Parallel Problems

History is known for repeating itself. In school, we study history with the intention of learning from the mistakes of previous leaders in order to avoid creating a cycle of negative events or to mimic the actions that resulted in heroic acts or peace. We spend more time studying the people of history than we do the environmental changes that have occurred and reoccurred over the years. Now, as the environment is becoming a more pressing issue in the world today we have to reeducate ourselves. The environmental problems that we are facing are not new, but they are increasingly getting worse.

Take The Lessons of Easter Island for example. The natives of the island were advanced in their technology and have impressed archeologists with how progressive they were for their time. However, progression cannot last without resources. The islanders made use of the natural resources available to them, they used the trees for housing and transportation and even their fishing nets were made from the mulberry trees. But the trees never replenished. The people of Easter Island ended up deforesting their land and in turn, eventually ended their lives. Deforestation trapped the islanders and limited their capabilities. Eventually the progressive natives were forced to regress back to primitive conditions. The deforestation ended their fishing abilities (no new canoes or fish nets were able to be created), their religious practices (without the transportation the trees provided for their heavy stone statues they could no longer move them to their ceremonial sites), and lead to warfare between the clans and eventually cannibalism. When the environment of Easter Island collapsed so did the society. The islanders’ problem was that they could not find a balance with the environment and their cultural ambitions were too much for the limited resources available on their island.

The human population of the earth parallels the population of Easter Island in that there is no practical means of escape, and we are continually depleting our non-renewable resources.

If we do not want the history of Easter Island to repeat itself, Michael Klare’s article Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet suggests to start reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources, like oil, “to reduce the threat of armed conflict as much as the threat of climate change.” We have seen through the story of Easter Island that war is just one outcome when resources are limited or no longer available. Since we live in a culture where warfare is already so present it seems even more important to begin to cleanse our society from triggers that could cause even more war as a result of scarce resources.

It is no longer a secret that our environment needs attention. It is even getting to the point that our environment needs attention for our own benefit. As stated in Ecosystems and Human Well-Being there have been four main findings, two of the findings are:

“The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century.

The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands for their services can be partially met under some scenarios… but these involve significant changes in policies, institutions, and practices that are not currently under way.”

If our resources cannot be replaced we should have a common mindset to make them last for as long as possible so that future generations have the same resources available to them as we did.

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being also reports that “approximately 60% of the ecosystem services evaluated are being degraded or used unsustainably.” Factors like capture fisheries and fresh water are now well beyond levels that can be sustained at current demands. And actions to increase one ecosystem service often cause the degradation of other services and will often cause significant harm to human well-being including poverty. Improved communication and education are essential to preserve the resources we have and to achieve the objectives we have set.

Yet, our society as a whole seems to ignore the trouble our environment and then ultimately we are in. Richard Heinberg writes in an article Peak Everything that our starting point is realizing that we are now “living at the end of the period of greatest material abundance in human history,” and that some of the most important resources are “entering their inevitable sunset phase,” and as a result, putting us “at the beginning of a period of overall societal contraction.” It is our job to take this knowledge and begin to change our culture to prepare for life after this environmental transition.

      

The environmental problems we are facing now have been building up for years. These are not new problems. These problems have just been neglected and shoved under the rug until they are too prominent to ignore anymore. While we have been ignorant about the condition of the environment, it has only been getting worse and now it is up to us to change our lifestyle in order to sustain what we have left.

For reference: global resource depletion rate

http://makewealthhistory.org/2010/01/12/peak-everything-global-resource-depletion-rates/