University Colloquium: Diamond and the Ecological Footprint

In a tale of two farms, Jared Diamond discusses the mystery behind how societies fail or succeed in the world. The answer? It is based on our environmental choices and our means on dealing with ecological issues. “Many of those abandonments were at least partly triggered by people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended” (Diamond). I believe this is most certainly relevant in my own life, especially in my own backyard.

Deforestation, one of the factors in Diamonds five-point framework, "was a or the major factor" in the collapse of societies since trees take so long to regrow, deforestation has more severe consequences than crop failure and can trigger disastrous erosion (Diamond). Where I live today, trees are being cut down like nothing in the way for new buildings to be constructed in place and with less tress around there will be less oxygen as well as less rainfall produced. Sure, by doing this, society is expanding and it may be helping the economy in one way or another; however, the environment is being considered as a secondary importance and as a result will suffer.

In my own community, we are experiencing soil erosion for the reason that the residents pull out any and all weeds that they find unattractive. Consequently, this weed pulling is causing the root to be pulled out along with them and without the roots our soil is subjected to “exceptional fragility, hence the reasons why only certain societies suffer environmental collapses” (Diamond). I think the exceptional fragility Diamond is referring to is once the erosion of topsoil occurs, it will trigger the soil to become more compact and not allow water to escape into the ground, initiating potential flooding. On top of that, more than 99 percent of the world’s food comes from soil

and with soil becoming so severely degraded, we will not be able to produce enough food for our survival.

I feel that I am contributing a decent amount to both the success and failure of the society. On a positive note, I have been volunteering at the Naples Zoo for a little over a year in helping to promote the conservation and the preservation of the natural world. Also, I always recycle, I do not eat a lot of meat products, I do not splurge on materialistic items, plus my car does very well on gas mileage. On the other hand, I do travel solo a lot by means of my own vehicle, I do fly occasionally, I do not really take any form of public transportation and I usually consume produced foods.

I was so shocked when I found out my ecological footprint, since it would take 4.6 Earths to support my lifestyle if everyone lived the way that I do, that I thought to myself ‘it is time for a change.’ I am going to begin treating all the resources that I use as scarcely as I can since I feel that I have taken for granted the easily accessible resources at my disposal.

References

Diamond, Jared M. "A Tale of Two Farms." Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. 15-37. Print.

Maravilla, Marissa. JPEG File. 2015