Nature's Revenge: Deforestation and the Collapse of Society

It was a rainy afternoon in Starbucks when I searched "deforestation" on Google Scholar and the results were endless. One article by Oglesby and others, whilst not immediately relevant to the content of my blog, posed some burning questions.
In summary, "Collapse of Maya: Could deforestation have contributed?", suggested that the deforestation of trees in the Peten Region of northern Guatemala contributed heavily to the collapse of society in the 9th century. It is an incredibly useful article in understanding the ways in which early societies over-exploited resources at their disposal and the potential outcomes of our current society if they continue to over-exploit the natural world.

Old Relics - Ruins of Maya Society in Guatemala today (fineartamerica)

The science behind the history
Pollen records of the region show that most of the forest had been cut down and in less than a century the population declined by 80%. Deforestation leads to a reduced amount of evapotranspiration from the  land surface causing warming and a high pressure system to develop in the atmosphere. The warmer surface heats the air mass above causing it to rise which leads to a reduction in precipitation and drought (Oglesby et al. 2010)

The collapse of modern society
How resilient is current society to large scale droughts? Could excessive deforestation eventually change climate so much that it is impossible for society to function?

The results of this study can be used for present and future climate and water modelling in Central America as ongoing deforestation is such a problem. However, in an increasingly globalized world it seems unlikely that the whole of society would collapse due to deforestation. Furthermore, politics and international treaties would inevitably prevent such a catastrophe from happening.

Criticisms
This article was an incredibly enjoyable article to read and fascinating however, it is limited to some extent. Whilst it doesn't acknowledge this, it does mention other "theories" that could explain the collapse of the Maya in Peten. In other words, deforestation was not the only factor contributing to their rapid demise but disease, natural disasters, warfare and politics could have all played equally big roles.

Most academics agree that it is a combination of ecological and social factors. The factor that is often given the greatest emphasis (in this case deforestation) is often seen to be the most important because it is a topic in the authors' field of discipline. Historians might be warfare or politics as of considerable importance whilst geographers would argue deforestation or hurricanes were important.


When I started this blog I had a very unclear mind of what the content would be. Semantics of logging, carbon footprints and a decline in ecology were going through my mind. However, this article has demonstrated the importance of often looking to the past for information about current human practices.