On Tuesday night I went to see Jared Diamond speak at the historic Wheeler Opera House, a beautiful theater built in 1889, with seats in rich Moroccan leather and an azure ceiling with silver stars that appear as though they are popping out of an early evening sky.
Diamond, a professor of Geography and Physiology at the University of California, was being presented by the Aspen’s Writers Foundation Winter Word Series as one of America’s most celebrated scholars.
The lights went down and the spotlight landed on Diamond, who would be speaking for the next hour about his latest book titled, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.
I was immediately taken in by Diamond, an avuncular man dressed in hiking boots and high wasted brown pants with a tucked in pink Oxford shirt and I sat mesmerized as he spoke about how and why whole societies have lost their way in the past and descended into chaos.
He spoke of the demise of highly advanced civilizations like the Maya who developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing as far back as 200-400 AD and who were noted for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples. Source.
Diamond also referred to the prehistoric Native American Anasazi Indians that lived from 200 to 1300 AD, in the Four Corners of the southwest United States. The Anasazi Indians were adept hunters and food gatherers discovering how to cultivate maize, squash and beans. They were also astute pottery makers.
He continued to talk about the people of Easter Island, “who in just a few centuries, wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead?”
“Their vanishing touches us as the disappearance of other animals, even the dinosaurs, never can. No matter how exotic those lost civilizations seem, their framers were humans like us. Who is to say we won’t succumb to the same fate? Perhaps someday New York’s skyscrapers will stand derelict and overgrown with vegetation, like the temples at Angkor Wat and Tikal.”
Diamond was by no means taking an apocalyptic stance about the state of the world, giving us glimpses of hope by speaking of the people in Papua New Guinnea who have been around for 46,000 years because they have learned how to sustain themselves by reserving and transplanting their resources.
On my drive home in a blinding snowstorm with black iced roads, I thought about the message that this extremely fluent and amicable author was giving to us, a message that I have heard repeatedly that has always left me in a stone cold sweat.
If we don’t make the choice now to study the past and fix the problems that exist today, than in a mere fifty years time it is quite possible that we will be following in the footsteps of those intelligent civilizations who either were destroyed by civil wars or who committed “serial ecoside, straightforward abuse of their physical environment that precipitated their demise” and we will not be the ones to suffer but instead it will be our children and grandchildren.
At the end of his lecture Diamond directed his last sentence to the younger people in the audience and said, “It’s your choice on whether you want to make a world that is worth living in,” but it is our responsibility as well and we must take the environmental problems of today seriously and make the right choices together, now.
Thank you for sharing the highlights of Diamond’s speech, Jillian.
My opinion is that LOVE is what will save us — from ourselves, essentially (or rather, the trappings of our very egoic existence). Once we learn to embrace unconditional love (on all levels, as Evita wrote about), toward ourselves, one another and the planet, negative trends will reverse themselves and sustainability will seem effortless.
We can all start this movement in our own homes, too – and our own bodies, even. LOVE.
Peace to you and your family, and much joy, faith and love!
.-= Megan “JoyGirl!” Bord´s last blog ..Moving Into Unconditional Love On All Levels =-.
Hello Megan,
I am a firm believer in the power of love but I also believe that we need to be aggressively proactive in doing what we can to minimize our carbon footprint in addition to recycling, reserving and protecting our resources.
What a fascinating lecture–that’s so great you got to go hear him. And now I’ll be even more pissed off at the moms who let their SUVs idle in the school pick-up lane.
Ahhh! My 10-year old JUST did a report on the Anasazi for her 5th grade class. Suffice it to say, Jared Diamond’s lecture was apparently a lot more thought provoking. Thanks for writing so eloquently about it.
.-= Jennifer´s last blog ..Malibu, California and a Perfect Day’s Vacation =-.
It is something I think about everyday. What exactly do we do to save the planet/society. What kind of danger are we really in? Will we follow in our ancestores foot steps.
Its like looking into the sky at night and at all the stars. So overwhelming with no real answers.
Did Diamond have a solution to our porblem?
xoxo
Hi Jillian! Wow – I share your sweat. I’m not a worrying kind of person, but I’ll tell you, I’ve spent actually the last YEAR researching the evolution of the food industry – after all, it doesn’t matter what technology we have if in the end, we contaminate our food sources. Well we ARE. (Hence my sweat) I’m doing what is probably a VERY unpopular thing – I’m running blogs, with videos, starting this weekend. Nobody is going to want to hear it, let alone believe it, or God forbid DO anything about it but I’m obcessed with at LEAST getting the information OUT THERE – and then I will let go of it. I truly believe that as consumers, we DO have a voice – and certainly choice! But an uneducated consumer? One who trusts the FDA and USDA? One who believes the hooey about tests that have been done for food safety? Yikes! This could well be the end of this civilization. I wonder did Diamond touch on this?
The video this weekend is about an experiment done in South Wales in a grade school – please just listen to this. Next Monday and the following Monday I’m bound to lose followers. Whatever. I’m tired of the lies and deception. This country needs to WAKE UP. Comments, if any, should be interesting! Hope you’ll be there!
.-= suzen´s last blog ..Looking At My Desk =-.
Hello SuZen and Melanie-Mouse,
I think we all must do what we can to spread the word and educate ourselves and our readers.
I will watch all of your videos and direct people to them from my site. Let’s join forces.
Many of us do not know how to change our lives or where to go to learn proactive steps to take, like how to compost effectively or even how to make a more serious effort to carpool or use buses as the norm over driving. We need to commit to a new lifestyle, just like committing to a new diet for the rest of our lives.
Recycling and reusing is a start as well as using your own bags at the grocery store. No idling your car, it always amazes me that people still do this. Try to eliminate buying products packaged in plastic, where you can, like laundry detergent and forget about plastic bottles or styrafoam cups, choose another vendor that is environmentally more conscious.
If there was one website that gave clear and concise instruction that would help. I’ll start my research now.
Yours Truly, Jillian
Thanks Jennifer,
I have always wanted to take my children around the world to study the indigenous cultures. The more they learn the more they know!!!
Hi Wendi,
Yes, pissed off is the right way to express it but as my friend says, we need to be able to detach ourselves from our desperation and anger and teach them in a way they will listen.
Thanks for sharing this. So many people brush this kind of thing as being too ‘gloom and doom’ for them. We ALL need to do what we can. We need to teach our children to do what they can. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Composting makes a big difference in how much trash we throw away. It’s all organic matter, you don’t have to do anything special, just put it in a designated place in your yard. Turn it every so often, and mix in some grass clippings or leaves…whatever. Sigh. There’s nothing to but but be proactive, don’t wait for laws to be passed or big corporations to change. Quit buying from irresponsible companies and change what YOU do….
.-= christie´s last blog ..C25K Update =-.
Following your blog via Follow Me Club at MBC. Please visit me at http://nobirthcontrol.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Hey Jillian -
I really appreciated your summary of Jared Diamond’s talk and now I am compelled to read his book!
Wow, very powerful, Jillian. And I love the way you wrote it. I slowed down and read every word. I’m glad there are people out there like Jared Diamond. I hope the world gets smarter and starts listening to him and all the other voices that are trying to get our attention right now.
.-= Patty – Why Not Start Now?´s last blog ..Meaning Mondays: The Experiment Edition =-.
Hi Patty,
Why not start now, right???
Hey Shelly,
So many books, so little time.
Hello Christie,
You are so right. I was even afraid to broach the subject because I thought people don’t want to read about how they can help make the world a better place.