Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature 9780520924451

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prelude
CHAPTER ONE. A Pleasant Island
CHAPTER TWO. Progress Comes to Nauru
CHAPTER THREE. Nauru's Shadow
CHAPTER FOUR. Living the Myths
CHAPTER FIVE. Science as Story
CHAPTER SIX. To Love a Cockroach
CHAPTER SEVEN. The Market: Master or Servant?
CHAPTER EIGHT. The Chimera of Reality
Coda
Notes
Index

Citation preview

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P A C I F I C

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Cad N. McDaniel and John M. Gowdy

Paradise for Sale A PARABLE OF NATURE

UKIVERSITY OF CALIFORNILiPRESS Be1 keley Los Angeles London

University of C a l ~ f o r n ~P ar e s Rerkeley and Los Angeles, C.illforn~.i U n i ~ e r s l t yof Callfornla Press, Ltd London, England

O 2000 h) Car1 N. McDanlel dnd lohn M Gowdy lllusrrations Q 2000 by Abigail Rorrr

Llbrary of Congrrss Cnr.lloging-ln-Publ~catlon h t a McD.~nlel,Carl N., 1942-. Paradise for sale : a paradise of nature / Carl N. hlcDanirl ~ n d john M. Gowdy. p. cm. references and indrx. Includes h~bl~ographlcal ~ssh.0-520-22229-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) I . Sustamable development-Nduru. economics-Nauru.

I. Gowdy, lohn M

2. En\~ronrnental 11. Tltle.

~ ~ 6 8 2 . 2 j . z g ~2000 jj 333.i'q9h85-dc21

99- i 2829 CIP

Al~nufacturedIn the Unlted States of .\rnerlca

T h e paper used In thir p u h l ~ c a t ~ omeet5 n the mlnlmum requirements of A N S V N I S O Zj9.48-1qq2 ( R 1997) (Permmencc of P a p ) .

@

To the people of Nauru and those of all of the other cultu~es, who have enabled us to imagine a dzferent wodd

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In amnesiac revery it is also easy to overlook the services that ecosystems provide humanity. They enrich the soil and create the very air we breathe. Without these amenities, the remaining tenure of the human race would be nasty and brief.

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Contents

L i d o f Illustrations X1

Aci@otuledgments ...

Xlll

Prelude 3 CHAPTER ONE

A Pleajant Island '3 C H A P T E R TWO

Progrejj Comej to ,Vaurtl 29 CHAPTER THREE

NauruS Shadow 52

CHAPTER FOUR

Living the Myths

70 CHAPTER FIVE

Science as Story 95 CHAPTER SIX

To Love a Cockroach 109 CHAPTER SEVEN

The Market: Master or Servant? '3' CHAPTER EIGHT

The Chimera of Reality

156 Coda

'75 Notes

'97 Index 2'9

Illustrations

hlap of the Pacific Ocean and associated land. / j?orztixpiece A 1,lgoon on N,luru bnced on a plc ture In Rosmiond Dobcon Rhone, "N'~uru,T h e R~chectIsland in the South SCJ\," rYutlonaZ Geogtaph2c : / 14 Jluguz/nr 40 ( 1 9 2 1 ) 572. Map of Nauru prior to phosphate mining, ~ v i t hj-meter contour lines (modified from G e r n ~ a nmap, circa l(j10). / 20 Nauruan n orn'ln in cmtume for the hsh clmce, based upon a picture in RoscI::~ft islanti's t-apxity

had t r a d i r s O:I N n ~ i r n.ho r ~ rccognizetl the

i o p r ~ protilrction. l

L :'\

the ilixussions proceeded, the

Gerrn,in r?cgo~iaiiIr:i:~iljusticlthe origin'll line of c1emarc:ition slightly tlc south to i ~ l c l ~ ~PJ;~tuu in the ( l e r l n m spheri. hut Icfi E ~ n a b nto rhe British. Tlw Hritish diti not chjcct, thus setting t11c stage for G e r m a n control o t n ' a r i r ~ i . T h e c!t.c:?tIe-long ~ i v i ivnr l o n K a u r u iud not helpetl copra productioil. nor ioulc! riic tra:lcr\'

satcry bc assured. T r ; ~ t i e r s.rnd ( k r n i a n

officids !~r~iposctl. tiierefi~rc.that t h go\ ~ t'rnrnent take a n active h a n d in ruling Naur:~. ;*c:,iurucallle u r d e r the G e r m a n i'rotcctorate o n ;Ipril 16,

