Eye on Earth

Atlas, it's time for your bath

2011-11-04T20:54:00.001-07:00

Atlas, it's time for your bath, originally uploaded by woodleywonderworks.

Via Flickr:
every day is earth day

2011-08-10T23:28:00.003-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into safe drinking water - Lawrence Journal World http://ping.fm/Cwmcz

2011-08-10T23:28:00.001-07:00

Time for mandatory water restrictions in Montgomery County - Your Houston News http://ping.fm/v8g34

2011-08-10T21:19:00.001-07:00

Gov't panel: Fracking chemicals should be revealed - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/0lai2

2011-08-10T19:25:00.001-07:00

Florida lawmakers blast new EPA water-pollution rules - Orlando Sentinel http://ping.fm/qaS0y

2011-08-10T16:56:00.001-07:00

Being young improves survival odds in cold water - The Associated Press http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH3ObVD1JH9iGARaxk2N0F6xJ4T9g&url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hrTpiJtb9LGXMlh3dz-WxWB9rcoA?docId%3D609eafa4154642d9986c4e261af015df

2011-08-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Seattle Post Intelligencer http://ping.fm/boNEJ

2011-08-10T16:17:00.005-07:00

California's water wars: It isn't fish vs. farmers [Blowback] - Los Angeles Times http://ping.fm/ra7PF

2011-08-10T16:17:00.003-07:00

Boy survives after spending more than 20-minutes under water - WBIR-TV http://ping.fm/R4MTN

2011-08-10T16:17:00.001-07:00

Dale Ostrander: Being Young Improves Survival Odds In Cold Water - Huffington Post http://ping.fm/Fyg90

2011-08-10T15:57:00.001-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Boston Herald http://ping.fm/JAEkd

2011-08-10T15:47:00.001-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Albany Democrat Herald http://ping.fm/3HZEq

2011-08-10T15:29:00.001-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Bloomington Pantagraph http://ping.fm/Mtf0R

2011-08-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Fox News http://ping.fm/sydAd

2011-08-10T14:17:00.005-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - The Associated Press http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNE4-_7XAJj9Z3YECN1nerOV_1MOHg&url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0QFCMh2uzoffPjnOErvAUKeA_bQ?docId%3D404f2aa9cd1241c5b744c75b06e30d7f

2011-08-10T14:17:00.003-07:00

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water - Forbes http://ping.fm/gJm74

2011-08-10T14:17:00.001-07:00

Japan's Tsunami Gave Birth to Faraway Icebergs - New York Times (blog) http://ping.fm/3fzmc

2011-08-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

Primo Water Narrows 2Q Loss, Shares Slump On Downbeat 3Q View - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/cA3q2

2011-08-10T10:30:00.001-07:00

Sri Lankan wildlife activists boycott wild elephant census - The Guardian http://ping.fm/IHY4C

2011-08-10T08:17:00.001-07:00

Scientists: Potential Mars water find a "big deal" - CBS News http://ping.fm/tXunN

Revenge of Gaia : Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity

2011-07-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

In James Lovelock's 2006 book, The Revenge of Gaia, he argues that the lack of respect humans have had for Gaia, through the damage done to rainforests and the reduction in planetary biodiversity, is testing Gaia's capacity to minimize the effects of the addition of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This eliminates the planet's negative feedbacks and increases the likelihood of homeostatic positive feedback potential associated with runaway global warming. Similarly the warming of the oceans is extending the oceanic thermocline layer of tropical oceans into the Arctic and Antarctic waters, preventing the rise of oceanic nutrients into the surface waters and eliminating the algal blooms of phytoplankton on which oceanic foodchains depend. As phytoplankton and forests are the main ways in which Gaia draws down greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, taking it out of the atmosphere, the elimination of this environmental buffering will see, according to Lovelock, most of the earth becoming uninhabitable for humans and other life-forms by the middle of this century, with a massive extension of tropical deserts.

Given these conditions, Lovelock expects human civilization will be hard pressed to survive. He expects the change to be similar to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum when atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 450 ppm. At that point the Arctic Ocean was 23 °C and had crocodiles in it, with the rest of the world mostly scrub and desert. He says of sustainable development and renewable energy that it came "200 years too late" and that more effort should go into adaptation, including more use of nuclear fission as a viable energy source in the future. He likens the Kyoto Protocol to the Munich conferences that failed to prevent World War II, including the likelihood that the disaster will cause people to come together in common cause. "We have been through no less than seven of these events as humans...comparable in extent to the change" likely to be wrought by global warming.

He claims that Gaia's self-regulation will likely prevent any extraordinary runaway effects that wipe out life itself, but that humans will survive and be "culled and, I hope, refined."

