Book of the Month: Collapse

The February book of the month is Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.  For anyone who is concerned about sustainability or simply wants to know why we should care about the health of the environment, this book is a perfect starting point.

Collapse comes in four main parts, starting with the changing situation in modern Montana.  Though traditionally individualist in culture, Montana's increasing population is forcing the need for proper land management.  This provides an easy to relate to example for why some cultures resist change even in the face of obvious problems.  More than anything, people do not like change or it may be in their short term interest to resist doing so.

The next part is an in depth analysis of several societies throughout history, both successful and otherwise, that draws on the lessons from Montana.  Diamond starts with several ancient societies that have collapsed, including the Easter Island culture, the Chaco Canyon culture, the Mayans, and the Greenland Norse.  Throughout, Diamond demonstrates how deforestation and the resulting soil erosion caused each society's population to collapse due to lack of a fuel source and severely decreased crop yields.  Then Diamond points out the societies who have staved off ecological disaster, including Tokugawa Japan and the peoples of the New Guinea highlands.  In contrast to the failed societies, these ones recognized the impending danger of deforestation and took drastic measures to stop it in their lands.  Japan, for instance, is now the most heavily forested country in the world thanks to these measures.

Part three is a survey of several modern societies threatened with collapse.  Most frightening was the discussion of China, which could be looking at a major ecological disaster in the not too distant future.  With its massive and still growing population, China needs ever more agricultural land to support itself.  However, rapid deforestation is accelerating desertification, which destroys large swaths of China's farmland every year.  In addition are China's dwindling sources of fresh water and pollution from its rapid industrial growth.  For China to avoid disaster, it must face these problems sooner rather than later.  And if you think it's just China's problem, consider the pollution runoff that enters the oceans, not to mention the danger of over one billion people starving in a collapsing state that possesses nuclear weapons.

Part Four is a slight change of pace and looks at the economic realities that either enhance or diminish a modern society's tendency to adopt sustainable practices.  In a clear, nonpolitical manner, Diamond points out that businesses exist to make money, and will only accept sustainable practices if it is advantageous for them to do so.  More importantly, people need a source of income, and corporations are the primary income providers for the world.  Their existence allows us to enjoy a higher standard of living.  However, that doesn't mean they should not be regulated.  Otherwise, they can become a far greater harm than they are worth.

This brings us to Diamond's final point: the public is ultimately responsible for how the businesses of their society operate.  Sure, corporations can utilize incredibly unethical practices, but if the public is apathetic towards these transgressions, then their businesses will be too.  However, the public can demand government regulation against unsustainable practices and can prefer to buy products that exhibit responsible stewardship, making environmentally-friendly business the more profitable choice for corporations.  At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your political ideology is.  If we don't take effective action that acknowledges economic realities, then we could find ourselves in the same position as the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree on his island, wondering why his crops no longer grew fast enough to sustain him.  Unlike the Easter Islander, there are no other human societies beyond Earth to carry on our species.  If we want to survive, then we must learn to live within what our planet can provide.

However, this only touches the surface of the wealth of information conveyed within Collapse.  If this topic interests you, pick up a copy to get a better idea of the ecological challenges facing our society and how others have successfully solved them.

Book of the Month: Jesus, Interrupted

Since it's a new year and I've been doing a serious amount of reading lately, I think it's time to bring back my old book of the month feature.

January's book of the month is Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them).

If you want a primer on Biblical research from a scholar's point of view, then this is an excellent place to start. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he specializes in Biblical scholarship. Basically, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the Bible.

Now the central thesis of Jesus, Interrupted is that the Bible is a historical document like any other, and should be treated as such. Ehrman stresses he is not trying to destroy anyone's faith or convert believers to nonbelief. He simply wants to make well known knowledge available to the masses.

Starting out, Ehrman recounts his experience in the seminary where he first learned about the errors and contradictions and the wrongly accredited books within the Bible, all of which have been well known to theologians for centuries and are not particularly noteworthy. As for why the general public does not know about these basic facts, Ehrman doesn't really have an answer, but his speculations sound plausible enough considering the nature of religious discourse in the US. Generally, he figures most seminary trained pastors have little interest in damaging their parishioners' faiths or delving into scholarship when they have preaching to do.

Then Ehrman gets into the meat of the book, focusing on the differences and inconsistencies of the Gospels. He discusses the timeline of when each book was written and which book was based on the other, including which were based on texts that are now lost. Then he examines the differences in the actual stories told within and how they really don't line up no matter how much hand-waving is done.

Next, he covers the evolution of Christian doctrine in century following Jesus' death. In the beginning, Christianity was far more egalitarian and subject to wildly differing interpretations depending on the sect. However, this changed as time progressed and a particular sect or sects (the details have been lost to history) sought a more hierarchical approach, either discrediting rival sects or incorporating them into the growing, centralized church. This evolution is evident within the Bible, if one understands the background of each book and who actually wrote them.

The last few chapters deal with what a historian can actually say about Jesus and early Christianity, based on the available evidence. First off, a scholar can't really say whether or not Jesus performed miracles or was resurrected. Historians must stick with the most plausible explanation when the evidence is lacking. Obviously, miracles and resurrections wouldn't exactly fit. Instead, Ehrman offers a more likely explanation: Jesus was a heretical rabbi who learned his apocalyptic views from John the Baptist. Eventually, he took his end of the world sermons to Jerusalem, where he upset the temple priests, leading to his execution. The rest of the story is simply the work of legend as the tale grew with the telling.

I could keep sharing the nuggets of wisdom contained within Jesus, Interrupted, but you'd be better off reading the book yourself. It's a delicious tonic for biblical literalism.