1888. 2nd

.I

l ~ onn iire;lrlns w:rs tlcrlarcil. O n Oc-tober

I,

1888, the

6 T ~ r r n n cgunboat SSIS I:'bcv. clropprti a landing party of thirty-six m e n on N ; ~ u r u rIcconlpa:lietl . by Wilii:!ln I h r r i s , the ari-nztl rnarines marched ,irountl thc isl;rn(j a n d returilcd \vitIi

311

r\wli.e chiefs, the white xcttlcrs,

;mci the n e \ v l ~;rrri\.ix! (;iIbertew 11iission:trv. T h e riiarines kept the chiefs unilcr house arrest until thc iwst ~liorniiig,w h e n the anntxsation cerenitrnl. licg311 \vith thc rai\ing of tile ( k r r n a i l flag. T i l e C k r ~ n a n scx1)l;linc:ti hon. h c islanc! \$.,is to be nciministcrril: T h e r c \\,oultl he peace on N n i l i . ~ant1 ,I h,in o n !;~-c;irnrs\vas prornuigaretl. T h e (;crmans told the c h i c k th;it .(li \\.c;ipoil\ m t i :rn-irn~rnitic~n I I I L M he surreniiered kvithin t ~ ' i ~ c ~ i ~ yholrrs - ~ i , i o~ rr :he chiei; \co~iltlhc taken to prison.

By the m o r n -

i n g o i O z t o b e r j. 765 g u n > \verr i u ~ n c c m.er i with ~ l lca5t t r,ooo rc,unds of' ainmunition. Nariru's ilev:tstatirlg internal feuil \vns

01

cl-.

T!K: ~ n n c x : ~ t i oof n x:~uru hy G e m i m y 1x1~1s a v d X C ~ u r m imcicty i~ from potultiai .;elf-t1cscructi01-t by vnir tc:titly ; ~ n dguns. yet at the same tin;? the N a u r u a n s lost all control o\.cr their isiantl a n d their destiny. In ;I

i n c r ~fift! ~ -eight )~:1r5, :~ftcr n:illcnnia

of self-wficiency within the

confines of their islancl liomc, their \c.-orlcl had heen rc:arr:ingctl.

Thc

rearrangement weakened their myths, beliefs, and 1-dues, and would ultimately destroy their land ancl undermine their culture. Halfivay around the vcorltl, roughly c o m c ~ d e n tu ~ t hthe ' i r r i ~ a lof Patrlck Kurke and John Jones on N ~ u r u ' sbexhes, another ad\enture had begun that n.ould c h ~ l l e n g cthe c o x ofil'estern culture's w o r l d \ ~ e n . Engli5h nctturLdlstnamed I n December 18j I a t~xrenty-t~vo-ye,lr-old (:h,rrles D x c v ~ ncomnlenced a h\ e-year \ oy'ige ,iround the ~ v o r l don the

HMS Rrugle.

0 1 er

the next se\er,il dec,ldes D x w n

ould gather and

ponder m , m i \ e e v ~ d e n c eto demonstr,lte that 'ill lde on the planet, l n c l u d ~ n ghurnms, had e\ol\ed

01 er

the eons from conlmon ancestors.

T h e idea of organic evolution was not nelv: Darbvin's painstaking labor h ~ helped d trmsforrn a speculat~\econjecture Into o b s e r ~atlon'ill! cubctmtlated scient~fictheory. Hon t h ~ es \ o l u t ~ o noccurred depended on thousands of Iariables, m d mounting e\ ~ d e n c econfirmecl the t h e o r e t d proposition that evolution was haphazard. W h e n the vast quantities of dnt'~m d e\ iclence were analyzctl m d understood, ~t b e c m ~ ed~f-hcultto argue t h ~ the t rungs on the L,xltler ot i\"iture represented ,~scendlng degrees of perfection, or, more to the point, that humans were God's special creation. Darwin and Alfred Russel IfTallace,the cotheorists of evolution by means of natural selection, had established the basic mechanism for the common ancestr) of all 11feon e'irth. H u m m s

U

ere f x from the

center of the u m \ e r w , m d t h e ~ rendou ments, like those of all other organisms, were chance outcomes of a mechanistic, undirectecl process. T h e medieval concept of humans' place in the universe underwent a second great change. T h e fundamental assumption of Ifrestern culture's worldview had been wrong: organisn~sare constantly changing, and the reality of the biological world demands an equality and unity among all life, including humans. While \frestern culture continued to assimilate the deeper meanings of organic evolution, the Nauruans \\ere adjusting to European domination. O n the morning of October 3 , 1888, after all of the guns anti a m m u nition hacl been turned over to the C;ermans. the chiefs rvere released.

