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Civilization Critical: Energy, Food, Nature, and the Future
The modern world is wondrous. Its factories produce ten thousand cars every hour and ten trillion transistors every second. We carry supercomputers in our pockets, and nearly a million people are in the air at any time. In Civilization Critical, Darrin Qualman takes readers on a tour of the wonders of the 21st century.
But the great strength of our modern word is also its great weakness. Our immense powers to turn resources and nature into products and waste imperil our future. And plans to double and redouble the size of the global economy veto sustainability.
So, is our civilization doomed? No. Doom is a choice. We can make different choices.
Qualman demonstrates that a 19th- and 20th-century transition to linear systems and away from the circular patterns of nature (and of all previous civilizations) is the foundational error―the underlying problem, the root cause of climate change, resource depletion, ocean’s full of plastics, and a host of mega-problems now intensifying and merging, with potentially civilization-cracking results. In this sweeping work, Qualman reinterprets and re-explains the problems we face today, and charts a clear, hopeful path into the future.
But the great strength of our modern word is also its great weakness. Our immense powers to turn resources and nature into products and waste imperil our future. And plans to double and redouble the size of the global economy veto sustainability.
So, is our civilization doomed? No. Doom is a choice. We can make different choices.
Qualman demonstrates that a 19th- and 20th-century transition to linear systems and away from the circular patterns of nature (and of all previous civilizations) is the foundational error―the underlying problem, the root cause of climate change, resource depletion, ocean’s full of plastics, and a host of mega-problems now intensifying and merging, with potentially civilization-cracking results. In this sweeping work, Qualman reinterprets and re-explains the problems we face today, and charts a clear, hopeful path into the future.
- GenresNonfictionEnvironment
360 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2019
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October 13, 2020Fascinating, very important book. Usually when sitting in the sunshine relaxing I read familiar novels or detective stories. When this came into my hands four days ago I started it immediately sitting on the lawn (I admit to having one), not for comfort and relaxation but because from some of the author's blogs I thought he would tell me something I didn't know and should. Was I right!
Qualman is a fine writer, clear, unassuming. He has prepared a 260 page account that interweaves energy, economics and the greenhouse effect very readably, with a limited number of memorable black and white graphs. A blade of grass marks this passage on p. 86 "Here is a 140 character history of the past 5000 years. Humans found ways to access more energy and turned those energy surpluses into cultures, technology, architecture, art, wars and empires."
I can't find the page number but got a rueful laugh when the author quotes someone on how a rising tide [of economic growth] lifts all boats, then adds that the rising tide may be a rising sea level that will flood us.
Most of us are weary these days of climate eschatology, but this book has a lot of insights into earth systems that are new at least to me, such as that nature is circular but "Progress" is linear. Someone else has surely observed that before, but Qualman got the model to me. He reminds me of Amory Lovins, an energy maven who before climate breakdown was talked about wrote a book on "Soft Energy Paths" subtitled Progress as if Survival Mattered. We have to get off the progress bandwagon. "Progress" is hitched unbreakably to rapid doubling of how we loot the earth and despoil the air in the sacred name of economic growth. Progress at historical acceleration rates is not sustainable. It invites negative feedbacks. They are coming, but so late that they will be as catastrophic as the asteroid impact to which Qualman refers.
This book is a remarkably apt introduction to how we got where we are now, but more than just an introduction. It's not a spoiler to say that the conclusion is that we are on the road to Hell with the mantra of economic growth, GRP, GDP, GWP but theoretically could take an off-ramp. I think the author sees energy conversion technologies like wind and solar as that ramp, our only hope.
Adding my own editorial two cents, we must stop pumping methane out of the ground now. Its short lifetime in the atmosphere offers leverage that we don't have on CO2. Every "freedom molecule" of CH4 shipped to Western Europe from the Texas Gulf Coast is one more spark of global warming.
Qualman is a fine writer, clear, unassuming. He has prepared a 260 page account that interweaves energy, economics and the greenhouse effect very readably, with a limited number of memorable black and white graphs. A blade of grass marks this passage on p. 86 "Here is a 140 character history of the past 5000 years. Humans found ways to access more energy and turned those energy surpluses into cultures, technology, architecture, art, wars and empires."