According to James Lovelock, by 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine. Indeed "the people of Southern Europe, as well as South-East Asia, will be fighting their way into countries such as Canada, Australia and Britain".

"By 2040, parts of the Sahara desert will have moved into middle Europe. We are talking about Paris - as far north as Berlin. In Britain we will escape because of our oceanic position."

"If you take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predictions, then by 2040 every summer in Europe will be as hot as it was in 2003 - between 110F and 120F. It is not the death of people that is the main problem, it is the fact that the plants can't grow — there will be almost no food grown in Europe."

"We are about to take an evolutionary step and my hope is that the species will emerge stronger. It would be hubris to think humans as they now are God's chosen race."

Lovelock believes it is too late to repair the damage...

Revenge of Gaia : Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity » Textbooks.com By James Lovelock - Perseus Distribution (00) - Paperback - ISBN 10 0465041698 - ISBN 13 9780465041695By James Lovelock - Perseus Distribution (00) - Paperback - ISBN 10 0465041698 - ISBN 13 9780465041695

Our Common Future: World Commission on Environment and Development

2011-07-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

In 1983, the UN General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development, an independent committee of twenty-two members, headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway. Designed to examine global environment and development to the year 2000 and beyond, the commission seeks to reassess critical problems, to formulate realistic proposals for solving them, and to raise the level of understanding and commitment to the issues of environment and development. Rather than presenting a gloom and doom report about the destruction of natural resources, Our Common Future offers an agenda advocating the growth of economies based on policies that do not harm, and can even enhance, the environment. The commission recognizes that the time has come for a marriage of economy and ecology, in order to ensure the growth of human progress through development without bankrupting the resources of future generations...

Read the book: Our Common Future: World Commission on Environment and Development » Barnes & Noble.com

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

2011-07-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Age of Oil is steadily dripping to a close, exposing the world to perils that we are ill prepared to counter, frequent New York Times contributor James Howard Kunstler maintains. According to this fervent jeremiad, the best has already been. The Long Emergency dismisses scenarios of emergent alternative energy sources and ticks off a list of harrowing impending disasters. A riveting, controversial wake-up call.

With his classics of social commentary "The Geography of Nowhere and "Home from Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler has established himself as one of the great commentators on American space and place. Now, with "The Long Emergency, he offers a shocking vision of a post-oil future. The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind. But the oil age is at an end. The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life as we know it, and much sooner than we think. As a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance that will collapse. "The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after we pass the tipping point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Are we laboring under a Jiminy Cricket syndrome when we tell ourselves that alternative means of energy are just a few years away? Even once they are developed, will they ever be able to sustain us in the way that fossil fuels once did? What will happen when our current plagues of global warming, epidemic disease, and overpopulation collide to exacerbate the end of the oil age? Will the new global economy be able to persevere, or will we be forced to revert to the more agrarian, localized economy we once knew? Could corporations like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, built on the premise of cheap transportation, become a thing of the past? Will the misguided experiment of suburbia--considered a birthright and a reality by millions of Americans--collapse when the car culturebecomes obsolete? Riveting and authoritative. "The Long Emergency is a devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore. It is bound to become a classic of social science.

The Long Emergency:

Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century is a book by James Howard Kunstler (Grove/Atlantic, 2005) exploring the consequences of a world oil production peak, coinciding with the forces of climate change, resurgent diseases, water scarcity, global economic instability and warfare to cause chaos for future generations.

The book's principal theme explores the effects of a peak in oil production, predicted by many geologists, on American society as well as the rest of the world. In both this book and in his other writings, Kunstler argues that the economic upheavals caused by peak oil will force Americans to live in more localized, self-sufficient communities.

Kunstler's premise is that "cheap, plentiful" oil is the foundation of industrial society and the pervasiveness of its effects is not widely appreciated. Through the 21st century, oil and natural gas will become increasingly difficult to obtain, becoming increasingly expensive and ultimately unavailable. Scarcity of petroleum will cause significant problems for transportation and generation of electrical power. In addition, shipping of food and manufactured items will become increasingly expensive, ultimately prohibitively so. Also, natural gas is vitally important to food production as it is the raw material for much of commercial crop fertilizers. In the industrialized West, most food production and manufacturing is performed far from, and generally abstracted away from, the end consumer.

The author further argues that alternative sources of energy will be insufficient. As petroleum sources become scarce, environmentally harmful or risky technologies such as coal and nuclear will become necessary but not sufficient for our energy needs. Hydroelectric, solar, and wind power, even in combination with coal and nuclear, will also be far from sufficient. Kunstler does not consider hydrogen to be a true energy source since one cannot drill into the earth and obtain hydrogen. Hydrogen must be extracted from other energy sources, such as natural gas or using electricity at a total net loss of energy.

