Thursday, 22 October 2015

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Societies- Dead and Gone?! Yes many have!

Throughout history successful and complex societies have been known to suddenly collapse. Whole civilisations have crashed for a range of social, economic and environmental reasons. This blog will focus on the environmental factors that have caused such collapses and explore them through case-studies from around the world and throughout history. From deforestation in Rapa Nui, droughts and famine during the Mayan period and climatic change which played a role in the decline of the Harappans in South Asia.


So what is so interesting about looking at dead people?

It would be foolish to say studying the environmental cause of societal declines has no relevance today as many of the challenges faced by those ancient civilisations are in fact the same ones we face today. Rapid rates of deforestation, growing populations, environmental degradation and climate change are just some of the growing issues that threaten the survival of modern societies and thus investigating and understanding the environmental declines that cost the survival of past societies acts as a vital lesson for us to act before it’s too late. The question remains are we in a better place to deal with these issues and could societies today prevent any future collapse?



3 comments:

  1. Great post! I look forward to reading more about the effects of deforestation on past societies (as my blog is about deforestation).

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  2. Thank you Max! I hope my upcoming post on deforestation as a factor for societal collapse interests you and is relevant to your blog (which I look forward to reading)!

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  3. Great to see interaction on the blogs! Vasu - great topic. But can I suggest you make the font larger - for us oldies, it is not easy to read!

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