Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Environmental Problems in Microcosm, ed. J. Loret and J. T. Tancredi, 133–53. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic / New York: Plenum. Mieth, A., and H.-R. Bork. 2005. History, origin and extent of soil erosion on Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Catena 63:244–60. Ólafsdóttir, R., and H. J. Gu∂mundsson. 2002. Holocene land degradation and climatic change in northeastern Iceland. Holocene 12:159–67. Ponting, C. 1993. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations. New York: Penguin Books. Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. 1991. A study of farm abandonment in two regions of Iceland. In Environmental Change in Iceland, 161–77. Williams, J. 1837. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands. London: J. Snow. Williams, M. 2003. Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 10. life span of civilizations Berry, W. 2002. The whole horse. In The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, ed. A. Kimbrell, 39–48. Washington, DC: Island Press. Cassman, K. G. 1999. Ecological intensification of cereal production systems: Yield potential, soil quality, and precision agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96:5952–59. Cassman, K. G., S. K. De Datta, D. C. Olk, J. Alcantara, M. Samson, J. Descalsota, and M. Dizon. 1995. Yield decline and the nitrogen economy of longterm experiments on continuous, irrigated rice systems in the tropics. In Soil Management: Experimental Basis for Sustainability and Environmental Quality, ed. R. Lal and B. A. Stewart, 181–222. Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers. Ehrlich, P. R., A. H. Ehrlich, and G. C. Daily. 1993. Food security, population and environment. Population and Development Review 19:1–32. Engels, F. 1844. The myth of overpopulation. In Marx and Engels on Malthus, ed. R. L. Meek, trans. D. L. Meek and R. L. Meek, 57–63. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1953. Huston, M. 1993. Biological diversity, soils, and economics. Science 262:1676–80. Kaiser, J. 2004. Wounding Earth’s fragile skin. Science 304:1616–18. Larson, W. E., F. J Pierce, and R. H. Dowdy. 1983. The threat of soil erosion to long-term crop production. Science 219:458–65. Pimentel, D., J. Allen, A. Beers, L. Guinand, R. Linder, P. McLaughlin, B. Meer, D. Musonda, D. Perdue, S. Poisson, S. Siebert, K. Stoner, R. Salazar, and A. Hawkins. 1987. World agriculture and soil erosion. BioScience 37:277–83. Pimentel, D., C. Harvey, P. Resosudarmo, K. Sinclair, D. Kurz, M. McNair, S. Crist, L. Shpritz, L. Fitton, R. Saffouri, and R. Blair. 1995. Environmental bibliography 269
270 and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits. Science 267: 1117–23. Saunders, I., and A. Young. 1983. Rates of surface processes on slopes, slope retreat and denudation. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 8:473–501. Smith, A. 1776. Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell. Tilman, D. 1999. Global environmental impacts of agricultural expansion: The need for sustainable and efficient practices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96:5995–6000. Tilman, D., J. Fargione, B. Wolff, C. D’Antonio, A. Dobson, R. Howarth, D. Schindler, W. H. Schlesinger, D. Simberloff, and D. Swackhamer. 2001. Forecasting agriculturally driven global environmental change. Science 292: 281–284. United Nations Development Programme. 1996. Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities. New York. Vitousek, P. M., H. A. Mooney, J. Lubchenco, and J. M. Melillo. 1997. Human domination of Earth’s ecosystems. Science 277:494–99. Wilkinson, B. H. 2005. Humans as geologic agents: A deep-time perspective. Geology 33:161–64. bibliography
Page 2 and 3:
Dirt
Page 4 and 5:
Dirt the erosion of civilizations D
Page 6:
For Xena T. Dog, enthusiastic field
Page 10:
acknowledgments This book could nev
Page 13 and 14:
2 Yet what is dirt? We try to keep
Page 15 and 16:
4 discovered ways to enhance soil f
Page 17 and 18:
6 quent centuries, nutrient depleti
Page 20 and 21:
two Skin of the Earth We know more
Page 22 and 23:
villa in Gloucestershire lay undete
Page 24 and 25:
When we behold a wide, turf-covered
Page 26 and 27:
Soil not only helps shape the land,
Page 28 and 29:
ter and mineral soil. Billions of m
Page 30 and 31:
Topography also affects the soil. T
Page 32 and 33:
Wind can pick up and erode dry soil
Page 34 and 35:
Combinations of soil horizons, thei
Page 36:
much. This leaves the issue in a po
Page 39 and 40:
28 Ice Age was not a single event.
Page 41 and 42:
30 For much of the last century, th
Page 43 and 44:
32 Abu Hureyra sat on a low promont
Page 45 and 46:
34 wheat dating from 10,000 years a
Page 47 and 48:
36 Domesticated livestock not only
Page 49 and 50:
38 inated the southern Mesopotamian
Page 51 and 52:
40 of a high load of dissolved salt
Page 53 and 54:
42 direct water to particular place
Page 55 and 56:
44 by the color of dirt eroded from
Page 57 and 58:
46 out the region, he concluded tha
Page 60 and 61:
four Graveyard of Empires To Protec
Page 62 and 63:
the constitution, proposed a ban on
Page 64 and 65:
Figure 7. Parthenon. Albumen print
Page 66 and 67:
est soils from hillsides disturbed
Page 68 and 69:
Figure 8. Map of Roman Italy. follo
Page 70 and 71:
the Roman heartland became increasi
Page 72 and 73:
ically let a piece of ground lie fa
Page 74 and 75:
foot thick, it probably took at lea
Page 76 and 77:
into densely planted olive farms—
Page 78 and 79:
families a few centuries earlier. T
Page 80 and 81:
classic, supporting three editions
Page 82 and 83:
on the edge of the Arabian Desert a
Page 84 and 85:
When Moses and company arrived, Can
Page 86 and 87:
urned before the onset of the rains
Page 88 and 89:
sion in the Mayan of the Petén not
Page 90 and 91:
Archaeological records from this pe
Page 92:
The contrast between how the Pueblo
Page 95 and 96:
84 forest soils as it went, agricul
Page 97 and 98:
86 to a thousand years. Soil profil
Page 99 and 100:
88 land and birch forest. Following
Page 101 and 102:
90 Figure 10. Miniature from an ear
Page 103 and 104:
92 the early 1300s to about two mil
Page 105 and 106:
94 the Danes improved their sandy d
Page 107 and 108:
96 layers, ’till we arrive to the
Page 109 and 110:
98 recipe for degrading soil fertil
Page 111 and 112:
100 vived on vegetables, gruel, and
Page 113 and 114:
102 French Alps lost a third to mor
Page 115 and 116:
104 Despite such profiteering, by 1
Page 117 and 118:
106 from the smallest rill to the g
Page 119 and 120:
108 A potato blight that arrived fr
Page 121 and 122:
110 uries such as sugar, coffee, an
Page 123 and 124:
112 Subsequent foreign investment o
Page 126 and 127:
six Westward Hoe Since the achievem
Page 128 and 129:
A few miles in from the forest edge
Page 130 and 131:
wherein one man by his owne labour
Page 132 and 133:
Particularly in the South, the read
Page 134 and 135:
worn out, and washed and gullied, s
Page 136 and 137:
explained that American farmers had
Page 138 and 139:
marle County Agricultural Society i
Page 140 and 141:
purchased a farm in the 1820s. A de
Page 142 and 143:
Figure 14. Charles Lyell’s illust
Page 144 and 145:
Traveling through much of the South
Page 146 and 147:
Tensions came to a head after the S
Page 148 and 149:
But this still doesn’t explain th
Page 150 and 151:
Figure 16. North Carolina gully sys
Page 152 and 153:
more than three thousand years and
Page 154 and 155:
settlements for several thousand ye
Page 156 and 157:
seven Dust Blow One man cannot stop
Page 158 and 159:
land-hungry settlers. From 1878 to
Page 160 and 161:
without the least reference to the
Page 162 and 163:
Figure 18. Breaking new land with d
Page 164 and 165:
Figure 19. Dust storm approaching S
Page 166 and 167:
taxes, and other unavoidable expens
Page 168 and 169:
Figure 21. Plowing a steep hillside
Page 170 and 171:
tion of heavy machinery and agroche