I can't find the page number but got a rueful laugh when the author quotes someone on how a rising tide [of economic growth] lifts all boats, then adds that the rising tide may be a rising sea level that will flood us.
Most of us are weary these days of climate eschatology, but this book has a lot of insights into earth systems that are new at least to me, such as that nature is circular but "Progress" is linear. Someone else has surely observed that before, but Qualman got the model to me. He reminds me of Amory Lovins, an energy maven who before climate breakdown was talked about wrote a book on "Soft Energy Paths" subtitled Progress as if Survival Mattered. We have to get off the progress bandwagon. "Progress" is hitched unbreakably to rapid doubling of how we loot the earth and despoil the air in the sacred name of economic growth. Progress at historical acceleration rates is not sustainable. It invites negative feedbacks. They are coming, but so late that they will be as catastrophic as the asteroid impact to which Qualman refers.
This book is a remarkably apt introduction to how we got where we are now, but more than just an introduction. It's not a spoiler to say that the conclusion is that we are on the road to Hell with the mantra of economic growth, GRP, GDP, GWP but theoretically could take an off-ramp. I think the author sees energy conversion technologies like wind and solar as that ramp, our only hope.
Adding my own editorial two cents, we must stop pumping methane out of the ground now. Its short lifetime in the atmosphere offers leverage that we don't have on CO2. Every "freedom molecule" of CH4 shipped to Western Europe from the Texas Gulf Coast is one more spark of global warming.
December 22, 2024
The information and arguments aren't exactly new but they are presented very well and brought together cogently in one book. Qualman makes an important case for how we think about the world and how our economies work. He recommends changes both abstract and practical.
The case is fairly straightforward. Somewhere between the agricultural "revolution"(s) and the industrial revolution we changed our way of doing things from circular (like every other living thing) to linear. The effects of this change were amplified by switching from immediate solar energy (literally the sun and the power of our bodies and those of animals we domesticated) to millions-of-years-dead fossil fuels.
We now have an economic system that is, in short, totally out of harmony with the rest of life, and based on consuming and discarding. "We are overseeing the colonization of nature by the economy."
A few fascinating, bizarre, and/or horrifying facts and arguments from the book:
-Humanity and our domesticated livestock make up 97 percent of all vertebrate animals on land.
-The biomass of chickens is more than double the total mass of all other bird combined.
-More than 500 dead zones worldwide now cover hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.
-Our wastes no longer help make new products; rather, wasting merely makes way for new products
-Global material use increased 8-fold during the 20th century. Energy use increased 10-fold (then another 44 percent to 2017).
-We are consuming oil 2.5 million times faster than it was created.
-The costs of our actions often land decades or centuries in the future and/or halfway around the world.
-Some experts believe we have drained 50 percent of the world's wetlands.
Conclusions?
-We need to re-cast economics in the mould of biology and ecology...Economics must be a subset of ecology because the economy is a subset of the biosphere.
-Nothing is more important at this juncture than long-term thinking.
-Sustainable societies must be local in space so that the outputs can be processed and fed back in to create circular flows.
-We really got to get off fossil fuels.
The case is fairly straightforward. Somewhere between the agricultural "revolution"(s) and the industrial revolution we changed our way of doing things from circular (like every other living thing) to linear. The effects of this change were amplified by switching from immediate solar energy (literally the sun and the power of our bodies and those of animals we domesticated) to millions-of-years-dead fossil fuels.
We now have an economic system that is, in short, totally out of harmony with the rest of life, and based on consuming and discarding. "We are overseeing the colonization of nature by the economy."
A few fascinating, bizarre, and/or horrifying facts and arguments from the book:
-Humanity and our domesticated livestock make up 97 percent of all vertebrate animals on land.
-The biomass of chickens is more than double the total mass of all other bird combined.
-More than 500 dead zones worldwide now cover hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.
-Our wastes no longer help make new products; rather, wasting merely makes way for new products
-Global material use increased 8-fold during the 20th century. Energy use increased 10-fold (then another 44 percent to 2017).