Progress Comes to 1Z7aMI'U / 37

Robert Rasch, a German trader on Nauru, was appointed by the imperial commissioner as temporary official until a permanent official could be found. Later in the day the ShlS Eber, with its marines and the imperial commissioner on board, sailed away. T h e permanent official, Christian Johannsen, arrived on May 14, 1889. Activities and events on the island had become the concern of the German government and its trading cornpany partner. the Jaluit-Gesellschaft. T h e senior rnembers of the clans, or chiefs as Europeans called them, had been displaced by higher authority.

A European official had been installed, and the Nauruans accepted his authority to settle disputes, to punish, and to keep the peace. Things began well on Nauru after the Germans took charge. Twentysix more rifles and several pistols were handed over to Mr. Johannsen shortly after he arrived. No violence of a serious nature was reported for years-except

for the deaths of se\.eral Gilbertese in a drift canoe just

before Mr. Johannsen's arrival -although dozens of minor disputes over coconut tree rights, land boundaries, and the like were heard and resolved. T h e consumption of sour toddy dropped substantially and was soon banned, as the importing of alcohol had been earlier. Drunkenness vanished. With trade in guns, ammunition, and alcohol ended by decree, some Europeans worried because the only major commodity left to trade with the Nauruans was tobacco. Others realized that, with luck, the nascent taste for imported foods like bread, rice, sugar, and flour would grow so the natives would come to depend on these and other Western trade items. T h e resulting need for money would make them more amenable to entering into labor contracts on and off Nauru. These changes, the Europeans reasoned, would enable the Kauruans to improve their lives and participate in the world beyond their small island. Government officials, warships. marines, administrators of the companies, and other bureaucrats now provided services that the Nauruans had not needed in their traditional society. It was a new type of social organization that formalized and standardized relations between individuals and groups. Although on the surface it seemed more complex

than the traditional system it was replacing, in many ~vaysit mrassimpler. In the past, barter, group decisions, rights, disputes, and other human interactions were subject first to general customs and then to case-by-case resolution. Each situation had its own complexity, and the traditional system could cope uniquely with each occurrence. T h e new 5ystem was more of a one-size-fits-all approach. In the overtly structured industrialized world, when someone provides a service or a material good, there is a monetary price to pay. Nauru was now a part of this system; the traders had to pay a tax to conduct business on Nauru, and each islander had to pay a head tax in copra. T h e head tax was fixed from year to year as a function of the island's copra production. T h e chief of each clan was responsible for collecting the copra from his people. When it vvas all collected and delivered, the chief received one-third of the sale value in German marks. There is no record of Wauruan protest to the tax; the Nauruans appeared to believe that the new peace and order were well \vorth a little coconut meat. In September 1890 the first census of Nauru was conducted, counting I ,294

Nauruans and 24 Gilbertese missionaries and their families. T h e

ratio of men to women, 574 to 720, reflected the disproportionate n u m ber of men killed in the long internal conflict terminated by German occupation. Some officials predicted that the population, now removed from the artificial constraints of violent conflict, would grow rapidly. This was not viewed as a problem but as an opportunity. Although Nauru had missed the era of "blackbirding," o r the roundup of natives for the slave trade, because of its remoteness and small size, good labor Lvas in short supply throughout the western Pacific. Europeans judged that Nauruan men and women \vould make good workers since by all accounts they were strong, friendly, good humored. intelligent, and skilled craftspeople. These expectations were unrealized, since few Nauruans ever left their island permanently. Although the Nauruans had their own system of rituals and beliefs, they were receptive to new ideas. Christianity Lvas no exception. U'hen the first missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1887, out of

Progress Comes to Nauru / 39 curiosity a number agreed to be baptized. For several reasons the deeper meaning of the ceremony was lost, not the least being the poor Nauruanlanguage skills of the Gilbertese. Some missionaries also let personal desires overcome professional purposes, especially when one committed adultery with the wife of a chief, and the missionaries were deported. With the arrival of the Reverend Philip A. Delaporte from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1899, conversion to Christianity began in earnest. Nauruans, like many isolated groups of humans, had no knowledge of diseases, except for the nutrient and vitamin deficiencies associated with severe drought. The first indication of disease came in 1864 when Captain Brown of the Nightingale reported that some natives suffered from venereal disease. Nauruans were spared from plagues that depopulated several Pacific islands- tuberculosis, influenza, leprosy, and dysentery - until after the turn of the century. The Germans brought Nauru into their sphere of influence in 1886 because they believed it a fertile island with copra trade value. Though it was true that Nauru had exported annual harvests of over a million pounds of copra-almost half the total production of the Marshall, Brown, and Providence islands - these harvests were in the wet years. Rainfall was unpredictable and droughts were frequent. In the mid to late 1890s several dry years in a row had plunged many of the traders deep in debt. The Jaluit-Gesellschaft tried unsuccessfully to be allowed to remove the administrator to save money. The Pacific economic doldrums for the owners and stockholders of the Jaluit-Gesellschaft were soon to end, however. In 1896 the cargo officer for the Pacific Islands Company on the Lady M, Henry Denson, found on Nauru an odd-looking rock that he believed was a piece of a petrified tree. Although he considered making children's marbles out of the rock, it ended up as a door prop in the company's Sydney office. In 1899 Albert Ellis, an officer with the ~hosphate section of the Pacific Islands Company, was temporarily transferred to the Sydney office to analyze samples coming from the islands. H e noticed

