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DCL
A new study published in the journal Latin American Antiquity explains how the ancient Nazca civilization (between 500 and 600 A.D) of south coastal Peru collapsed after they destroyed local forests to make way for agriculture, thus exposing the landscape to wind and flood erosion. These findings are in line with what the Pulitzer-winning author Jared Diamond argues in his book Collapse.
Dr. Diamond lists eight factors which have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies: 1) Deforestation and habitat destruction, 2) Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), 3) Water management problems, 4) Overhunting, 5) Overfishing, 6) Effects of introduced species on native species, 7) Overpopulation, 8) Increased per-capita impact of people.
The first three are directly tied to the effects of massive deforestation. This is scary because we recently learned that the U.S. and Canada destroyed more forest than Brazil between 2000-2005, and that deforestation in Brazil is increasing again.
I don't think that this literally mean that we are about to suffer the fate of the Nazca or the people who lived on Easter Island when its ecosystems collapsed, but we should look at those past catastrophes and learn from them. As they say, if we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.
What I'd like to see more countries do is what Canada has just done, protecting 170 million acres of forest, an area the size of Texas. These forests provide us with so many benefits even without cutting down a single tree, they're a good investment for the future.
Via Discovery News