He states that as energy becomes scarce, transportation will become difficult or impossible, causing food and other necessary commodities to become unavailable in many communities. It will be necessary for local communities to become self-sufficient for food production, but many communities will be unable to do so, particularly large cities. The result will be mass starvation, disease, and civil unrest. Kunstler suggests that governments will be incapable of managing these problems. This period of scarcity and collapse will possibly last for hundreds of years, hence the "long" emergency of the book's title.

Kunstler, a long-time critic of suburban design, advises communities to change to accommodate walking and bicycling as the primary modes of transport. Populations should be moved out of big cities into smaller communities that have nearby arable land with adequate water and favourable climate for agriculture. People should begin learning to grow food.

The book: The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century » Barnes & Noble.com

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

2011-07-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (also titled Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive) is a 2005 book by Jared M. Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at University of California, Los Angeles. Diamond's book deals with "societal collapses involving an environmental component, and in some cases also contributions of climate change, hostile neighbors, and trade partners, plus questions of societal responses" (p. 15). In writing the book Diamond intended that its readers should learn from history (p. 23).

Synopsis
In the prologue, Diamond summarizes Collapse in one paragraph:

“ This book employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute. My previous book (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies), had applied the comparative method to the opposite problem: the differing rates of buildup of human societies on different continents over the last 13,000 years. In the present book focusing on collapses rather than buildups, I compare many past and present societies that differed with respect to environmental fragility, relations with neighbors, political institutions, and other "input" variables postulated to influence a society's stability. The "output" variables that I examine are collapse or survival, and form of the collapse if collapse does occur. By relating output variables to input variables, I aim to tease out the influence of possible input variables on collapses. ” —page 18

Diamond identifies five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt to environmental issues.

He also lists 12 environmental problems facing mankind today. The first eight have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies:

Deforestation and habitat destruction
Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses)
Water management problems
Overhunting
Overfishing
Effects of introduced species on native species
Overpopulation
Increased per-capita impact of people

Further, he says four new factors may contribute to the weakening and collapse of present and future societies:

Anthropogenic climate change
Buildup of toxins in the environment
Energy shortages
Full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity
Diamond also writes about cultural factors, such as the apparent reluctance of the Greenland Norse to eat fish.

The root problem in all but one of Diamond's factors leading to collapse is overpopulation relative to the practicable (as opposed to the ideal theoretical) carrying capacity of the environment. The one factor not related to overpopulation is the harmful effect of accidentally or intentionally introducing nonnative species to a region.

Diamond also states that "it would be absurd to claim that environmental damage must be a major factor in all collapses: the collapse of the Soviet Union is a modern counter-example, and the destruction of Carthage by Rome in 146 BC is an ancient one. It's obviously true that military or economic factors alone may suffice" (p. 15).

Book structure: Collapse is divided into four parts.

Part One describes the environment of the US state of Montana, focusing on the lives of several individuals in order to put a human face on the interplay between society and the environment.

Part Two describes past societies that have collapsed. Diamond uses a "framework" when considering the collapse of a society, consisting of five "sets of factors" that may affect what happens to a society: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trading partners, and the society's own responses to its environmental problems. The societies Diamond describes are:

The Greenland Norse (climate change, environmental damage, loss of trading partners, irrational reluctance to eat fish, hostile neighbors and most unwillingness to adapt in the face of social collapse)
Easter Island (a society that collapsed entirely due to environmental damage)
The Polynesians of Pitcairn Island (environmental damage and loss of trading partners)
The Anasazi of southwestern North America (environmental damage and climate change)
The Maya of Central America (environmental damage, climate change, and hostile neighbours)

Finally, Diamond discusses three past success stories:

The tiny Pacific island of Tikopia
The agricultural success of central New Guinea
The Tokugawa-era forest management in Japan.
Part Three examines modern societies, including:
The collapse into genocide of Rwanda, caused in part by overpopulation
The failure of Haiti compared with the relative success of its neighbour on Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic
The problems facing a developing nation, China
The problems facing a First World nation, Australia

Part Four concludes the study by considering such subjects as business and globalization, and "extracts practical lessons for us today" (p. 22 – 23). Specific attention is given to the polder model as a way Dutch society has addressed its challenges and the "top-down" and most importantly "bottom-up" approaches that we must take now that "our world society is presently on a non-sustainable course" (p. 498) in order to avoid the "12 problems of non-sustainability" that he expounds throughout the book, and reviews in the final chapter. The results of this survey are perhaps why Diamond sees "signs of hope" nevertheless and arrives at a position of "cautious optimism" for all our futures.