-We are consuming oil 2.5 million times faster than it was created.
-The costs of our actions often land decades or centuries in the future and/or halfway around the world.
-Some experts believe we have drained 50 percent of the world's wetlands.
Conclusions?
-We need to re-cast economics in the mould of biology and ecology...Economics must be a subset of ecology because the economy is a subset of the biosphere.
-Nothing is more important at this juncture than long-term thinking.
-Sustainable societies must be local in space so that the outputs can be processed and fed back in to create circular flows.
-We really got to get off fossil fuels.
February 4, 2019
This is a book that examines the interaction between the Earth's natural cycles and the evolution of human civilization and progress - a cmbination of technology, culture and biology. It examines how out petro-chemical "mega-civilization" has decoupled from nature's cyclical processes, the sustainability of this type of civilization and the recommended paths to take in future. In my opinion this is an important book that sheds light on our history, our future, and how we came to live in our current civilization. However, I did find some sections to be repetitive and some too generalized. The author also fails to discuss the elephant in the room: overpopulation. Otherwise an interesting and informative book.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion of the book.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion of the book.
May 23, 2023
Review: Civilization Critical, by Darrin Qualman (2019). Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing; 314pp.
Few books over the last half-decade have encouraged such thought-provoking margin-scribbling as Darrin Qualman’s Civilization Critical.
Qualman’s central thesis is that our modern society is the harbinger of today’s many crises. The carbon economy, and our reluctance to find a practical alternative, will be our downfall. Moreover, our severance of circular flows in food and energy for linear substitutes is a critical problem that has already rounded civilization’s distant horizon: humanity’s reckoning is coming whether it is acknowledged or not.
The book is organized into 32 chapters over five parts, comprising some 271 pages, plus appendices, that chart how human civilization arrived at our current critical point and how we might be able to avoid collapse. The division enables a fast read, making difficult concepts and original contributions digestible. Helpfully, key terms are explained without needlessly adorned language—‘eCivilization’ (a genuinely fresh, inspired new term Qualman coined); Green Revolution, ‘Dematerilization’ etc.—and bullet-points are deployed where appropriate to accelerate such discussions to move the reader towards the real value of the work. Remarkably, Qualman conveys contemporary crises without descending to cheap doomism that arguably impairs David Wallace-Well’s work, yet, he retains a skill to write dramatically, though not hyperbolically; his words are empowered by empiricism, fact, and enquiry, not the presentation of worst-case scenarios.
Despite the page-length, Qualman doesn’t waste words on unimportant exposition or dwelling on unnecessary historical narratives: the prose is artfully clipped. Mercifully, the chapters are well summarized, as well they need to be. Qualman throws a lot of intellectual punches in his work, and the reader needs a moment to catch their breath. Qualman demonstrates—and is excellent at the undertaking—of simplifying difficult ideas, such as his chapters on linear and circular flows; Chapter 11: ‘There Are Just Two Sources of Energy’; and, Chapter 12: ‘Photosynthesis, Carbon, and Fossil Fuels. This gives Qualman the ability—and confidence—to tackle deeper, more complex scientific concepts that other mainstream writers otherwise avoid. Work on food, transport, energy, efficiency, and progress are all quite brilliant; Chapter Seven, ‘Wasting Away: Linear Civilization and Trash’, was particularly interesting. Qualman’s surgical deconstruction of such topics achieves something vital for the genre: wider accessibility.
Some critical reception of Qualman’s work finds fault with the limited number of pages describing what the reader can do. However, I personally find this refreshing. So many books in the genre from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to Extinction Rebellion’s This is Not A Drill (2019), dedicate lengthily chapters to this theme. The assumption seems to be: here’s the problem, and this is what you can do to help (often cleaved into such binary divisions). Thus, there is an assumed ignorance on behalf of the reader that is filled and directed. Qualman, in my view, makes a different assumption. He assumes that we already know what needs to be done. What he instead tries to do is to mobilize our knowledge, contextualized into a wider framework, before then trying to redirect our apathy into doing the things we know we must, but also laying out the dire consequences of carrying on if we don’t make substantive changes.
