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Geoscience Canada

Collapse: A Short History of Ward Chesworth

Volume 32, Number 3, September 2005

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Publisher(s) The Geological Association of Canada

ISSN 0315-0941 (print) 1911-4850 (digital)

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Cite this review Chesworth, W. (2005). Review of [Collapse: A Short History of Progress]. Geoscience Canada, 32(3), 140–143.

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The partitioning of larger sub- “Bauxite” focuses on spectroscopic dous accomplishment that this book jects is, perhaps, more likely to reflect characterization, omitting any mention represents. He can also take pride in the editorial decisions. Certainly, the editors of the origin of bauxite. Other sedi- vigour of the sedimentary profession in had little choice other than to group ment-hosted ores (SEDEX, banded this country, for this is owed, in no small subjects into larger themes; the alterna- iron, or MVT lead-zinc) are not treated. part, to his sterling efforts and intellectu- tive–to include a heading for every single As noted above, the illustrations al leadership. topic–would have produced a dictionary are generally of good to excellent quali- rather than an encyclopedia. ty. However, there are strange omissions Nonetheless, there is a good deal of here as well; flame structures, which are Collapse inconsistency in how subjects are broken strikingly visual features, are described down. For example, topics dealing with without any accompanying photograph By Jared Diamond carbonate rocks are finely divided, or sketch. Sizing and choice of images 2005, Viking including short, separate entries as limit- are not everywhere optimal. In the sec- ed in scope as “Tufas and Travertines”, tion on glacial sediments, Figure G12 “Stromatolites”, “Ancient Karst”, and takes half a page to show a braided river A Short History of Progress “Cements and Cementation”. Most of emanating from a glacier terminus that is these short entries are excellent; they not even clearly visible in the picture. By Ronald Wright summarize the recent literature and Referencing is also somewhat uneven, as 2004, Anansi Press briefly discuss possible interpretations. in the well-written section on By contrast, a large subject like “evapor- “Substrate-Controlled Ichnofacies”, Reviewed by Ward Chesworth, ites” is treated in a single entry, in which, which excludes some key references Department of Land Resource Science, in limited space, the authors attempt to from the past decade. In some cases, University of Guelph produce an encyclopedic entry covering the editors have missed an opportunity such disparate topics as the economic by not requiring contributors to develop "You think that a wall as solid as the uses, social history, environment of for- more comprehensive bibliographies, earth separates civilization from bar- mation, and geochemistry of evaporites, which would have been a particular barism. I tell you the division is a thread, as well as the Phanerozoic evolution of boon to novice users. a pane of glass. A touch here, a push seawater. Many of these topics could But enough of criticism, for this there, and you bring back the reign of have used a separate entry. Yet, cover- book’s failings pale alongside its virtues. Saturn." age of some topics is repetitive. Soft- The book will be useful to graduate stu- John Buchan, 1916. sediment deformation structures are dents, senior undergraduates, and prac- treated in detailed entries that focus on ticing sedimentary geologists of all Opulent materialism can only be individual types of structure, but also in stripes; every practicioner of sedimenta- sustained for the relatively few in society an overview article that is superficial and ry geology should have access to a copy. - the king and his court, the tyrant and mainly repeats what is stated more effec- It deserves a place on every desktop but his favourites, the president and his bag- tively in the detailed entries. There are the very high price–about $475 in men. The eighteenth century radical, also strange overlappings and splittings Canadian funds at this writing–probably Tom Paine, believed that the prototype of topics in some of the book’s other- means it will be found only the desks of of them all was the thief and his gang. wise excellent historical/biographical workers with generous paycheques or The rest of us aspire to the more mod- entries. A brief biographical sketch of bountiful research grants. Inevitably, it est version of opulence called affluence. R.A. Bagnold is largely repeated in a will fall to libraries and research depart- The problem is that the most fortunate more entertaining entry focused on his ments to make the book available, part of the human population has now scientific contributions. “Sedimentology, although in these days of tight book attained an affluence that approaches History” is a useful overview but is budgets the price may also give pause to historical opulence. The affluence of a focused almost entirely on Europe and institutional purchasers. Because we do Canadian or American for example, is North America; meanwhile, the history not wish to divide this excellent volume, roughly the equivalent of 10 to 15 of Japanese sedimentology is in a sepa- Solomon-like, into six equal pieces, we inhabitants of the third world, in terms rate entry. A section devoted to are donating the review copy to the of life-time consumption