Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

iodiversity, 206–7, 220, 244
Black Death (1348), 91–92, 99
boom-and-bust cycle: ancient Greece and,
50–55; in European history, 88–92,
99–102, 107–10; European prehistory
and, 83–88; Malthus and, 106–7; as
model for agricultural development,
84. See also ecological suicide; lifespan
of civilizations
Borlaug, Norman, 197, 234
Bosch, Carl, 196
Boussingault, Jean-Baptiste, 185
Brazil, Carajás Plateau in, 115–16. See also
Amazon
Breckinridge, John, 123, 135
Brissot de Warville, Jacques-Pierre, 122
Bronze Age agriculture, Old World, 51, 53,
54, 86–88
Brown, Lester, 175
Buel, Jesse, 128–29
buffalo, 146, 148, 152
Butz, Earl, 173
Caius Plinius Secundus (“Pliny the
Elder”), 61–62
calcium carbonate, 129
calcium-phosphate rock, 193–94
California’s Central Valley, 190–91
Calvert, Benedict Leonard, 121
Canaan, 72–73
Canyon de Chelly, 79
Carajás Plateau, Brazil, 115–16, 142
carbon dioxide, 212–13
Caribbean Islands, 227–32
Carleton, Sir Dudley, 118
carrying capacity of land, 6, 233–34,
240–41
Carthage, ancient, 59, 64, 65
cash crops: African Sahel and, 167; American
industrial agriculture and, 154–55,
156, 173; Central American agriculture
and, 111–13; colonial economics and,
110, 117–22; Irish potato famine and,
108–9. See also industrial agriculture;
monoculture; tobacco cultivation;
wheat cultivation
Catholic Church, lands held by, 92–93
Cato, Marcus Porcius, 59, 61, 69
cats, 35
cattle, 35, 117, 165, 166–67. See also manure;
overgrazing
Cenex (company), 214–15
Center for the Biology of Natural Systems
at Washington University in St.
Louis, 207
Chaco Canyon, 79–80
Chapline, W. R., 151
chemical fertilizers: agricultural reliance
on, 198, 199, 237, 239–40; development
of industry, 187, 195–97; falling
yields and, 182; in modern agriculture,
4, 246; Nile valley and, 43; toxic
waste and, 214–15; widespread adoption
of, 183–85, 198
Chesapeake Bay, 140
China: decrease in hunger in, 198–99; early
agriculture in, 34, 43–46; erosion rate
in, 46, 182; famine in, 44–46, 181;
marginal land cultivation in, 180–81,
182
Chincha Islands, 185, 186
C horizon, 21
Cicero, 58
Cincinnatus, 58
clay, 15, 17, 18
clay soils, 17, 213
climate: African Sahel and, 165–66, 167;
agricultural sustainability and, 205;
ancient Greece and, 51; ancient Rome
and, 65; erosion in Mexico and,
77–78; erosion rate and, 20–21, 56,
141; Europe’s Little Ice Age and, 92;
evolution of agriculture and, 29–31;
glacial shifts in, 27–29, 31–33, 51;
North African agriculture and,
69–70; soil formation and, 19, 191;
soil thickness and, 14
clover, 94, 121
Colca Valley, 80
collapse of civilizations. See lifespan of civilizations
colonialism: hunger in Europe and, 100,
109–10; native systems and, 110, 166,
219, 223, 227–28. See also territorial
expansion
Columbus, Christopher, 100
index 273