The work represents a strong—and broadly unique—contribution to the academic genre. Among the strengths is Qualman’s writing craftsmanship. In places, Qualman writes like a journalist, peppered with the flair of a novelist, all of which is tempered by the rugged experience of the farmer he is, and the scholar his reading makes apparent. Qualman’s real gift is blending his myriad experiences into expressing ideas not only clearly, but in an extremely relatable way. Thus, complex ideas, especially those that have or require a solid scientific background, are conveyed well. This is not done in a patronizing manor, but more as a guiding voice as the reader wanders through the maze of confusion that besets us. And let us be opaque: such a subject matter that Qualman bravely chooses needs the clarity which he brings. Such a commendable literary ability enables vast chunks of information and argument to be digested in ways other writers have largely failed to do. Qualman thus navigates the fine line between voluminous—and astonishing—facts, statistics, and evidence (which are selected from contemporary and historical actors and presented with welcome aplomb), whilst keeping the narrative pacy, concise, and interesting. This in itself is an extraordinary accomplishment. Qualman is also successful in bridging temporal and spacial dissonance. It is a skill indeed to make past examples of crisis in foreign lands relevant to modern audiences, particularly given that such understanding is often essential for many elements of Qualman’s arguments.
There is also a boldness about Qualman’s work beyond its difficult subject matter and expansive nature, for despite the excellence of his scholarship and the perverseness of his arguments, he is not afraid to vent his frustrations over our current civilizational statis in a way not dissimilar from environmental journalist, George Monbiot. Such frustrations coalesce in Chapter 27: Progress, where Qualman’s criticisms of civilization, our collective actions/inactions, and our siloed thinking are powerfully expressed.
Moreover, the wealth of reading—all those hours in the library—is apparent on each page. The wellspring of studying is breathtaking; even aside from the canon of references in the bibliography, the influence of Plato, Hesiod, Virgil, Marx, Wittfogel, (Adam) Smith, Bentham, Quinn, and others are keenly felt. The dedication to both deep and broad research is a reassuring triumph that the reader can only appreciate - and be thankful of Qualman’s academic discipline; one gets the impression he could have regaled the reader in much more interesting, though likely erroneous, history. The historian in me finds both the brief and elaborated discussions of the past most welcome, and it’s an arena Qualman is evidently comfortable in.
For all the outstanding work Qualman does, there is space for critique. Following on from the above, there’s an obvious charge of historical reductionism. Yet, Qualman does highlight this possible indictment himself—“my attempts across several continents and thousands of years is perilous - tantamount to begging for academic slings and arrows (p.221)—and in all fairness, few works in the genre are able to provide any serious historical depth when their primary subject pertains to the multi-sectoral climate crises they are discussing (Geoffrey Parker’s Global Crisis War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century being a noteworthy exception).
There are roads less travelled, too. Evidently, no book can hope to include every debate, or related theme. Yet, space could have been opened up on the moral ramifications stemming from Qualman’s thesis - an increasingly important political topic. Moreover—revealing personal scholarly biases—a chapter on environmental security that made more explicit connections between humans impacting and degrading environments and how this in turn affects the survivability of civilization would have been welcome. It would have been an excellent bridge between Qualman the historian and Qualman the farmer-environmental scholar, allowing him to demonstrate Jarod Diamond’s evident imprints.
Furthermore, Qualman, not unreasonably, makes several assumptions regarding democracy and environmentalism: “In the face of resource depletion, climate change, and powerful technologies such as nuclear weapons and geoengineering, effective, democratic governance is essential” (p.217). Indeed, the academic literature provides broad consensus that environmentalism is more conducive under democratic sovereignty. However, there are grounds to question such a view when today’s factional politics in the US, UK, India, Brazil, Australia, France, and other leading democracies are themselves inhibiting the urgent action required to arrest the level of climate change that threatens the survivability of civilization. A contrario, the historical record is littered with autocratic states—18th century Tokugawa Japan, South Korea’s Park Chung Hee (1961-1979), the Dominican Republic’s Joaquin Balaguer (1966-1978; 1986-1996), today’s China, and many others—whereby these dictators in all but name recognized the vulnerabilities of a degraded environment (principally to their own regime security) and acted accordingly with qualifiable successes. Such themes require further interrogation, and I would be most intrigued to read Qualman’s responses.