Easter Island collapse

Jared Diamond's thesis that Easter Island society collapsed in isolation entirely due to environmental damage is contested by ethnographers and archaeologists who argue that the introduction of diseases carried by European colonizers and slave raiding, which devastated the population in the 1800s, had a much greater social impact than environmental decline and that introduced animals, first rats and then sheep, were greatly responsible for the island's loss of native flora which came closest to deforestation as late as 1930-1960.

Reviews

Tim Flannery gave Collapse the highest praise in Science, writing

"... the fact that one of the world's most original thinkers has chosen to pen this mammoth work when his career is at his apogee is itself a persuasive argument that Collapse must be taken seriously. It is probably the most important book you will ever read. "

The Economist's review was generally favorable, although the reviewer had two disagreements. First, the reviewer felt Diamond was not optimistic enough about the future. Secondly, the reviewer claimed Collapse contains some erroneous statistics: for instance, Diamond supposedly overstated the number of starving people in the world. University of British Columbia professor of ecological planning William Rees wrote that Collapse's most important lesson is that societies most able to avoid collapse are the ones that are most agile; they are able to adopt practices favorable to their own survival and avoid unfavorable ones. Moreoever, Rees wrote that Collapse is "a necessary antidote" to followers of Julian Simon, such as Bjørn Lomborg who authored The Skeptical Environmentalist. Rees explained this assertion as follows:

"Human behaviour towards the ecosphere has become dysfunctional and now arguably threatens our own long-term security. The real problem is that the modern world remains in the sway of a dangerously illusory cultural myth. Like Lomborg, most governments and international agencies seem to believe that the human enterprise is somehow 'decoupling' from the environment, and so is poised for unlimited expansion. Jared Diamond's new book, Collapse, confronts this contradiction head-on. "

In a recent edition of Energy and Environment, Jennifer Marohasy of the Institute of Public Affairs has a critical review of Collapse, in particular its chapter on Australia’s environmental degradation. Marohasy claims that Diamond reflects a popular view that is reinforced by environmental campaigning in Australia, but which is not supported by evidence, and argues that many of his claims are easily disproved.

In his review in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell highlights the way in which Diamond's approach differs from traditional historians by focusing on environmental issues rather than cultural questions.

Diamond’s distinction between social and biological survival is a critical one, because too often we blur the two, or assume that biological survival is contingent on the strength of our civilizational values... The fact is, though, that we can be law-abiding and peace-loving and tolerant and inventive and committed to freedom and true to our own values and still behave in ways that are biologically suicidal.

While Diamond doesn't reject the approach of traditional historians, his book, according to Gladwell, vividly illustrates the limitations of that approach. Gladwell demonstrates this with his own example of a recent ballot initiative in Oregon, where questions of property rights and other freedoms were subject to a free and healthy debate, but serious ecological questions were given scant attention.

In 2006 the book was shortlisted for The Aventis Prizes for Science Books award, eventually losing out to David Bodanis' Electric Universe.

Similar theories

Arnold J. Toynbee in A Study of History (1934–1961) also studied the collapse of civilizations. Diamond agrees with Toynbee that "civilizations die from suicide, not by murder" when they fail to meet the challenges of their times. However, where Toynbee argues that the root cause of collapse is the decay of a society's "creative minority" into "a position of inherited privilege which it has ceased to merit", Diamond ascribes more weight to conscious minimization of environmental factors.

From another angle, U.S. historian Joseph Tainter in The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988) argues that observable causes of collapse such as environmental degradation ultimately result from diminishing returns on investments in energy, education and technological innovation.

The Canadian author Ronald Wright penned a similar but shorter book-length essay A Short History of Progress in 2004. Wright surveys fewer societies in less detail than Diamond, but begins much earlier in human prehistory with the worldwide slaughter of megafauna whenever and wherever humans migrated to new lands in the Stone Age, including Neanderthal man. His conclusions did not share the "cautious optimism" of Diamond.

In 1966 American historian and polymath Carroll Quigley explored sociocultural evolution and posited economic & political theories for collapse.

In 2010, National Geographic released the documentary film Collapse based on Diamond's book.

Jared Mason Diamond

Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA. He is best known for the award-winning popular science books The Third Chimpanzee; Guns, Germs, and Steel; and Collapse.

Diamond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Bessarabian Jewish family. His father was the physician Louis K. Diamond, and his mother the teacher, musician, and linguist Flora Kaplan. He attended the Roxbury Latin School, earning his A.B. from Harvard College in 1958, and his Ph.D. in physiology and membrane biophysics from the University of Cambridge in 1961.

After graduating from Cambridge, he returned to Harvard as a Junior Fellow until 1965, and, in 1968, became Professor of Physiology at UCLA Medical School. While in his twenties, he also developed a second, parallel, career in the ornithology of New Guinea, and has since undertaken numerous research projects in New Guinea and nearby islands. In his fifties, Diamond gradually developed a third career in environmental history, and became Professor of Geography at UCLA, his current position. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Westfield State University in 2009.

