Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

Figure 25. Professor Ulf Helldén standing on top of a rofabard, the last remnant
of soil that formerly covered the surrounding plain, Iceland (courtesy of Professor
Helldén, Lund University).
Even though Iceland has lost 60 percent of its vegetative cover and 96
percent of its tree cover, after 1,100 years of inhabitation most Icelanders
find it difficult to conceive of their modern desert as having once been
forested. Most don’t comprehend how severely their landscape has been
degraded. Just as at Easter Island, people’s conception of what is normal
evolves along with the land—if the changes occur slowly enough.
The Caribbean islands of Haiti and Cuba provide another dramatic contrast
in how island nations treat their soil. Haiti, which means “green
island” in the native language, Arawak, is a modern example of how land
degradation can bring a country to its knees. Cuba provides an example of
a nation that, out of necessity, transformed a conventional agricultural system
into a model for feeding a post-petroleum world.
The history of Haiti, the western third of the island of Hispaniola, shows
that small hillside farms can lead to devastating soil loss even without a disastrous
hurricane. Within twenty-five years after Columbus discovered
Hispaniola in 1492, Spanish settlers had annihilated the island’s native
islands in time 227