Lastly, as noted above, while the ‘what you can do’ section’s lite composition isn’t an issue (Qualman notes there are other works out there on the subject), a more illuminated pathway towards how we can ‘unprogress’ ourselves would have increased the value of this work, reinforcing his central thesis and offering readers both motivation and hope that civilization might be able to step back from the brink.
Overall, Qualman makes a very important contribution to the field. Simply put, Civilizational Critical deserves a wide readership, ideally, before it’s too late to act on some of Qualman’s prognoses.
Dr. Thomas David Dowling has a PhD in Environmental Security from the University of Leicester, specializing in Myanmar and Southeast Asia. He holds previous degrees in Ancient History (BA, MA; University of Bristol), and a MA in International Security Studies (Leicester).
Few books over the last half-decade have encouraged such thought-provoking margin-scribbling as Darrin Qualman’s Civilization Critical.
Qualman’s central thesis is that our modern society is the harbinger of today’s many crises. The carbon economy, and our reluctance to find a practical alternative, will be our downfall. Moreover, our severance of circular flows in food and energy for linear substitutes is a critical problem that has already rounded civilization’s distant horizon: humanity’s reckoning is coming whether it is acknowledged or not.
The book is organized into 32 chapters over five parts, comprising some 271 pages, plus appendices, that chart how human civilization arrived at our current critical point and how we might be able to avoid collapse. The division enables a fast read, making difficult concepts and original contributions digestible. Helpfully, key terms are explained without needlessly adorned language—‘eCivilization’ (a genuinely fresh, inspired new term Qualman coined); Green Revolution, ‘Dematerilization’ etc.—and bullet-points are deployed where appropriate to accelerate such discussions to move the reader towards the real value of the work. Remarkably, Qualman conveys contemporary crises without descending to cheap doomism that arguably impairs David Wallace-Well’s work, yet, he retains a skill to write dramatically, though not hyperbolically; his words are empowered by empiricism, fact, and enquiry, not the presentation of worst-case scenarios.
Despite the page-length, Qualman doesn’t waste words on unimportant exposition or dwelling on unnecessary historical narratives: the prose is artfully clipped. Mercifully, the chapters are well summarized, as well they need to be. Qualman throws a lot of intellectual punches in his work, and the reader needs a moment to catch their breath. Qualman demonstrates—and is excellent at the undertaking—of simplifying difficult ideas, such as his chapters on linear and circular flows; Chapter 11: ‘There Are Just Two Sources of Energy’; and, Chapter 12: ‘Photosynthesis, Carbon, and Fossil Fuels. This gives Qualman the ability—and confidence—to tackle deeper, more complex scientific concepts that other mainstream writers otherwise avoid. Work on food, transport, energy, efficiency, and progress are all quite brilliant; Chapter Seven, ‘Wasting Away: Linear Civilization and Trash’, was particularly interesting. Qualman’s surgical deconstruction of such topics achieves something vital for the genre: wider accessibility.
Some critical reception of Qualman’s work finds fault with the limited number of pages describing what the reader can do. However, I personally find this refreshing. So many books in the genre from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to Extinction Rebellion’s This is Not A Drill (2019), dedicate lengthily chapters to this theme. The assumption seems to be: here’s the problem, and this is what you can do to help (often cleaved into such binary divisions). Thus, there is an assumed ignorance on behalf of the reader that is filled and directed. Qualman, in my view, makes a different assumption. He assumes that we already know what needs to be done. What he instead tries to do is to mobilize our knowledge, contextualized into a wider framework, before then trying to redirect our apathy into doing the things we know we must, but also laying out the dire consequences of carrying on if we don’t make substantive changes.