and waste gen- “Sedimentology–Organizations, G.S.C.’s Calgary library. eration (Zen, 2000). All 10 to 15 hope to Meetings, Publications” covers organisa- Finally, because this review is to enjoy our level of luxury someday, and tions reasonably well and provides a cur- appear in a Canadian journal, it is appro- indeed the Brundtland report states its sory discussion of journals and special priate to comment upon the pleasingly goal to be exactly that (WCED, 1987). If publications. However, with regard to high level of Canadian expertise reflect- achieved, it would scar the biosphere so conferences, this section provides only a ed in this book. Canadian contributors badly that the downfall of the civiliza- list of generalities and platitudes about include the editor, three of the associate tion we currently enjoy would be what conferences are supposed to editors, and many of the individual con- assured. Ten thousand years of trial and achieve. Treatment of economic aspects tributors. This is a tribute to the error, reaching back before Sumer, of sedimentary rocks also is regrettably strength of sedimentology and its sub- would simply be another failed experi- patchy. Placers are well represented, but disciplines in this country. Professor ment. And even if the goal is not laterites are absent and the discussion of Middleton can take pride in the tremen- achieved, as seems more likely, the stress GEOSCIENCE CANADA Volume 32 Number 3 September 2005 141 between the haves and the have-nots much longer, and both Diamond and lems, over-hunting, over-fishing, effects would leave little chance for the devel- Wright call for it. of introduced species on native species, opment of a stable world community. Jared Diamond scored a great human population growth, and increased People who contemplate the popular success with his Pulitzer Prize per capita impact of people." Four downfall of society are commonly criti- winning book Guns, Germs and Steel. It (Collapse p. 7) he identifies as threaten- cised as pessimists, and labeled as being dealt with the origins of civilized soci- ing current societies - "human caused too negative to deserve a hearing. eties and of inequalities in the wealth of , buildup of toxic chemi- However, pessimism as much as opti- nations. The book gave new life to old cals in the environment, energy short- mism has survival value or natural selec- ideas, including the notion that “earth ages, and full human utilization of the tion would have removed it from our resources, particularly arable land and earth's photosynthetic capacity." But is heritage long ago. In any case civiliza- useful minerals, are strongly localized, so the total twelve in fact, or is it eleven? tions have collapsed in the past, so it is that some areas 'have' while others 'have Isn’t over-fishing just another form of no more than prudent to consider the not'” (Whittlesey, 1939). His current over-hunting? Actually, it’s likely to be possibility of a collapse in the future. It book “Collapse” examines the comple- only one big problem – the problem of is part of the due diligence we must mentary problem – why complex soci- human population growth and greed – exercise if we wish to sustain any but eties fail. Incidentally, Ronald Wright or is that two? the most brutish existence over the long reviewed the book in the Globe and But I’m nit-picking, and will take term. The authors of both books under Mail for January 15, 2005. the number to be twelve for the sake of review perform their due diligence, and Diamond states that his objec- argument. Diamond certainly recognizes both believe that there are important les- tive is to investigate societal collapses that all twelve are interconnected. Leave sons to be learned from history. “involving an environmental compo- any one unsolved and we could go the Civilizations, says Ronald Wright nent, and in some cases also contribu- way of the Easter Islanders he says (Progress p. 33), are “a special kind of tions of climate change, hostile neigh- (Collapse p. 79-119). This is the culture: large, complex societies based bours, and trade partners, plus questions favourite cautionary example of several on the domestication of plants, animals, of societal responses.” He insists that he scholars, amongst whom Joseph Tainter and human beings”. They “vary in their makes no claim that environmental (1988) should be singled out perhaps, as makeup but typically have towns, cities, problems are at the root of all societal the author of the classic Collapse of governments, social classes, and special- collapses, perhaps hoping to avoid the Complex Societies, an influence ized professions.” It’s what we pay taxes charge of environmental determinism. acknowledged by both authors under for, and I am grateful to Wright for This is the doctrine that history is deter- review. exhuming a quotation of Oliver Wendell mined by some environmental cause that When they first arrived, the Holmes (Progress p. 127): “I don’t mind leaves humanity with little or no control Easter Islanders found a cornucopia of paying taxes, they buy me civilization.” over its fate. Northrop Frye (1957) made easily exploited, low entropy resources – Wright’s reference to domestica- a waspish academic wisecrack on the especially large trees, large marine mam- tion in the previous paragraph (with its subject: “the fallacy of what in history is mals which they hunted from wooden sly inclusion of Homo sapiens) is an called determinism, where a scholar with boats, and fertile volcanic soils. They