the doorstop and thought that it looked like Baker Island phosphate, but Denson told him that it was fossilized wood. His daily encounters with the doorstop, however, kept his original idea alive, and after three months Ellis decided to chip off a piece and test it. It was phosphate ore of the highest quality. Many soils, such as those in Australia, are deficient in phosphate -a must for successful agriculture. In the commercial world unequal distribution of raw materials means an opportunity to trade and to make money. T h e livelihood of many companies is built on redistributing resources like phosphate that are unevenly scattered about the globe. T h e Pacific Islands Company in 1899 needed new supplies of phosphate because sources of high-grade guano were becoming hard to find. Ellis's discovery in Sydney instilled the hope that huge sums of money could be made. But concerns were raised when it was rumored that an enormous deposit of phosphate ore had been discovered on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Bringing to market such a large deposit might enable another company to control the market and thus put the Pacific Islands

Company out of the phosphate business. Unfortunately for the Pacific Islands Company, Nauru, with all of its suspected phosphate, belonged to Germany. As chance would have it, just to the east of Nauru, Banaba shared Nauru's biological and geological history, and the Pacific Islands Company set its sights on that small island. Industrial and governinental secrecy engulfed transactions between Sydney and London as the Pacific Islands Company conspired to secure the wealth hidden in geochemically processed b ~ r ddroppings and marine deposits. On XZay 3,1900, the nati\ es of Banaba granted the Pacific Islands (:ompmy the right to mine all phosphate on the island for 999 years at an annual fce of 50 pound\ sterllng (British). A year later, the Pacific Islands Company became the Pacific Phosphate Company, and all business except phosphate was abandoned. Based on his investigative visit in 1900, Albert Ellis reported: "The sight of a lifetime. Material in scores of millions of tons which would make the desert bloom as a rose, would enable hard-working farmers to make a living, and would faci!itate the production of wheat, butter and meat for hungry rnillions for the ncxt hundred years to come." Relying on Ellis's assessment, the newly reorganized company continued to pursue Nauru's phosphate. Rut the negotiations were convoluted and tricky. Four parties were involved -Gerinan

and British governments, the

Pacific Phosphate Company, and the Jaluit-Gesellschaft- and to further complicate the transactions, the Pacific Phosphate Company did not want the enormous \ d u e of the phosphate deposit to be known. Shrewd tactics produced an agreement in 1906 that wnctioned m i n ~ n got Nnuru by the Pacific Phosphate Company. T h e Jaluit-Gesellschaft'\ mining h rights lvere transferred to the Pacihc Phosphate C'ompm) for n c ~ \ payment of 2,000 pounds sterling (British), 12,500 pounds sterling (Briti\h) worth of shares in the Pacific Phosphate Cornpan], and a royalty payment for every ton exported. Although the n'auruans were not a party to the formal agreements, the Germans, out of a concern for fairness, decided to pay the native landowners a small ;Irnount for each ton of rock removed from their land.

of phosphate n w e shipped to grand success h r :all of'the Europeans who partici-

In the tirst year over ;lustralia. It was

3

I

1,cioo tons

p t e d English cind German sttlcments -.ere constructed on K a u r u with flolver gardens, coral-lined mdks. mtl a tnx-story house for the Ckrman governor T h e antenna ot'a state-of-the-art wircless station reached 128 meters into the sky. Despite the fact that the central plate:^^, Topside. v r a s on.netl by individu:rl Nauruans, the Pacific Phosphate Company took ccmtrol of the sale and lease of the phosphate-rich are,ls. In all of the agreements betc.een those mining Xauru, only two clauseer\ed enough of the island's bio-

logical cliversity to meet their neetis.