The Book: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed » Barnes & Noble.com

Global Warming For Dummies

2011-07-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Understand global warming and what you can do to make a positive difference! Fiercely debated in the political arena and constantly splashed across the media, global warming is a hot topic. Global Warming For Dummies sorts out fact from fiction, explaining the science behind climate change and examining the possible long-term effects of a warmer planet. This friendly guide helps readers explore solutions to this challenging problem, from what governments and industry can do to what readers can do at home and how to get involved. Understanding the greenhouse effect discover how greenhouse gases affect the planet's atmosphere Tracking down the causes investigate how society has caused a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere Examining global warming's effects see the changes already taking place around the world and look at what scientists project for the future Switching to renewable energy find out about carbon-free alternative energy sources Going green in business explore how companies in every sector can help stop global warming while helping their bottom line Taking action check out dozens of ways you can be a part of the solution, from what you eat to what you wear to how you heat your home A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Sierra Club of Canada Foundation.Open the book and find How human activity is altering Earth's atmosphere What could happen when polar ice melts Which species could disappear if global warming continues Carbon-reduction success stories from around the world What the Kyoto Protocol is and what it means How the sun, wind, earth, and ocean can all provide clean sources of energy You can fight global warming by hopping on a bike or painting your roof white...

More: Global Warming For Dummies » Barnes & Noble.com

The Collapse of Complex Societies

2011-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.

Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future.

Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses.

Any explanation of political collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all complex societies in both the present and future. Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses.

Tainter argues that societies collapse when their investments in social complexity reach a point of diminishing marginal returns. According to Tainter, societies become more complex as they try to solve problems. Social complexity can include differentiated social and economic roles, reliance on symbolic and abstract communication, and the existence of a class of information producers and analysts who are not involved in primary resource production. Such complexity requires a substantial "energy" subsidy (meaning resources, or other forms of wealth). When a society confronts a "problem," such as a shortage of or difficulty in gaining access to energy, it tends to create new layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, or social class to address the challenge. Eventually, this cost grows so great that any new challenges such as invasions and crop failures cannot be solved by the acquisition of more territory. At that point, the empire fragments into smaller units.

Joseph A. Tainter (Born December 8, 1949) is a U.S. anthropologist and historian.

Tainter studied anthropology at the University of California and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975. He is currently a professor in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. His previous positions include Project Leader of Cultural Heritage Research, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico and professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Tainter is the author or editor of many articles and monographs. His best-known work is The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), which examines the collapse of Maya and Chacoan civilizations, and the Roman Empire, in terms of network theory, energy economics and complexity theory. Tainter argues that sustainability or collapse of societies follow from the success or failure of problem-solving institutions and that societies collapse when their investments in social complexity and their "energy subsidies" reach a point of diminishing marginal returns. He recognizes collapse when a society rapidly sheds a significant portion of its complexity.

Social complexity

According to Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies, societies become more complex as they try to solve problems. Social complexity can be recognized by numerous differentiated and specialised social and economic roles and many mechanisms through which they are coordinated, and by reliance on symbolic and abstract communication, and the existence of a class of information producers and analysts who are not involved in primary resource production. Such complexity requires a substantial "energy" subsidy (meaning the consumption of resources, or other forms of wealth). When a society confronts a "problem," such as a shortage of energy, or difficulty in gaining access to it, it tends to create new layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, or social class to address the challenge. Tainter, who first (ch. 1) identifies seventeen examples of rapid collapse of societies, applies his model to three case studies: The Western Roman Empire, the Maya civilization, and the Chaco culture.

For example, as Roman agricultural output slowly declined and population increased, per-capita energy availability dropped. The Romans "solved" this problem by conquering their neighbours to appropriate their energy surpluses (in concrete forms, as metals, grain, slaves, etc.). However, as the Empire grew, the cost of maintaining communications, garrisons, civil government, etc. grew with it. Eventually, this cost grew so great that any new challenges such as invasions and crop failures could not be solved by the acquisition of more territory. Intense, authoritarian efforts to maintain cohesion by Domitian and Constantine the Great only led to an ever greater strain on the population. The empire was split into two halves, of which the western soon fragmented into smaller units. The eastern half, being wealthier, was able to survive longer, and did not collapse but instead succumbed slowly and piecemeal, because unlike the western empire it had powerful neighbors able to take advantage of its weakness.

We often assume that the collapse of the western Roman Empire was a catastrophe for everyone involved. Tainter points out that it can be seen as a very rational preference of individuals at the time, many of whom were actually better off. Archeological evidence from human bones indicates that average nutrition actually improved after the collapse in many parts of the former Roman Empire. Average individuals may have benefited because they no longer had to invest in the burdensome complexity of empire. Tainter notes that in the west, local populations in many cases greeted the barbarians as liberators.