allusion to farming and to the funda- a special interest in geography or eco- used up the trees completely, stopped mental importance of the farmers’ sur- nomics expresses that interest by the singing their equivalent of “I’se the bye plus in support of a civilized existence. rhetorical device of putting his favourite that builds the boats”, couldn’t catch the Look a little deeper and you find that subject into a causal relationship with big marine meals anymore, and watched the real basis of civilization is geological. whatever interests him less.” The charge as the island’s good soils were gradually We use a geological substrate, the soil, to of environmental determinism was lev- flushed or blown into the sea. The basis grow our food; we rely on geological eled at Guns, Germs and Steel by heavy- of the complex society they had devel- delivery systems – the water, weathering weight professional historians such as oped was gradually dissipated. At its and erosional cycles – to keep our crops William H. McNeil in the New York most abstract, they were defeated by irrigated and supplied with nutrients; Review of Books for May 15, 1997, and increasing entropy, as we all shall be in and we exploit geological resources, par- Richard Evans in a debate with the fullness of time. ticularly oil, gas and fertilizer raw materi- Diamond, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in Why didn’t the Viking settlers of als, to maintain the high yields needed to Melvyn Bragg’s programme “In Our Iceland meet the same fate? They had support our growing billions. As a result Time” (March 11, 1999). nothing like Easter’s natural advantage we have largely taken over two biomes It is Diamond's contention that of a relatively warm climate. Just below in the temperate regions – the grassland every one of a dozen problems needs to the Arctic Circle it’s cold, dark and wet and the forest. Like a doomsday parasite, be solved if our society is to avoid col- for much of the year. Volcanoes erupt we are consuming the biosphere from lapse. He identifies eight of these prob- under glaciers, causing gigantic floods within. Progressive , soil lems (Collapse p. 6) from a considera- that make the island a fearsomely dan- erosion, excessive demand on water tion of the difficulties and the downfall gerous place for human colonization. resources, and a loss of biodiversity, are of societies in the past. They are "defor- Like their Polynesian counterparts, the amongst the most obvious effects of estation and habitat destruction, soil Vikings chopped down trees, although our depredations. Reform is called for if problems (erosion, salinization and soil not quite all. The settlers’ sheep and we want our civilization to continue for fertility losses), water management prob- goats ate the seedlings and prevented 142 regeneration. Wind erosion carried him “cautiously optimistic”. foregoing increase the tendency of wind exposed topsoil into the Atlantic Ocean. An earlier review concluded that and water to carry the soil away. (Collapse 197-205). Collapse is “probably the most impor- Jackson’s answer is to start all over and In spite of everything, Icelandic tant book you will ever read” (Flannery, to base our on the perennial society has survived for over a thousand 2005). That judgment is way over the plants of the Tall Grass Prairie. Not years. It had three big advantages not top. There is no doubt that the book is only that, he advocates the perennializa- enjoyed by the Easter Islanders. First, an interesting and instructive roundup of tion of existing annuals by embryo res- the Icelanders, with the usual ups and the problems that beset human societies, cue which he describes in the following downs of any human population, have but it doesn’t probe deeply enough, and way. “We make a wide cross. The developed a deep sense of community – in addition it is rather prolix. Diamond’s embryo forms but the endosperm does an all for one and one for all attitude well-meant prescriptions, for example, not or if it does is inadequate to keep which appears to be quite common in will make you feel good, but they will the embryo going until it can take care human groups living close to the edge of not come anywhere near to touching the of itself. That is biotech of sorts but not survival. Second, the religion they hard men who have the real power. They high biotech. When our geneticists res- espoused was relatively benign in its are little more than a set of band-aids cue that embryo they, place it in a test material demands. Not for them the for a system that actually needs radical tube with nutrient agar to keep it going mad and ruinous expenditure of surgery. Consider a few of Diamond’s until the young plant can collect sunlight resources in a futile competition to recommendations: boycott businesses on its own” (Jackson, pers. com. Feb. 10, impress their gods with bigger and bet- you do not like, praise those that you do, 2005). This is not the contentious can of ter stone statues. However, the most talk to the people at your church, syna- worms we refer to as genetic engineering important advantage was that they were gogue or mosque (would it be politically (the “high biotech” of his comment). I not isolated from their roots – help was incorrect to include your favourite pub), do not have the space to go into that, available when the going got tough make a donation to Ducks Unlimited but anyone interested will find an intelli- (which inevitably it did). They could (but why give money to people who