Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

On Jared Diamond and Environmental Law

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I had mentioned that I was reviewing Chapter 13 of Jared Diamond’s not so new book ‘Collapse’.

There have been some offline requests for copies of the review which has now been published by British Journal Energy and Environment. The chapter can be downloaded from the IPA website at,

http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/publisting_detail.asp?pubid=443 .

I recently also completed a paper for the AFFA inquiry to ‘secure a profitable and sustainable agriculture and food sector in Australia’. This long submission includes some detailed recommendations including the need to overhaul environmental regulation and legislation in Australia. It can be downloaded here,

http://www.agfoodgroup.gov.au/publications/Institute%20of%20Public%20Affairs.pdf .

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Walter Starck says

    Your examination of Diamond’s claims is remarkable in that it’s not just a matter of interpretation or conflicting evidence or even simply an occasional error but rather an entire litany of claims that are without basis and directly contrary to the readily available and undisputed evidence. The truly amazing thing is that such baseless doomscrying is so widely accepted and even lauded. Worse yet, it is perceived to be scientifically based and is readily subscribed to by many scientists. The whole thing only underscores how divorced from reality the whole environmental debate has become.
    You may find my own comments on Diamond’s books of some interest as well. They can be seen at http://starckreality.goldendolphin.com/

  2. Michael Duffy says

    I found the fawning acceptance of Diamond’s error-strewn comments on Australia quite depressing. They say we used to have the cultural cringe but got over it, but I’m not so sure. Sometimes it seems the opposite. I don’t think we would have embraced such ignorance of our landscape in a foreigner 100 years ago.

  3. Roger Kalla says

    The clear and present danger is that the view of Australia presented by Jared Diamond in Chapter 13 of Collapse now is being accepted by editors of international scientific journals (Nature 436:778 -779; 2005) as a true representation of the state of the environment in Australia.

    We need to urgently address the unbalanced view of Australia as the environmental crash test dummy heading for the concrete wall at 80 km/h perpetrated by Jared and seemingly accepted as the truth by Natures editor in chief.

  4. Louis Hissink says

    I have Diamond’s book but have not yet read it fully. That said, there are serious changes in pastoral management occurring in the bush, at least in the Murchison region which is my exploration bailiwick for the forseeable future (250 scale sheets Glenburgh, Robinson Range, Byro, Belele, Murgoo, Cue, Yalgoo and Kirkalocka).

    While the last 150 years has seen a significant geomorphological reaction to alien species (Sheet and goats), exemplified by specific high erosion areas, the landscape has re-equilibrated and while water under the bridge, and thus cannot be reversed, serious actions are now being taken by the pastoralists to further improve the situation.

    It is unlikely I will read all of Diamond’s Collapse, so I cannot criticise any of his conclusion, (leaving that to others), but I do suspect his book, like climate change, is but the latest mutation of the “Millennial Angst” which afflicts humanity periodically.

    On that basis I suspect it might well be ignored.