"Book Traces History of Extinct Civilizations"

In “Collapse: How Nations Choose to Fail or Succeed”, the author, Jared Diamond, examines various extinct civilizations from our short-lived human history of three-to-four thousand years.
In this well-researched—but long and sometimes tedious—book, Diamond ascribes most all of the collapses to self-induced eco-disasters brought about by the depletion of resources. Civilizations have become extinct because of their inability to recognize the limits of their resources and to understand the forces of nature.

He describes how the early Polynesians managed the incredible feat of setting up permanent homes on an island with no stable source of fresh water. Overpopulation and the competition between clans to fashion and erect the huge statues eventually denuded the island of its timber. With no lumber for houses and boats, the Easter Islanders were left without shelter and a means of fishing. The population shrunk from thousands to a few hundred when the island was “discovered” by a Dutch explorer in 1722.

In outlining the demise of one culture after another, the theme repeats itself: a society develops a high population density in years of good climate. But, when droughts or temperature changes make the environment less hospitable, the society either does nothing and famines ensue, or civil wars and invasions by other stressed tribes lead to the collapse of the native society.

A modern-day version of this theme is Rwanda. Prior to the genocide of the 1990s, this African country was severely strained by overpopulation. Most of the people were subsistence farmers who worked on farms too small to even feed their families. We all know the outcome: tribal warfare between the Hutu and the Tutsi ensued with millions of people dying and the economy and political system in disarray.

In the highly interdependent global economy that now exists, the author says that countries must take collective action to avoid a global economic collapse. With the world at a near unsustainable level of oil production, with known oil reserves precariously low, the book is a wake-up call for us to develop new sources of energy that will not compromise the environment. Hydrogen-fueled automobiles and solar-heated and cooled buildings should be technologies of the near future.

The lesson is clear. Those societies that can adapt their ways of life to their environmental limitations will continue while those that abuse their resources will ultimately commit suicide.
The Library Foundation Book Sale recently drew to a close. The receipts of around $2400 was not nearly as high as previous years as we didn’t have as many donated books to sell. Please look over your shelves at home. If you need more space for newer books or if you want to get rid of older items---books, videos, recorded books, etc.---please give them to the Library. What we can’t use in our collection, we sell at the annual Library Foundation Book Sale.

Recent memorials to the Foundation include donations from Mr. and Mrs. Richard Luebbe in memory of Greg Wiseman, Ryan Jablonski and Joe Fischer. the Terry Engel family presented a memorial in honor of Frank Sobota and Mr. and Mrs. Ray Welker and family gave a donation in memory of Ryan Jablonski.