hon.e\.er, Nauruans are

threatened by more than Ln Nifia-associated droughts as global industrialization and deforestation change thc e,irth's atmosphere, which of course influences the global climatr. T h e earth's climate d e r i ~ e from s greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and cvater in our atmosphere th,lt allow light energy to pass through but that absorb sornc of the longer wavelengths of heat energy r d i a t i n g from the p!anet. ris n consequence, its clinxite i < controllrd b!- the amount of surilight, and subsequently heat energy. that reaches the atmosphere. the land, and the ocean>. Latitude dictates the amount of energy received; equatorial regions pet Inore he:ct than do polar regions. 'The d y n m ~ i c nature of global climate rnclinly results from physical processes, like ocean currents and winds. that equalize this diiTerence. Ccrt:iinly these processes are major causes of local weather. T h e solar fnergy i n p t to the earth also depends on thc \.:lri,lble output from the sun and the earth's changing distance to it. L o c d energy input is related to surface co\er (water, snour. ice, bronrn soil, g r e m plants) a n d /i,cd atmospheric composition (clouds. watrr IPapor,particulate matter, sult':ltes). T h e equation , as is evident in our poor record for weather preis, in a ~ v o r dcomplex, diction. Even though cve spend billions of dollars a n d employ thousands of people to collect and analyze atmospheric dat;\ to predict weather for the next several days, we k n o ~ vfrom personal experience that near-term cveather forecasts are only modestly accurate. It is not surprising that n,e can't predict in any detail next !car'\. much less next century's, u-eather. Even so, hurxan activities have iniiuenced local climates for millennia.

\Vitllin the past hundred years we now knolv our activities influence global clirn~te.Climate change has figured prominently in all of human history. W h a t is (]ifFerent nomr, though, is that human activities on a global scale - deforestation arid burning of fossil fi~els,to name a couple - are big contributor.; to the rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide of about jo percent over the last hundred years, from 280 parts per million to oLer 360 parts per million. Carbon dioxide absorbs radiant energy a t some wa\.elengths not absorbed by other greenhouse gases; thus, kvhcn the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere increases to a nen. level, more heat energy is retained and the planet becomes n x n l e r until a nev; equiiibrium is reached. If no carbon dioxide u w e in the ;;tmosphere, the planet's temperature would drop belay the freezing point of water, and life as we know it ~ . o u l dnot have evolved. Ey contrast, if we had as much cnr-bon dioxide as L'enus's sizziing-hot ntmosphere, Earth too woulc! be several hundred degrees (:elsius. Again, the conditions would not permit life. Atmospheric scientists around the world have reached consensus that this huinan-caused rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases \\.ill warm the planet cmsiderably during the next several . the levels of carbon dioxide and hundred yc;lrs, depending on h o ~high other greelihorise gases go. But nobody knov.s how much or hocv long it lvill take. T h c greater energy differential between equatorial and polar regions may iricrease thc number and severity of storms. l,ocal climate chmges, which tlcter~ninethe rvgions that will be wetter or drier, are difficult if not impossible t o predict. Global warming would not he good for the people of Nauru. If the South Pole warms enough to release say

10

percent of the wiiter now

stored in snmv and ice, the coastal strip of land on Nauru would be sub~ n r r g e darid the island w0111d be uninhabitable. W o r l d n d e , the more billion peoplt. wlio l i ~ close e to sea level might lose their homes. - .. . \\There \\rill they live and how will they obtain the necessities of I l k if

than

;I

their homes m d associated biological support systems are under water? Climate change will necessitate the migration of organisms and whole

ecosystems to areas kvhere prospects for survival are better - a move that will lead to the extinction of others. IZIany will be unable to make the move because of the formidable barriers imposed hy humans- high~vays,agricultural land, cities, and industrial areas. T h e more quickly the climate changes, the more dificult migration n d l be: and the rate of extinction will accelerate accordinglj-. H u m a n s will experience severe turmoil c~lusedhy the immense challenges associ:~tedwith adjusting to Lvarrner and more unstable climates. T h e loss of biological diversity vvill make the adjustments even more problematic. T h i s episode of civilization-disrupti~lg global lvarming caused by

greenhouse gases may, ironically, trigger a devastating global cooling, p e r h a p a n o t h e r ice age. (:hicago at 42"Nlatitude is blustery cold in February, lvhile I n n d o n and Paris at ; t q O Slatitude only have temperacures b e h v freezing occasionally. T h e cliinates of North America and Europe are vastly different because of the Gulf Stream. These currents are part of a complex and incompletely understood global pattern of ocean circulation that rnixes ocean waters and helps to redistribute equatorial solar energy. Paleoclimatologists ha\-e established that the ocean currents are not constant; they Hip from time to time to clif'ferent patterns. W e now have evidence that when the Gulf Stream no longer reaches into the North Sea-a

phenomenon that apparently occurred

during recent ice ages and during the cold period beginning about years ago-Europe's

