‘Collapse’

I’m working closely with Evangeline on her writing skills this year, so she can make more cogent arguments, tell a story better, and to present information in a clear and logical manner.

Today’s assignment was to summarize the information in a National Geographic documentary called “Collapse.” The documentary takes a look at major civilizations throughout history and reconstructs the causes of their respective collapse — economic overreach, destruction of the natural habitat, water shortages, agricultural problems — and then plots out how each of these causes may one day contribute to the collapse of our own society.

The gimmick of future anthropologists studying the ruins of North American civilization a little silly, but the movie was informative about historic causes of collapse. So after she finished watching the movie, Evangeline wrote up this report on it. It needs a little work — mostly in the area of checking for bias and assumptions of the film-makers — but it’s decent writing. I’m proud of her.

 

Our society is going to collapse soon if we don’t do anything about it, according to Collapse, a National Geographic documentary based on a book.

The documentary goes over great civilizations in their time, such as the Romans, the Incas, and the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians, and how their societies collapsed because they could no longer supply themselves with the basic necessities. They were societies built on the basis that good times lasted, which is completely incorrect. The Pre-Pueblos society went because of a harsh drought, so that there was not enough water to go around. The Incas overused their energy resource (trees). Rome went down the drain because it was just too darn huge, so that it no longer had the resources to support itself. (That’s why they conquered people so much, to get slaves and resources to support their economy.) And we all may be going the same way.

It is a fact that the Incas are no longer around because of plaster. During the peak of their domain, they lathered it onto their burial decoration. They made the plaster by heating up limestone with wood. And it took loads of trees to make a tiny bit of plaster. So, they ran out of trees, which did not end well.

The Pre-Pueblos were the center of a large community. They were the hub. If you came down there from the North, you would see the huge city spread out before your feet. They had huge 5-story buildings, excellent irrigations systems that gathered the scarce rain, and thousands and thousands of people. They were, essentially, New York. So what happened?

The answer is, there was a 50-year drought. That had happened before, and they’d made it, but there weren’t nearly as many people then. There wasn’t enough water to go around. Or food, since there was no water. Not surprisingly, most people left. The ones who stayed and toughed it out became the Pueblo Indians.

So what does this have to do with any of us?

Loads. If we collapse, than it will be because of the same reasons those countries died out. Don’t believe me? Energy shortage: Gas, in case you haven’t noticed, is over 4 bucks a gallon in the United States. And it’ll take loads of turbines and solar panels to fit the bill. Food shortage: A given piece of farmland is only going to work for so long. Water shortage: Crops, toilets, drinks, showers. Your pool holds approximately a year’s supply of water. Pheonix’s water relies solely on one irrigation system. Food shortage: We have a water shortage. We can make water artificially, but that requires energy. Lots of energy. And worst of all, when one country goes down, the others will as well. It will be a global collapse, people.

But we can still turn ourselves around. It’s not too late to break the mould and choose a different track.