Diminishing returns

Tainter begins by categorizing and examining the often inconsistent explanations that have been offered for collapse in the literature. In Tainter's view, while invasions, crop failures, disease or environmental degradation may be the apparent causes of societal collapse, the ultimate cause is an economic one, inherent in the structure of society rather than in external shocks which may batter them: diminishing returns on investments in social complexity. For contrast, Jared Diamond's 2005 book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, focuses on environmental mismanagement as a cause of collapse. Finally, Tainter musters modern statistics to show that marginal returns on investments in energy, education and technological innovation are diminishing today. The globalised modern world is subject to many of the same stresses that brought older societies to ruin.

However, Tainter is not entirely apocalyptic: "When some new input to an economic system is brought on line, whether a technical innovation or an energy subsidy, it will often have the potential at least temporarily to raise marginal productivity" (p. 124). Thus, barring continual conquest of your neighbors (which is always subject to diminishing returns), innovation that increases productivity is – in the long run – the only way out of the dismal science dilemma of declining marginal returns on added investments in complexity.

His paper Complexity, Problem Solving, and Sustainable Societies (1996) focuses on the energy cost of problem solving, and the energy-complexity relation in manmade systems.

The Book: The Collapse of Complex Societies » Barnes & Noble.com

2011-01-14T03:28:00.001-08:00

EPA's takeover of permitting to have little short-term impact here - San Antonio Business Journal http://ping.fm/C9XxF

2011-01-14T03:02:00.001-08:00

EPA ban causes uproar - Daily Mail - Charleston http://ping.fm/xnH4n

2011-01-14T02:47:00.001-08:00

Federal deal on Indiana coal plants aims to clear Chicago's air - Chicago Tribune http://ping.fm/Okd90

2011-01-14T02:03:00.001-08:00

As the water retreats, the great mop-up begins - Sydney Morning Herald http://ping.fm/n1ETk

2011-01-14T01:55:00.001-08:00

Study by dump shows chemicals at safe level - The Gouverneur Times http://ping.fm/Y2EzD

2011-01-14T01:36:00.001-08:00

EPA seeking input before finalizing Texas rules - Houston Chronicle http://ping.fm/DCYGE

2011-01-14T01:26:00.001-08:00

EPA seeking input before finalizing Texas rules - Victoria Advocate http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNE4sU-eOrNgx81Hr0H9kVIR0LAa_w&url=http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2011/jan/14/bc-tx-epa-vs-texas/?business%26business-wire

2011-01-14T01:16:00.001-08:00

EPA seeking input before finalizing Texas rules - Fort Worth Star Telegram http://ping.fm/p5kZ4

2011-01-14T01:15:00.001-08:00

EPA seeking input before finalizing Texas rules - Austin American-Statesman http://ping.fm/qrCLk

2011-01-13T23:47:00.001-08:00

EPA Yanks Permit for West Virgina's Largest Mountaintop Removal Mine - Environment News Service http://ping.fm/j5GKn

2011-01-13T21:23:00.001-08:00

Metro Water Replaces Pipes Once Mains Break - WSMV Nashville http://ping.fm/Hwc8W

2011-01-13T16:46:00.001-08:00

police won't repay misspent environmental funds - MiamiHerald.com http://ping.fm/RUiUk

2011-01-13T16:41:00.003-08:00

Obama Administration Reverses a Mountaintop Removal Permit - Reuters http://ping.fm/ZLMnX

2011-01-13T16:41:00.001-08:00

City delays picking contractor to demolish Holly Street Power Plant - KVUE http://ping.fm/h2XRk

2011-01-13T16:12:00.003-08:00

EPA vetoes mountaintop coal mine in West Virginia - MiamiHerald.com http://ping.fm/AEJPd

2011-01-13T16:12:00.001-08:00

Frustration on global warming deepens for supporters of climate change bill - The Hill (blog) http://ping.fm/Pko8d

2011-01-13T14:32:00.005-08:00

Deal would clear up coal-plant pollution - Chicago Tribune http://ping.fm/0DdmD

2011-01-13T14:32:00.003-08:00

EPA vetoes mountaintop coal mine in West Virginia - McClatchy Washington Bureau http://ping.fm/fLb08

2011-01-13T14:32:00.001-08:00

Marcellus shale drilling poses serious environmental risks - Allentown Morning Call http://ping.fm/KtIxu

2011-01-13T14:03:00.003-08:00

The EPA's Discontents - Mother Jones http://ping.fm/sgzai

2011-01-13T14:03:00.001-08:00

Villaraigosa celebrates Los Angeles DWP milestone: 20% of power from renewable ... - Los Angeles Times http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFNXamIpTXIPL8Ejtoa4Iw2V0c6Pg&url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/los-angeles-dwp-marks-20-percent-of-power-from-renewable-sources.html