12,700

climate becomes like North ,hnerics's and the rest

of the m-orld gets colder. T h e Gulf Stream sinks in the North Sea and off the southern coast of Greenland because when dry winds hlo\v across it, large quantities of \vater e\-aporate. and its salt content rises and eventually it becomes denser than the water below. To balance the ~ o l u m eof \vater moving north in the surface Gulf Stream, the sunken dense \vater flows south. Howe\,er, if the Gulf Stream is diluted, the \vater might not sink, lvhich could flip ocean currents to another pattern. T h i s could happen if increased greenhouse gases either prompt more rainfall in the higher latitutles or make Greenland's ice melt. Either e\.ent could cause excess

freshwater to flow into the Gulf Stream, preventing it from becoming denser than the water below and from sinking. Without the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, it is easy to understand why Europe would quickly get cold like North America. Rut why would the entire planet get colder? Although the reasons are uncertain, one model indicates that rearranging the ocean's circulation could lead to less evaporation in the tropics. Since water vapor is an important greenhouse gas, this decrease could cool the planet. Regardless of the mechanism, previous cold periods in Europe not only have been correlated with ocean current flips but also with global cooling. These facts and the possible connection between global warming and global cooling should be sobering for a world intoxicated with fossil fuels and intent on cutting down forests. Climate and human habitation are intimately connected everywhere. Releasing the vast quantities of carbon sequestered in fossil fuels will change the climate throughout the planet, and the resulting changes will affect global patterns of human habitation. Although history tells us that changes to the earth's climate are inevitable, forcing climate change by burning millions of years of stored sunshine in a few hundred years will probably hurt our long-term interests. Although Nauru is remote and little known to much of the world, its story has great meaning for all of us. Nauru's history clearly reveals the myriad and interconnected environmental challenges humans face, including biodiversity loss, population size, and climate change - all extraordinarily important and demanding our attention. In order to understand the current dilemmas posed by these challenges and to begin to address them, we must more fully explore cultural patterns, both those that have achieved sustainability and those that have failed to d o so.

Living the Myths History teaches us nothing, but only p n i s h e s lucJ for not learning its lessons. VLADIMIR

KLIUCHESKY,

in Robert Heilbroner.

Ttuenty-Fbst C e n t q Cap~taliim [Indigenous peop1es'l very sur\ival has d e p e n d d upon their ecological awareness and adaptation.. . . These comrnun~tiesare the repositories of vast accutnulations of traditional knowledge and experience that lmk humanity u ~ t hits ancient origins. Their disappearance is a loss for the larger society, which could learn a great deal from their traditional skills in sustainably managing very complex ecologicc~l systems. It is a terrible irony that ar formal dr\elopment rrachrs more deeply into r i n forest, deserts, and other isolated en\ ironmcnts, it tends to destroy the only culturcs that have proved able to thrive in these environments. BRENDTL.\ND REPORT

O U R ANCESTORS EVOLVED

in Africa, where 5 million years ago they

separated from the lineage we share with chimpanzees. T h e earliest representatives of the family Hominidae appeared perhaps 4 million years ago and the earliest members of the genus Horno between

2

to 3 million

years ago. Horno erectui, the first of our line to migrate out of Africa, evolved in another million years. Emigration probably continued to take

Living the Myths / 71 place, and perhaps migration back into Africa from elsewhere occurred, too, but paleoanthropologists now believe that, from ~oo,oooto 200,000 years ago, the modern form of Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and began to spread throughout the world, perhaps replacing human populations representing earlier out-migrations. The selective advantage of these modern humans probably depended on their high level of intelligence, which allowed for complex communication and thus their greater capacity for culture. As modern humans populated the earth, they adapted culturally to a wide variety of environments. Traditional Nauruan culture is simply one of innumerable ways of living that humans have created over the past several million years. Culture creation and biological evolution are different, yet they are grounded in the same processes - interactions between an individual's genetic constitution and the physical, biological, and social environment. To understand human cultural possibilities, we consider first the relations among genes, environment, biological evolution, and cultural change. The genes of an organism represent its genotype; and the expression of these genes, as influenced by the environment, creates its phenotype. The human phenotype comprises all of the physical and functional characteristics of an individual, such as five fingers on each hand, eye color, height, the ability to see red but not ultraviolet light, speech, mathematical or athletic ability, and the manifestations of biochemical, physiological, and morphological conditions that enable two or more individuals to relate to each other for purposes of mating, fighting, cooperating, or playing. Our genes have not evolved for the purpose of producing a specific phenotype; rather, the phenotype manifests a particular adaptation to an environment, which allows the individual to survive and produce offspring. Specific abilities, like playing soccer, are not connected with survival or reproduction, but running, passing a ball in anticipation of where the receiver will be, or avoiding collisions with other players do represent traits related to survival. Physical and behavioral traits that give survival advantage to an indi-