The work represents a strong—and broadly unique—contribution to the academic genre. Among the strengths is Qualman’s writing craftsmanship. In places, Qualman writes like a journalist, peppered with the flair of a novelist, all of which is tempered by the rugged experience of the farmer he is, and the scholar his reading makes apparent. Qualman’s real gift is blending his myriad experiences into expressing ideas not only clearly, but in an extremely relatable way. Thus, complex ideas, especially those that have or require a solid scientific background, are conveyed well. This is not done in a patronizing manor, but more as a guiding voice as the reader wanders through the maze of confusion that besets us. And let us be opaque: such a subject matter that Qualman bravely chooses needs the clarity which he brings. Such a commendable literary ability enables vast chunks of information and argument to be digested in ways other writers have largely failed to do. Qualman thus navigates the fine line between voluminous—and astonishing—facts, statistics, and evidence (which are selected from contemporary and historical actors and presented with welcome aplomb), whilst keeping the narrative pacy, concise, and interesting. This in itself is an extraordinary accomplishment. Qualman is also successful in bridging temporal and spacial dissonance. It is a skill indeed to make past examples of crisis in foreign lands relevant to modern audiences, particularly given that such understanding is often essential for many elements of Qualman’s arguments.
There is also a boldness about Qualman’s work beyond its difficult subject matter and expansive nature, for despite the excellence of his scholarship and the perverseness of his arguments, he is not afraid to vent his frustrations over our current civilizational statis in a way not dissimilar from environmental journalist, George Monbiot. Such frustrations coalesce in Chapter 27: Progress, where Qualman’s criticisms of civilization, our collective actions/inactions, and our siloed thinking are powerfully expressed.
Moreover, the wealth of reading—all those hours in the library—is apparent on each page. The wellspring of studying is breathtaking; even aside from the canon of references in the bibliography, the influence of Plato, Hesiod, Virgil, Marx, Wittfogel, (Adam) Smith, Bentham, Quinn, and others are keenly felt. The dedication to both deep and broad research is a reassuring triumph that the reader can only appreciate - and be thankful of Qualman’s academic discipline; one gets the impression he could have regaled the reader in much more interesting, though likely erroneous, history. The historian in me finds both the brief and elaborated discussions of the past most welcome, and it’s an arena Qualman is evidently comfortable in.
For all the outstanding work Qualman does, there is space for critique. Following on from the above, there’s an obvious charge of historical reductionism. Yet, Qualman does highlight this possible indictment himself—“my attempts across several continents and thousands of years is perilous - tantamount to begging for academic slings and arrows (p.221)—and in all fairness, few works in the genre are able to provide any serious historical depth when their primary subject pertains to the multi-sectoral climate crises they are discussing (Geoffrey Parker’s Global Crisis War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century being a noteworthy exception).
There are roads less travelled, too. Evidently, no book can hope to include every debate, or related theme. Yet, space could have been opened up on the moral ramifications stemming from Qualman’s thesis - an increasingly important political topic. Moreover—revealing personal scholarly biases—a chapter on environmental security that made more explicit connections between humans impacting and degrading environments and how this in turn affects the survivability of civilization would have been welcome. It would have been an excellent bridge between Qualman the historian and Qualman the farmer-environmental scholar, allowing him to demonstrate Jarod Diamond’s evident imprints.
Furthermore, Qualman, not unreasonably, makes several assumptions regarding democracy and environmentalism: “In the face of resource depletion, climate change, and powerful technologies such as nuclear weapons and geoengineering, effective, democratic governance is essential” (p.217). Indeed, the academic literature provides broad consensus that environmentalism is more conducive under democratic sovereignty. However, there are grounds to question such a view when today’s factional politics in the US, UK, India, Brazil, Australia, France, and other leading democracies are themselves inhibiting the urgent action required to arrest the level of climate change that threatens the survivability of civilization. A contrario, the historical record is littered with autocratic states—18th century Tokugawa Japan, South Korea’s Park Chung Hee (1961-1979), the Dominican Republic’s Joaquin Balaguer (1966-1978; 1986-1996), today’s China, and many others—whereby these dictators in all but name recognized the vulnerabilities of a degraded environment (principally to their own regime security) and acted accordingly with qualifiable successes. Such themes require further interrogation, and I would be most intrigued to read Qualman’s responses.