2011-01-13T12:04:00.001-08:00

Providence to lower fluoride levels in city water supply - Warwick Beacon http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH26TyG5nWBEGVyPOWkhgP8zf8Ncg&url=http://www.warwickonline.com/view/full_story_news/10997254/article-Providence-to-lower-fluoride-levels-in-city-water-supply?instance%3Dsecondary_stories_left_column

2011-01-13T11:47:00.001-08:00

US environmental agency revokes mine's permit for mountaintop removal - The Guardian http://ping.fm/gPTDf

2011-01-13T11:45:00.001-08:00

NiSource To Pay $600M To Settle EPA Violation Claims - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/G6Gpt

2011-01-13T11:44:00.001-08:00

EPA Halts "Destructive and Unsustainable" Mining Operation - Mother Jones http://ping.fm/sbEHs

2011-01-13T11:29:00.001-08:00

WSSC Asks EPA for Guidance on Hexavalent Chromium - Patch http://ping.fm/axigP

2011-01-13T10:41:00.003-08:00

EPA's decision on biomass power wins Maine praise - Bloomberg http://ping.fm/HG5Ju

2011-01-13T10:41:00.001-08:00

EPA vetoes water permit for W.Va. mountaintop mine - The Associated Press http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNErOEb1DYCDY5hc0Ns2v989vYH52Q&url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUfe-wNNrzfQsE8_yayGUnOspseg?docId%3D98b61258eb3c42e68bea28660073ea4b

2011-01-13T08:43:00.001-08:00

Former flea market poses threat to groundwater - Water Technology Online http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH1FxGkRFPmP5HOinrrDzYTgdA51Q&url=http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID%3D75611

2011-01-13T08:37:00.001-08:00

EPA files lawsuit over eastern Mo. power plant - Bloomberg http://ping.fm/oosGf

2011-01-13T08:34:00.001-08:00

Report: Climate Change Information Is Insufficient - Environmental Leader http://ping.fm/TeHEj

2011-01-13T08:29:00.001-08:00

Defensive maneuvers at ITT - The Daily Deal http://ping.fm/8mNHX

2011-01-13T08:25:00.001-08:00

Fluoride levels in some water supplies may be coming down - PhysOrg.com http://ping.fm/g8CD2

2011-01-13T08:21:00.001-08:00

Agency Revokes Permit for Major Coal Mining Project - New York Times http://ping.fm/icJNX

2011-01-13T08:18:00.001-08:00

EPA crackdown on greenhouse gases starts in Florida power plants - istockAnalyst.com (press release) http://ping.fm/kEfdc

2011-01-13T08:17:00.001-08:00

EPA Revokes Permit for Arch Coal Mine - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/Buh5H

2011-01-13T08:03:00.001-08:00

UCSD Climate Change Scientists Pioneering New Tracking Tool - KPBS http://ping.fm/BP686

2011-01-13T07:28:00.001-08:00

Where Do Whales Winter? - Fox News http://ping.fm/zR2bt

2011-01-13T07:15:00.003-08:00

EPA Calls For Stricter Chromium Testing In Drinking Water - RedOrbit http://ping.fm/qsSXZ

2011-01-13T07:15:00.001-08:00

Series of earthquakes hits California's Central Coast region - Los Angeles Times http://ping.fm/OFyFx

2011-01-13T06:49:00.003-08:00

ITT Corp. To Split Into Three - Daily Markets http://ping.fm/PDBqX

2011-01-13T06:49:00.001-08:00

flood teen's sacrifice to save brother - CNN International http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHR1c_qvSo2Qj5RzFDDmj-pAHfpLQ&url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/flood.teenager/?hpt%3DC1

2011-01-13T06:46:00.001-08:00

EPA Grants Greenhouse-Gas Rule Exemption - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/YGJMD

2011-01-13T06:40:00.003-08:00

PSEG To Sell 2 Texas Power Plants For $687M >PEG - Wall Street Journal http://ping.fm/lLyyh

2011-01-13T06:40:00.001-08:00

ITT Corp. to Split into Three - Zacks.com http://ping.fm/P3RfC

2011-01-13T06:13:00.003-08:00

YDR Opinion: Fluoride still a benefit - York Daily Record http://ping.fm/RD05z

2011-01-13T06:13:00.001-08:00

Portland Water Bureau to follow new EPA guidelines for hexavalent chromium ... - OregonLive.com (blog) http://ping.fm/gnFqP

2011-01-13T04:13:00.001-08:00

Three recent quakes rattle nerves, raise questions - San Jose Mercury News http://ping.fm/TPWns

