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.

Dubai's Shiny New Energy Waster

As you may have heard, Dubai's Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai) now holds the record as the tallest free-standing structure ever built. At an opening ceremony on January 4th, the official height of the skyscraper was announced to be 828 m (2,717 ft). To get an idea of the size, you would need to stack both of the old World Trade Center towers on top of each other to reach the same height, While I have to admit I always find enormous building projects fascinating (doesn't everyone), this particular record-breaker seems extremely foolhardy.

First off, the building requires almost as much electricity as the rest of the city to operate, a fact that certainly won't help Dubai's largest per capita carbon footprint in the world. Second, the building fills no real need. As the LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne recently detailed, most of the building remains vacant. When the construction company broke ground in 2004, Dubai was in the middle of a huge growth binge fueled with debt in an effort to boost its economy. The reason why is understandable enough because Dubai's oil reserves have been mostly depleted. Since selling sand isn't known for is huge returns, the only remaining option for Dubai was to try and boost tourism through spectacular building projects including manmade offshore islands and luxury hotels. The Burj Khalifa is a huge part of this revitalization as a center for business and luxury residences.

Though Dubai was able to attract wealthy tourists, mostly from Europe, the global recession has brought most of that to a halt. Furthermore, the collapse of the real estate market has left Dubai with far more real estate than its economy can hope to maintain. Furthermore, the city recently had to secure a $10 billion loan from its neighboring emirate, Abu Dhabi, just to pay for the loans on its building projects.

As for Burj Khalifa, most of the residences have been booked, but they were all sold in advance before the economic downturn and few people have actually moved in. Even worse, there is virtually no need for commercial office space in Dubai for the foreseeable future. As a result, most of the tower's 3.5 million square feet sit empty, sucking up energy and resources.

More than anything, this is a perfect example of the mindset we need to discard if we want to have a sustainable and productive future. Sure, tall things are awesome, and there are legitimate reasons to build them. However, Burj Khalifa seems to have been built more to stroke the egos of Dubai's ruling family and as a shiny toy they can show off to the rest of the world. And now it sits there, sucking up energy from our planet’s ever diminishing supply of hydrocarbons while serving no real purpose. Thanks Dubai.