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Seems like ecocide only gets pulled out as a theory for mysterious culture collapse when the next best alternative is "I have absolutely no idea." Are we reall

Seems like ecocide only gets pulled out as a theory for mysterious culture collapse when the next best alternative is "I have absolutely no idea." Are we really scraping the bottom of the barrel here and dreaming up something that probably didn't happen, or are there genuine, on the record, circumstances of well known and understood communities accidentally committing some sort of (minor to catastrophic?) ecocide on themselves that they had to deal with? Eg. Messing up their home and having to move on.

addaon 6y ago
The loss of trees on Pacific islands seems like a decent example.
- thrower123 6y ago
  The toy examples of Polynesian islands get a lot of play here, although if you rule out the extremely marginal and isolated places like Henderson, Pitcairn and Easter islands, there's not much to go on.
bartread 6y ago
They've never taken out a settlement the size of a city but there have been a couple of tailings dam collapses in recent years that have led to the deaths of (in one case) 270 people and (in the other) displacements of hundreds of people, along with widespread downstream pollution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_dam_disaster Then of course there's the drying up of the Aral Sea starting in the second half of the 20th century, due primarily to the diversion of the rivers that feed it for the purpose of irrigation, which has had a devastating effect on the surrounding communities that used to depend on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
thamer 6y ago
This reminds me of the theory that the Rapa Nui on Easter Island also suffered from self-inflicted "ecocide", cutting down all their trees to build their legendary Moai statues and ending up with no birds, unstable soil, erosion… all that comes with it. This narrative resonates with a lot of people given our current climate crisis and can seem like an ominous warning, but it is also disputed. Here's an article supporting this theory: https://writingscience.web.unc.edu/2017/09/the-ecocide-of-easter-island/ https://writingscience.web.unc.edu/2017/09/the-ecocide-of-ea... An one debunking it: https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-sustainable-society-has-been-falsely-blamed-for-its-own-demise-85563 https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-...

addaon 6y ago

The loss of trees on Pacific islands seems like a decent example.

thrower123 6y ago
The toy examples of Polynesian islands get a lot of play here, although if you rule out the extremely marginal and isolated places like Henderson, Pitcairn and Easter islands, there's not much to go on.

bartread 6y ago

They've never taken out a settlement the size of a city but there have been a couple of tailings dam collapses in recent years that have led to the deaths of (in one case) 270 people and (in the other) displacements of hundreds of people, along with widespread downstream pollution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_dam_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_dam_disaster Then of course there's the drying up of the Aral Sea starting in the second half of the 20th century, due primarily to the diversion of the rivers that feed it for the purpose of irrigation, which has had a devastating effect on the surrounding communities that used to depend on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

thamer 6y ago

This reminds me of the theory that the Rapa Nui on Easter Island also suffered from self-inflicted "ecocide", cutting down all their trees to build their legendary Moai statues and ending up with no birds, unstable soil, erosion… all that comes with it. This narrative resonates with a lot of people given our current climate crisis and can seem like an ominous warning, but it is also disputed. Here's an article supporting this theory: https://writingscience.web.unc.edu/2017/09/the-ecocide-of-easter-island/ https://writingscience.web.unc.edu/2017/09/the-ecocide-of-ea... An one debunking it: https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-sustainable-society-has-been-falsely-blamed-for-its-own-demise-85563 https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-...