gent airing of the issue on Ann Clark’s extend their ecological footprint back to eliminate the ducks’ predators so that website at http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca Europe. Significantly, the Norse settle- human hunters will have more ducks to /research/homepages/eclark/. ment in Greenland did not survive after kill). Still, band-aids are not a negligible Jackson believes that his reforms it lost support from Europe. addition to the social medicine chest, could buy us another 10,000 years, and But to return to Diamond’s and they sometimes enable us to win technically speaking he may be correct, twelve problems: every one is technical small victories, especially in local arenas. but he’s proposing radical surgery, and and it is easy for him to suggest techni- The overall effect however, is transient radical ideas get a frosty reception cal solutions. Take soil erosion for exam- and disappears like tears in rain. Even amongst the agricultural establishment. ple: we can control it in a number of exercising our vote may turn out to be Tell the faculty of your friendly neigh- ways, among which are ridging and fur- no more than palliative in a democracy bourhood school of agriculture that rowing along contours as in East Africa, continually subverted by the power of farming needs a drastic makeover and contour ploughing and leaving stubble in money. If anything, all of this makes me you will quickly come to appreciate that the fields over winter as the corn farm- more of a cautious pessimist than cau- such reform has profound behavioural ers of Eastern Canada do, converting tious optimist. aspects that overwhelm the technical arable land to pasture as the Azoreans We need to delve below the problems. The farmer is the cynosure of have done, reforesting as the Icelanders symptoms and find the disease, and at all eyes and ranks right up there with the are doing, or, most elaborately of all, the technical level, part of the disease noble savage. The apologists for modern constructing terraces as the Incas did. In lies in the nature of agriculture, the industrial agriculture and agribusiness part 4 of Collapse, Diamond shows that unique geological process of the have their wagons form a circle at virtu- we can glean many practical clues on Holocene (Chesworth, 1996, 2002). ally any sign of criticism. how to deal with such problems by Angus Martin (1975) asks the crucial A Short History of Progress is studying the trials and tribulations of question: “how many millennia of the text of the five Massey Lectures for ancient and modern societies. He states deforestation, dust storms and soil ero- 2004 given by archeologist and novelist once more (Collapse p. 438) that he is sion has it taken for us to realize that Ronald Wright. Amongst his books is not an environmental determinist, and our agricultural methodology has had the novel A Scientific Romance, which to underline the point stresses the serious flaws in it from the start.” Wes won the David Higham Prize in 1997. importance of “courage” amongst peo- Jackson believes that the critical mistake Progress is short but by no means slight. ples and leaders, in the survival of soci- was to base our agriculture on annual Each lecture is a marvel of concise nar- eties. Relegated to the notes at the back species requiring a yearly cultivation rative, graphically expressed. The author of the book (Collapse p. 521-525), he (Jackson, 2004). This leads to exposure takes his objective from the title of a gives a prescription of practical meas- of the soil-surface in preparation for painting by Gauguin: "Where do we ures that the ordinary citizen can take to planting, the oxidation of organic mat- come from? What are we? Where are we lessen the environmental dangers we ter, the break down of crumb-structure, going?" The first two questions are easi- face. On the whole, although he admits the development of no more than a ly answered: “There is no room for that the subject of Collapse is a pes- meagre root system (especially in the rational doubt that we are apes, and that simistic one, the lessons he learned leave case of corn and soybeans). All of the regardless of our exact route through GEOSCIENCE CANADA Volume 32 Number 3 September 2005 143 time, we came ultimately from Africa” causality, built into the very structure of laws, not men”. (Progress p. 27). The third question is the universe, there is a thermodynamic As the Victorians understood, the most interesting one and it takes or “Terminal Trap”. Fred Hoyle (1964), we are doomed by the Second Law any- Wright into the past where he crosses who believed that we were nearing the way; but let’s not worry about the some of the same ground as Diamond. point of no return, put it this way: “It inevitable. The Heat Death of the He sees the ruins of once great civiliza- has often been said that, if the human Universe won’t happen tomorrow, and tions as “fallen airliners whose black species fails to make a go of it here on I’ll take Wes Jackson’s 10,000 years for boxes can tell us what went wrong” earth, some other species will take over want of a longer term. (Progress p. 8). the running …. This is not correct. We Acknowledgements: Thanks to Wright's particular hook is the have, or soon will have, exhausted the Dave Lavigne, Ron Brooks and Bill notion of the "progress trap"; an evolu- necessary prerequisites so far as this Rees, whose ideas I have gratefully recy- tionary path that initially brings desirable planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil