Easter Island Disaster All Wrong, Researchers Say
By Kher Tan, March 9, 2006 02:01 pm - Visited 7th March
(http://www.livescience.com/history/060309_easter_island.html)

American Scientists Online – Rethinking the Fall of Rapa Nui
By Terry L. Hunt, September-October, 2006 - Visited 12th March
(http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/53200;jsessionid=aaacZjM2c37S3l?fulltext=true)

Deforestation in the Amazon
By Rhett A Butler, - Visited 12th March
(http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html)

DIAMOND (2005) Collapse, Penguin Books, Pg. 79-120 and Pg. 294-306

Transfer of deforestation: How Japan saved its forests by importing wood from other countries
By Kallie Szczepanski – Visited 19th March
(http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/Asia/summary.htm)

History Rawr

I do not know what history means to me because i don't think about it too much. I believe the future is more important to focus on as there is no changing the past.

First Post

I'm posting in a sticky! But have not much to say. But I play childrens card games and they are serious business. I love my girlfriend Leigha too! She is awesome.