Lastly, as noted above, while the ‘what you can do’ section’s lite composition isn’t an issue (Qualman notes there are other works out there on the subject), a more illuminated pathway towards how we can ‘unprogress’ ourselves would have increased the value of this work, reinforcing his central thesis and offering readers both motivation and hope that civilization might be able to step back from the brink.
Overall, Qualman makes a very important contribution to the field. Simply put, Civilizational Critical deserves a wide readership, ideally, before it’s too late to act on some of Qualman’s prognoses.
Dr. Thomas David Dowling has a PhD in Environmental Security from the University of Leicester, specializing in Myanmar and Southeast Asia. He holds previous degrees in Ancient History (BA, MA; University of Bristol), and a MA in International Security Studies (Leicester).
March 9, 2019
Life on earth started (for reasons yet known) by channelling energy available on earth. Early life struggled in its existence depending on energy from the geochemical reactions powered by earth's heat from the depths. Most of this energy came from radioactive decay and the kinetic energy trapped during the earth's origin. Earth's energy also powers plate tectonics, a planetary phenomenon, which we experience through earthquakes and volcanoes. It also causes changes in landscapes and weather patterns. Other planets in our neighbourhood, as far we understand, do not have plate technics nor life.
This earth based closed biological system underwent a revolution, after over 1.5 billion years of initial existence, when photosynthesising bacteria started using energy from the sun. Along with abundant availability everywhere (at least on the surface), solar energy, which was also an initial threat to the primordial life, kickstarted a global change when oxygen started to build up in the atmosphere. Solar energy and oxygen based life become the new normal.
Life evolved with food chains, and webs depended primarily on solar energy. When humans emerged a few million years ago, the basic pattern remained unchanged for a long time. A significant revolution happened when humans started massive scale coordination in harnessing solar energy. It happened about 12,000 years ago with the agricultural revolution. It was also a large-scale reengineering of earth's climate and the environment. Some call it a trap that humans stumbled upon and could never escape. Vast utilisation of materials also started from this time, especially for the building of city civilisations.
Next major milestone was the industrial revolution, which stumbled upon the use of trapped solar energy in coal and petroleum. Darrin Qualman's account of the civilisations starts from this time when energy availability increased by many orders of magnitude. This vast energy availability brought in machines that freed muscles, and hence the dependency on the diffused contemporary solar energy. Civilizational progress because a race to use materials (and its trapped energy) in an utmost linear manner.
Darrin Qualman puts in a convincing argument with facts and figures on how this "linear conveyor belt" is impacting the environment, including leading the planet into a runaway planet warming. How the biological and physical systems are threatened by material and energy use is well documented in this book, drawing from many reputed sources. He also elucidates ideas on complexity and collapse of societies to argue that perhaps simple solutions based on circularity and contemporary solar power.
However, the pages devoted to solutions are too few, and arguments need better firming up. The author calls for an end of runaway progress and unlimited resource use. It requires only common sense to understand we can not continue with this model of development. However, putting breaks of agricultural, industrial and green revolutions may not be that easy. These are traps from which humankind may not be able to escape.
Darrin Qualman calls for a new eco-economics to study future developmental needs and find solutions that are harmonious natural cycles and loops. However, the author has not gone into possibilities such rise of new technologies such as using earth's energy, the geothermal systems and nuclear energy from uranium, thorium and hydrogen. Nuclear energy is already commercialised and even though problematic about safety and waste management, there is no need to think these are insurmountable issues.
Darrin Qualman treats the governance issues briefly. This is an exciting field that requires more analysis. Whether modern democracies are delivering is a question that needs some consideration. We have seen the utter failure of centralised economies, but democracies based on free markets are hardly faring better. But the ecosystem approach that the author favours need an examination of the biological basis of free markets.
Some of the questions need more thinking and more objective answers. I hope the author will provide them in this future books. I strongly recommend this book to all who are interested in sustainable solutions for this planet.
This earth based closed biological system underwent a revolution, after over 1.5 billion years of initial existence, when photosynthesising bacteria started using energy from the sun. Along with abundant availability everywhere (at least on the surface), solar energy, which was also an initial threat to the primordial life, kickstarted a global change when oxygen started to build up in the atmosphere. Solar energy and oxygen based life become the new normal.