2011-01-13T03:54:00.001-08:00

EPA's decision on biomass power wins Maine praise - NECN http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHJGc0OM-p0k70nFomV1PfgwljwTA&url=http://www.necn.com/01/13/11/EPAs-decision-on-biomass-power-wins-Main/landing_scitech.html?%26blockID%3D3%26apID%3D5d76cd10adbe4a15b779c2fada7fa4e8

2011-01-13T03:14:00.001-08:00

Defense contractor ITT will split into three separate companies - TheDay.com http://ping.fm/5d0GQ

2011-01-13T03:12:00.001-08:00

Texas Companies Navigate Environmental Agencies' Differences - Texas Tribune http://ping.fm/ZKUla

2011-01-13T02:13:00.001-08:00

Two quakes hit hours apart - The Salinas Californian http://ping.fm/LSuCu

2011-01-13T01:41:00.003-08:00

ITT Corporation to Spin Off Water, Defense Businesses - EP Magazine http://ping.fm/eKkbs

2011-01-13T01:41:00.001-08:00

US orders more testing of chromium-6 in tap water - AFP http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNE7enYE5I8oTIftGeIXQ_TvGLX3xg&url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jiB6f7czaq7wGWwGNezp2Gw44iUA?docId%3DCNG.7e25f7c5d89565fea10627f109f43804.c81

2011-01-12T23:38:00.001-08:00

Court denies Texas attempt to delay CO2 rules - Reuters UK http://ping.fm/36akx

2011-01-12T23:32:00.001-08:00

Local Family Dentist discusses Fluoride Levels for Frisco - Frisco Texas News http://ping.fm/v16D1

2011-01-12T22:40:00.001-08:00

MUD to test for chromium-6 - Omaha World-Herald http://ping.fm/OGNMg

2011-01-12T22:12:00.001-08:00

Norman plans unofficial water testing for chromium-6 - NewsOK.com http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEt5IiiMRTdtwz6HBMCo0MJugJ6ag&url=http://www.newsok.com/norman-plans-unofficial-water-testing-for-chromium-6/article/3531807?custom_click%3Dpod_headline_health

2011-01-12T22:05:00.001-08:00

Cold front hinders fishing efforts - Tbo.com http://ping.fm/dFAtR

2011-01-12T21:57:00.001-08:00

Irvine Lake at max water level; first stocking of 14- to 20-pound trophy ... - Los Angeles Times http://ping.fm/Ebq9n

2011-01-12T21:21:00.001-08:00

2 earthquakes rattle rural area south of San Jose - San Francisco Chronicle http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHekbnyC4QOGikWyKA_QUNlnV9AHQ&url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f%3D/n/a/2011/01/12/state/n204438S15.DTL%26tsp%3D1

2011-01-12T18:10:00.001-08:00

A Global Sensor Network Launches to Fight Climate Change - Reuters http://ping.fm/7vrGm

2011-01-12T15:50:00.001-08:00

ITT split creates intriguing but pricey M&A targets - Reuters http://ping.fm/yVf45

2011-01-12T15:30:00.001-08:00

Bangor to reduce fluoride in water - Bangor Daily News http://ping.fm/AEueM

2011-01-12T15:05:00.001-08:00

EPA delays climate rules for biomass industry - Washington Post (blog) http://ping.fm/EKaui

2011-01-12T14:44:00.003-08:00

Crow leaders, Tester push $461M water settlement - BusinessWeek http://ping.fm/hGLLa

2011-01-12T14:44:00.001-08:00

EPA eases up on pollution from biomass power - BusinessWeek http://ping.fm/CERcU

2011-01-12T14:39:00.001-08:00

ITT Corp. splitting into 3 separate companies - BusinessWeek http://ping.fm/Bws3G

2011-01-12T14:34:00.003-08:00

ITT Corporation Divides into 3 Companies - ThirdAge http://ping.fm/NpeAF

2011-01-12T14:34:00.001-08:00

Global warming waning? Hardly. 2010 was tied as warmest year on record. - Christian Science Monitor http://ping.fm/cHqI8

2011-01-12T14:07:00.003-08:00

EPA Capitulates to Timber, Biomass Industries on Global Warming Pollution - Center for Biological Diversity (press ... http://ping.fm/Afv0T

2011-01-12T14:07:00.001-08:00

Water line repaired, water restored to residents of Hardin, Mo. - Kansas City Star http://ping.fm/mtzuQ

2011-01-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

AWWA : Proposed Fluoride Recommendations - Water and Wastewater http://ping.fm/0zsC5

2011-01-12T11:53:00.001-08:00

Clean water EPA contract awarded to Tetra Tech - Water World http://ping.fm/DLuyH