vidual, or to a group lvhose mcinhers share the genes underlying the adaptive traits, are preseri-ed o\ er generations because they are adaptive in the experienced environment. Social animals h,\\-e evolved because the social traits provitle the group with a reproductive ad\-antageover those groups. or indil-icluals, without these traits. In some animals, like ants and termites, much of the social behavior is not learned but instinctive. In such organisms all individuals of a given caste bchave in the same Lvay under

3

given set of conditions. In other social anirnals. like dogs. instinc-

tive hehaviors are present, btlt the beha\-ior patterns of a dog combine instincti\e and learned beha\-ion. ,111 of the clog's behaviors, holvever, have a genetic basis; that is, the ability to l e x n ancl the pretlisposition to learn some things more quickly than others are coiled in the genes. T1-ieability of social animals such as wolves, humans, and elephants to organize into groups and interact with eclch other and their environnlent in colleccti\.e or indiviclual ways has a genetic basis. just ns having five fingers on

3

human hand tioes. Although most people ha\-e fix-e fingers,

a n individual may have

3

different number of digits depending on cer-

tain combinations of genes. In addition, the number of digits m a y diverge from tive as a result of environmentd factors present during the develo p m m t of a fetus's hand. In

;l11

o\-ersimplified ant1 artificial dichotomy,

the genetic component can be considered "nature" and the environmental component "nurture." Most people have little clificulty talking about what is nature and what is nurture with respect to the number of digits on a hand. People do. however, ha1.e considerable difliculty in evaluating the nature-nurture components of qualities like human intelligence or of h ~ u n a nbehavior because physical bases for these traits are deeply hidden in our brain and genes, and are not obvious like the number of fingers. In addition, nurture anc! nature are extremely clificult to separate in such character trait5 that combinc instinct ancl learning. T h e nobv-famous Jlinnesota Tu.ins Stud?, in which identical ant1 fraternal twins r i s e d together or apart were a n a l ~ ~ e chas l , pro\ icled data on how much human be1~1-iorancl intelligence are influenced hy nature. Although the details ofthis work and related studies are controi-crsinl for

reasons indicated above, their authors conclude that a person's genes underlie much of that person's behavior and intelligence

-

but certainly

not all. T h u s , identical twins are genetically the same, hut each twin has a measure of unique capacities and personality traits, because each has been raised in a unique environment. Genes specify potential, and the environment establishes the specific phenotype within a range of possible phenotypes. Consider, for example, performance in mathematics or art. In any first-grade class a teacher observes a wide range of student performance in either area. W h e n a teacher expends more time, eff-ort, a n d materials, each student's performance improves, but differences remain. T h e twins study has established that diversity arises because of differences in both nature and nurture, in addition to the interactions between these two broad determinants of biological expression. T h e creation of cultures is in some respects similar to the formation of species. If two groups of people from one culture enter two new places, in time two new cultures will emerge. Each group will make choices about how to relate to the new environment and to each other, ancl will learn and establish new ways of doing things that are difTerent from the original culture. These patterns of living will be taught to ne\v gcnerations. Like o u r two hypothetical cultures, all cultures result from the cumulative interactions between a group of hurilans and where they have lived. Because of the tremendous variations possible in hunian phenotypes, in environments, and in available choices, patterns of living vary widely among cultures. Indeed, cultural diversit)., like all biological phenomena, is constrained only by the laws of nature and genetic endowment. Nauruan culture illustrates one pattern of living b ? which its people in adapting to their environment created a n enduring mode of habit'ltion. For several thousand years prior to European influence, Nauru's ecological books balanced, and the island's life-support systems v.erc maintained for its inhabitants. Throughout the last century the European, market-based pattern of living that overwhelmed the traditional

Nauruan culture has relentle$sly retiucul T:iuru'j capacity to support h u m a n habitation. Hilncireds of other cultur,il groups nlsn elucidate our current tlilcmina: the current glob;il niarket econcmiy lacks the longterm capacity to pro\.ide for