Page 172 and 173:
Soil erosion rapidly became a major
Page 174 and 175:
egion. There are few reliable measu
Page 176 and 177:
ing with the Germans, Kalmyks were
Page 178 and 179:
grazing animals doubled; the human
Page 180 and 181:
years. Present rates of erosion, ho
Page 182 and 183:
land was being exhausted. Although
Page 184 and 185:
In 1958 the Department of Agricultu
Page 186 and 187:
eplacing water-holding capacity los
Page 188:
ing on access to fresh land or find
Page 191 and 192:
180 our way in that the backyard wo
Page 193 and 194:
182 Figure 23. Chinese farmers plow
Page 195 and 196:
184 less, he experimented with agri
Page 197 and 198:
186 Figure 24. Lithograph of mounta
Page 199 and 200:
188 fiscated the remaining lands th
Page 201 and 202:
190 Hilgard rightly dismissed the p
Page 203 and 204:
192 important was the mix of silt,
Page 205 and 206:
194 ping would exhaust the natural
Page 207 and 208:
196 atmospheric nitrogen. On July 2
Page 209 and 210:
198 increases in crop production.
Page 211 and 212:
200 Estimates for when petroleum pr
Page 213 and 214:
202 ground—turning our dirt into
Page 215 and 216:
204 greater tonnage of machinery pe
Page 217 and 218:
206 may prove our best hope for mai
Page 219 and 220:
208 tilizers, hosts the longest ong
Page 221 and 222:
210 soil fertility and exporting po
Page 223 and 224:
212 No-till farming is very effecti
Page 225 and 226:
214 It is no secret that if agricul
Page 227 and 228:
216 some consumed their future and
Page 229 and 230: 218 Pollen preserved in lake sedime
Page 231 and 232: 220 washed off the slopes now bury
Page 233 and 234: 222 ply. So topsoil loss retarded f
Page 235 and 236: 224 different fates. Tikopia develo
Page 237 and 238: 226 where vegetation stabilizes the
Page 239 and 240: 228 0 50 100 km inhabitants. Two ce
Page 241 and 242: 230 pushes peasants from hillside s
Page 243 and 244: 232 gardens grew up throughout the
Page 245 and 246: 234 Credible scientists also disagr
Page 247 and 248: 236 notice the problem. Like a dise
Page 249 and 250: 238 asters. Larger societies, with
Page 251 and 252: 240 before plants have all they can
Page 253 and 254: 242 faster than it is replaced dest
Page 255 and 256: 244 figuring the downstream end of
Page 257 and 258: 246 Meeting this challenge would al
Page 259 and 260: 248 10. Marsh 1864, 9, 42. 11. Lowd
Page 261 and 262: 250 6. USDA 1901, 31. 7. Whitney 19
Page 263 and 264: 252 Schwartzman, D. W., and T. Volk
Page 265 and 266: 254 Beach, T., S. Luzzadder-Beach,
Page 267 and 268: 256 and human response. In Environm
Page 269 and 270: 258 Lang, A. 2003. Phases of soil e
Page 271 and 272: 260 Cronon, W. 1983. Changes in the
Page 273 and 274: 262 Bennett, H. H., and W. R. Chapl
Page 275 and 276: 264 Saiko, T. A. 1995. Implications
Page 277 and 278: 266 Jackson, W. 2002. Farming in na
Page 279: 268 ———. 1925. Soil and Civil
Page 283 and 284: 272 agricultural practices (continu
Page 285 and 286: 274 Columella, Lucius Junius Modera
Page 287 and 288: 276 farm subsidy programs: conventi
Page 289 and 290: 278 Joppa Town, Maryland, 140 Judso
Page 291 and 292: 280 nitrogen fertilization (continu
Page 293 and 294: 282 Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret),
Page 295 and 296: 284 technological innovation (conti
Page 297: Text: 11.25/13.5 Garamond Display:
show all

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?