cled. Bill reviewed Collapse in Nature, 6 improvements to a society, but that gone, high grade metallic ores gone, no January 2005. Thanks also to my fellow eventually leads to excess, to decline and species, however competent can make members of the Critical Issues Caucus sometimes to fall. The first trap was set the long climb from primitive conditions of the Geological Society of America, in the long run-up to civilization, when to high level . This is a one and to Oli Arnalds in Iceland for his we perfected our hunting techniques. shot affair.” advice (and for a memorable field trip). Everywhere we reached after leaving The fight for democracy in the Africa we encountered large mammals Second World War, and the construction REFERENCES. and birds, too ignorant of our ways to of an affluent society after it, were based Buchan, John. 1916, The Power-House: be wary of us. We considered them to on the fossil energy we exploited by Edinburgh, Blackwood. 238 p. be no more than big meals, and the “bad scaling Hubbert’s Peak (Deffeyes, 2001). Chesworth, W. 1996, Agriculture as a smell of extinction” (Progress p. 37) We are close to the top now and set to Holocene process and its bearing on sus- dogged our footsteps. We became “serial slide down the other side. We do not tainability. In Dinamica y Evolucion de Medios Cuarternarios, ed. by A. Perez killers beyond reason” (Progress p. 63), have a lot of time to put things right Alberti, P. Martini, W. Chesworth and A. with the biosphere our abattoir. and the next energy source will be noth- Martinez Cortizas, p. 31-36. Unfortunately, efficiency in hunting in ing like as cheap, portable and versatile. Chesworth, W. 2002, Sustainability and the the unmanaged commons of the pre- Wright reminds us: “each time history end of history: Geotimes v. 47 p. 52. Neolithic world, leads only down the repeats itself, the price goes up” Deffeyes, Kenneth S. 2001, Hubbert's Peak : road towards Malthusian crisis. Still, the (Progress p. 107). the impending world oil shortage: trap was sprung when we invented agri- We are spending our planetary Princeton, N.J., Princeton University culture and civilization, though seen capital like drunken sailors in the Last Press. 208 p. from the perspective of the 21st century Chance Saloon. We have to use what Flannery, T. 2005, Learning from the Past to that looks as if it may be the greatest low entropy resources we still have, to Change Our Future. Science v. 307 p. 45. Frye, Northrop. 1957. Anatomy of Criticism; trap so far (Progress p. 32). make our one kick at the can count, or Four Essays: Princeton, N.J., Princeton For all of its brevity, Wright’s increasing entropy will deny us the ener- University Press. 383 p. book digs beneath the proximate causes gy to climb that hill again. More than Hoyle, Fred. 1965. Encounter With the of concern that Diamond emphasizes anything we must recognize that for all Future: New York, Trident Press. 108 p. and looks for ultimate causes. His our technical and scientific expertise, we Jackson, Wes. 2004, Agriculture: the primary thoughts in the first lecture about our have a behavioural problem. Let’s face it, environmental challenge of the 21st cen- encounter with the Neanderthals pro- we’re a mess, too easily seduced by will- tury: p. 85-99, in W.Chesworth, M. R. vide an example. Was it our first geno- o’-the-wisp promises of salvation Moss, and V. G. Thomas, eds., The cide? Does it represent “Stone Age fore- through fundamentalist religion, dog- Human Ecological Footprint. (The bodings of the final solution and the matic political ideologies, post-modern Hammond Lectures for 2002: broadcast slaughter on the Somme?” Are we hard- quackery, voodoo economics, the so- by the CBC in the programme ‘Ideas’), Guelph: Faculty of Environmental wired always to prefer the path of short- called Free Market, or that 20th century Sciences, University of Guelph. 202 p. term gain, no matter how grisly? Wright contradiction in terms, sustainable devel- Martin, Angus. 1975, The Last Generation : seems to be pointing in that direction: opment, (to name, as Gore Vidal might the End of Survival: Glasgow : Fontana. “our inability to foresee – or watch out say, but a few). We need to change our 188 p. for long range consequences may be behaviour in double quick time and Tainter, Joseph A. 1988. The Collapse of inherent to our kind, shaped by the mil- Ronald Wright is surely correct in saying Complex Societies. Cambridge, U.K. : lions of years when we lived from hand that we must switch “from short-term to Cambridge University Press. 250 p. to mouth by hunting and gathering” long-term thinking. From recklessness WCED (World Commission on (Progress p. 108). Let’s call it “Darwin’s and excess to moderation and the pre- Environment and Development). 1987. Trap” – the impulse to out-compete and cautionary principle” (Progress p. 131). Our Common Future. Oxford : Oxford University Press. 383 p. out-breed our rivals. If it exists it might It’s easier said than done of course, Whittlesey, Derwent S. 1939. The Earth and explain all the destructive behaviour especially if Darwin’s Trap really exists, the State; A Study of Political detailed by Jared Diamond, and underlie but it isn’t impossible if we maintain a Geography: New York, H. Holt. 618 p. all the progress traps of Ronald Wright. strong social structure, financed by an Zen, E-an, 2000, Stakes, options, and some At an even deeper level of equitable tax system, and “governed by natural limits to a sustainable world: p.