The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0493.136 2000-2002 ~f 4 Curlris Tyler From: "Josephine Keliipio" <josephine@poidogs.com> '1`0: "Harold Murata" <zarley2k@msn.com>; "Duane & Marjorie" <erwayd001@hawaii.rr.com>; "Jerry Rothstein" <jerry@turquoise.net>; "Jack Kelly" <konajack@earthlink.net>; "Mike Varney" <sundot@ilhawaii.net>; "Mikahala Roy (E-mail)" <mikihala@ilhawaii.net>; "Cindy Punihaole (E-mail)" <cpunihaole@kukio.com> Cc: "Curtis Tyler" <ctyler@interpac.net>; "Nancy Pisicchio" <cckona@interpac.net>; "Jeff Turner" <emerald@konacoast.com> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 1:55 AM Subject: Learning from our Past and never repeating mistakes again The message from this article needs to be conveyed throughout all General Plan policies BEFORE we dive into our regional plans, folks. Perspectives flme w ~ G S Saving Grace A Timely Warning from Easter Island IN FIFTY YEARS, the biggest problem facing us will be our relationship with the environment. So predicts Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prizewinning author and professor of physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who recently spoke at RAND. "The most important variable that determines the future is how well we succeed at integrating human communities with natural environments," said Diamond. He said that the course we're on today cannot be sustained for more than a few decades. Eventually, environmental problems will be resolved-either by our actions or by our inaction. Diamond listed several environmental problems that threaten societies today: deforestation, soil erosion, unavailability of fresh water, excessive fishing, loss of biodiversity, depletion of the ozone layer, accumulation of toxins, climate change, and overconsumption of resources by humans. "Think of these problems, and one can get pessimistic," said Diamond. "But one can be hopeful, because the risk we face today is not the risk of an asteroid-something beyond our control. These problems are entirely of our own making. So the outcome will depend entirely on our laws and policies." We're lucky because we can learn from the past, he said. Thousands of past societies all serve as experiments. People in those societies lived in different environments, had different laws, and arrived at different outcomes. The results offer many lessons for today's laws and policies. Why Some Societies Die "There have been societies that have gone on for thousands of years where there has been no sign of environmental decline-for instance, Japan, Java, Corxam, No® and the Inca empire," said Diamond. On the other hand, "there were societies where everyone ended up dead for failure to solve their environmental File No. problems." ~f, ~~~:4~~ Ref. Date nc°T 0 ~ 2002 9/16/02 Page 2 of 4 The simplest example of an environmental disaster is Easter Island. An isolated scrap of grassland about 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile, it was the easternmost outpost of Polynesia. Today, it's a barren island without native trees, known primarily for its gigantic stone statues. The native people had developed the sophistication to carve their 80-ton monoliths with stone tools and transport them miles down a mountain to erect them on platforms. But when Europeans arrived in 1722, the native society was in a state of collapse. The residents were even pulling down their own statues. The mysteries surrounding how this society evolved and why it collapsed have recently been solved. According to Diamond, when Polynesians arrived around the year A.D. 400 the island supported a subtropical forest and the world's biggest palm tree variety. Once settled, the Easter Islanders began chopping down the trees for agriculture, canoes, fuel, and monuments. The inhabitants carried on this deforestation for hundreds of years. Then one day, they chopped down the last palm tree. Without trees, the soil eroded, agriculture declined, and canoes disappeared. The people stopped erecting statues. The island was transformed from a traditional Polynesian society to one dominated by military cliques. Ultimately, cannibalism ensued, because there was only one source of protein left on the island: humans. What went wrong on Easter Island seems obvious to us today. But Diamond maintains that future generations will similarly shake their heads at us and at our laws and policies if we continue to make a mess of things. He predicted that a hundred years from now, people might ask, "How on earth did those Americans and Europeans not see the obvious environmental things going on?" Why Some Societies Survive Diamond cited two reasons why some societies survive longer than others do. The first is the lucky absence of bad advice. "Today, Western experts frequently go out to dry areas of Africa and Asia and tell the nomads to settle down. In about 10 or 20 years, the result is disaster, because settling down makes sense in Europe or the United States, but it doesn't make sense in a relatively dry area. Nomadism is a response that's evolved over thousands of years to avoid these problems." The second reason for a society's longevity is the fairness of its laws and policies, specifically those that can reconcile clashes of interest. Diamond categorized disputes into three types: those between the powerful elite and the rest of society, those between regions, and those between generations. Clashes between the elite and the rest of society can be seen in the United States today, especially if the policy of the current administration is to insulate members of the elite from the consequences of their actions, said 9/ 16/02 Page 3 of 4 Diamond. "But this is not just a governmental issue. It's also an issue of business law and policy." He said that recent corporate scandals-including Enron-demonstrate how the interests of the corporate elite can be at odds with the interests of the rest of the company. The elite cannot be insulated forever against the damage that it causes, however. If nothing else, Enron proved that the actions of the elite could bring down not only the company, but also the elite itself. "What's good for the elite in the short run is likely to be bad for the rest of society in the short run," said Diamond, "and bad for everybody in the long run." Regional disagreements also need to be resolved. What's good for one area may be bad for another. If Iowa farmers dump toxic runoff into the water table, the water ends up in the Mississippi River and then in the Gulf of Mexico. Fishermen in the Gulf lose income because of farmers in the Midwest. The third type of clash is between generations. "What's good for us may be bad for our children-if we draw down our environmental capital, making it unavailable to them," said Diamond. He cited aquifers, forests, fisheries, and topsoil as assets that we are exploiting too quickly. This kind of unsustainable consumption, he warned, is "ultimately what did in all the past societies that failed." CLIFF WASSMANN AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS/PAT 5ULLIVAN Easter Island monoliths and Enron logo: icons of fallen cultures. To resolve these conflicts between classes, regions, and generations, Diamond urged that governments begin by removing subsidies that reward people for environmentally destructive behavior. "Much local development in the United States involves governments supporting developers by putting in roads and water. Much agriculture in the United States-and most major fisheries in the world-would not be economical without government subsidies." He further suggested that governments subsidize environmentally friendly services instead. "There are two big things today that might make one want to jump out the window or decide not to have children," said Diamond. "Today, there are far more people alive with far more destructive power than at any time in the past. Easter Islanders managed to ruin their environment with 10,000 people and stone tools. Today, there are six billion with metal tools." The other cause for pessimism today is globalization. "When Easter Island collapsed, it didn't affect anybody else in the world," said Diamond. "Today, when the most remote country in the world collapses, say Afghanistan or Somalia, it's not just a local collapse. Because of globalization, every part of the world is connected to another part through diseases, terrorism, etc. The risk we face today is not like Easter Island-but a collapse of global society." 9/16/02 Page 4 of 4 The good news is that we can learn from the past. "When I'm asked whether I'm an optimist or pessimist about the future, I say that I'm a cautious optimist," said Diamond. "We have problems, but the problems are ones of human making. Therefore, if we choose to solve them, we could." 9/16/02