Tuesday, October 26, 2004
In my archaeology class, we talked about an ancient Mayan city-state called Copan. Located in modern day Honduras, the kingdom of Copan flourished from circa 600AD to 783AD, during which the civilization built stately government compounds, elegant monuments, and even large athletic arenas. The abrupt decline of Copan after the 8th century, to a sparsely populated collection of farming communities, had been a mystery to Meso-American archaeologists ever since the discovery of the ruins of Copan in the early 20th century.
However, after many years of careful study, today's archaeologists believe that the collapse of the Copan civilization was the result of an ecological collapse in the Copan valley, brought about by centuries of slash and burn agriculture and environmental abuse by its human population. The degradation of the land from overexploitation led to agricultural failure, which inevitably resulted in a loss of population and the demise of the state. Today, all that remains of the Copan civilization are crumbling stone structures and stelae recording the achievements of the Copan kings.
The story of Copan reminds us that no matter how advanced or technological our human made civilizations may become, we remain critically dependent on the natural environment for our daily lives. A subtle change in the environment, as a result of nothing more than neglect, can suddenly bring about the decline or collapse of entire states and cultures.
This lesson may not seem relevant to our global industrialized culture today. After all, it seems to us that nothing so localized as crop failure or ecological change could disrupt our lives. However, industrialized civilization changes its environment on a much larger scale than the residents of Copan could ever have imagined, by changing the chemical makeup of the planet's atmosphere, and thereby modifying global climate. In America, this is especially troubling, considering the current administration's commitment to fossil fuels, and its refusal to adapt the Kyoto protocols controlling greenhouse emissions. At the same time, funding for research on alternative energy sources that do not change the environment remains miniscule.
It is my belief that the rise in global temperature due to unmitigated fossil fuel consumption, and the resulting thermal expansion of the oceans, represents a threat as great to modern world as local ecological change and agricultural collapse was to the Copan civilization. For more information, you can read about it here.
However, after many years of careful study, today's archaeologists believe that the collapse of the Copan civilization was the result of an ecological collapse in the Copan valley, brought about by centuries of slash and burn agriculture and environmental abuse by its human population. The degradation of the land from overexploitation led to agricultural failure, which inevitably resulted in a loss of population and the demise of the state. Today, all that remains of the Copan civilization are crumbling stone structures and stelae recording the achievements of the Copan kings.
The story of Copan reminds us that no matter how advanced or technological our human made civilizations may become, we remain critically dependent on the natural environment for our daily lives. A subtle change in the environment, as a result of nothing more than neglect, can suddenly bring about the decline or collapse of entire states and cultures.
This lesson may not seem relevant to our global industrialized culture today. After all, it seems to us that nothing so localized as crop failure or ecological change could disrupt our lives. However, industrialized civilization changes its environment on a much larger scale than the residents of Copan could ever have imagined, by changing the chemical makeup of the planet's atmosphere, and thereby modifying global climate. In America, this is especially troubling, considering the current administration's commitment to fossil fuels, and its refusal to adapt the Kyoto protocols controlling greenhouse emissions. At the same time, funding for research on alternative energy sources that do not change the environment remains miniscule.
It is my belief that the rise in global temperature due to unmitigated fossil fuel consumption, and the resulting thermal expansion of the oceans, represents a threat as great to modern world as local ecological change and agricultural collapse was to the Copan civilization. For more information, you can read about it here.