~UIIMII

;\.ell-being rtntl to preserve life-

support systems. W e consider five such groups in this chapter: two hunter-gatherer culturex and three ncinintlustrial ~griculturalcultures. Their successes and faiiures in achieving enduring habitation pro\ ide insights into the preclicarntnt confronting all of us. AIrchecilot,'icaland paleobiolugical .inal) ws of cirtiLcts 2ind 6 : d s inclicate chat humans similar to ourselves \valkecl upright on the .Ifrican s ' ~ \annas several million years go. Beginning onl), about

I O , O ( ~ Oyears

ago, in loca-

ticns around the globe humans hecrrrne ;~griculturisrsx i d within several thousand years formed the prehibtoric hiernrchic,~lsocieties from ~ v h i c h most contemporary societies are derived. Th1.i~for more than gq percent of our history himinns were cioseiy :issocintecl ~ v i t htheir local ecosystems as gatherers and hunters. H u m a n s iived In small bands of ~.icluals.and their cultures were a s diierse

3s

20

to 50 incli-

the land, that sustained

them. Although most of thrbe cultures have bren obliterated. leaving scant records, a few still s u n ive in some o f t h e harshest environments o n earth. Let's consitler tivo groups of huntcr-gatherers: the Xustraliar? aborigines, kvhose ancestors rextietl that cc,ntinent ribour ho.ooc: years ago. and the Kxlahnri !Kung, \vho arrived in southern AAfrica~nillenniaago.

Keginning ~lbouttwo m d a half million ywrs ago, the earth entered a cyclical climate pattern that produced episodes ofgli~ciationwhen northern p u t s of Asia, Europe, :m(! S o r t h Xinericii \!.ere buried under thousands of feet of ice. With frozen srater piled higli on the land, the sea level dropped and exposed huntlrcds of kilometers of continrntal shelf. During one of these gl.icial periods, 4o.oon to I oo,ono years ago, Nelv Guinea \v% d m o s t continuous ~ v i hthe Asian muinland, and humans

ventured into ,\ustralia for the first time. Stretching horn Ne\v G u i ~ l e a to J a v a to Borneo t o Australi;;,

11 ch'iin

ot'islanJs existed with each island

in sight of. or just o \ e r the horizon from, the next islancl. In s i n ~ p l bocics, r the rrncestors of the Australian aborigines islancl-hoppi until they came upon the ncorthern shore of an immense co~ltinent.O \ w tt~ousantisof years they m o w d throuphout Austr;~liaamong

;I

111~1titi:ii~ tjf habitats

ranging from tropical rain forests to mci:lnt,iin forests to grasslands to . .

parched deserts. These habitats ancl the or~glnalccilturc ofthese ancestors molded each c!ther, spawning hundreds

i)f

variant cultures. XIore than

five hundred languages and dialects emergecl. W h e n the first European eyes fell on thc. southern contiilerlt in the s i x t e e ~ t hor sc\ cntcentl; ccntury, the dmrigine population \\,as about a half million. .l fen. places in ; t u s ~ r ~ ~might l i a be considerec! tropicnl paraclises, tlespite their exceptionally large numtxx of poisonous snakes. h h s t o f t h e continent, howe\.cr, is harsh and inhospitable to twcnticth-century hurnans. This 1s ref-lrctetl in the fact that fcwer than t\venty million people, wpportcd hy motit-rn techr;ologics. live therc on

3

landtnass equivalent in size to :hat of the

c.ontlnrnta1 United States. It tvas into these austere ecosystems that the ancestral ahorigiries ventured nnd thrik-et]. Precise kno\r.ledgt. :ibout tht. cti\-ersit? of Australian cultures has been lost htcai~sl-thc. English whc, colonized Australia as a continental jail had littlc interest in the ethrmlogy of :itmrigines. .\borigines \vere low on European culture's I.,adtIer of- Nature. Some English colonials claimcc1 that the aborigines \ v e x not even h:~rnm, cieeining it i~pproprintcto ren;o\-c them from the l a n J so it coulcl be pllt to Ixttei Lise. Tllc I h s m , m i m ahorigir~es,~ v h on w c ~ ~ x ~ r o o nn.!ieii e t l the sras rose :it the c ~ i ~ d of the last ice lige, \Yere hunted alrrlast to extinction l>y the English. hlainland aborigines tarecl a little bettcr, :rnd rllure of their cultures survi\.t.d.

Although the nhorigincs hat1 intricate social inttractions, the? hacl :m governments, n o chiefs, no concept cdcvar, no ~ n i i i t x yn, o organized reli,gions. no :~,griculture,n o doriesticatrci plants or aniinals except the halftamed d i l i p , no private