Life evolved with food chains, and webs depended primarily on solar energy. When humans emerged a few million years ago, the basic pattern remained unchanged for a long time. A significant revolution happened when humans started massive scale coordination in harnessing solar energy. It happened about 12,000 years ago with the agricultural revolution. It was also a large-scale reengineering of earth's climate and the environment. Some call it a trap that humans stumbled upon and could never escape. Vast utilisation of materials also started from this time, especially for the building of city civilisations.
Next major milestone was the industrial revolution, which stumbled upon the use of trapped solar energy in coal and petroleum. Darrin Qualman's account of the civilisations starts from this time when energy availability increased by many orders of magnitude. This vast energy availability brought in machines that freed muscles, and hence the dependency on the diffused contemporary solar energy. Civilizational progress because a race to use materials (and its trapped energy) in an utmost linear manner.
Darrin Qualman puts in a convincing argument with facts and figures on how this "linear conveyor belt" is impacting the environment, including leading the planet into a runaway planet warming. How the biological and physical systems are threatened by material and energy use is well documented in this book, drawing from many reputed sources. He also elucidates ideas on complexity and collapse of societies to argue that perhaps simple solutions based on circularity and contemporary solar power.
However, the pages devoted to solutions are too few, and arguments need better firming up. The author calls for an end of runaway progress and unlimited resource use. It requires only common sense to understand we can not continue with this model of development. However, putting breaks of agricultural, industrial and green revolutions may not be that easy. These are traps from which humankind may not be able to escape.
Darrin Qualman calls for a new eco-economics to study future developmental needs and find solutions that are harmonious natural cycles and loops. However, the author has not gone into possibilities such rise of new technologies such as using earth's energy, the geothermal systems and nuclear energy from uranium, thorium and hydrogen. Nuclear energy is already commercialised and even though problematic about safety and waste management, there is no need to think these are insurmountable issues.
Darrin Qualman treats the governance issues briefly. This is an exciting field that requires more analysis. Whether modern democracies are delivering is a question that needs some consideration. We have seen the utter failure of centralised economies, but democracies based on free markets are hardly faring better. But the ecosystem approach that the author favours need an examination of the biological basis of free markets.
Some of the questions need more thinking and more objective answers. I hope the author will provide them in this future books. I strongly recommend this book to all who are interested in sustainable solutions for this planet.
September 18, 2019
Civilization Critical is an eye-opener!
I remember a Social Studies teacher in high school 63 years ago ranting about population explosion. He said the food supply couldn’t keep pace. There would be mass starvation in the world, and it had already started in Bangladesh. Despite modest attempts at birth control, it kept right on exploding and I often wondered why the starvation threat never materialized. This book explains why.
Darrin Qualman describes how injection of fossil fuel powered energy has transformed Nature’s closed loop animal and plant life cycle into a linear supercharged food production system. While it’s easy to grasp the impact of modern machinery and irrigation, one tends to underestimate the impact of over 200 million tons of fertilizer used each year and rising. Most of it is derived from petroleum. We are feeding the ever-growing population through depletion of fossil fuel resources. This of course is on top of what is burn for transportation, heating, energy production, etc.
The book goes far beyond what a review should even attempt to summarize by showing how the energy captured and used in all these ways relates to the level of civilization enjoyed and population supported. Reading “Civilization Critical” will broaden your knowledge of many factors impacting our societies and lifestyles, how we got to this point and where we are going in future. For me, the most “Critical” aspect Qualman reveals is the point that today’s corporate and government leaders strive toward a goal of “sustainable growth” which he shows is not sustainable at all. Must we continue to pursue “sustainable growth” until doomed by depletion of fossil fuel resources or can we move away from that to a truly sustainable civilization? Qualman provides a wonderful background understanding leading to this culminating question.
Noting that the author grew up farming in Saskatchewan, I found myself guilty of stereotyping by expecting a “down on the farm” approach. Quite the opposite, Qualman displays his academic credentials throughout. At times he has a penchant for big words and occasionally seems to belabor a key point. However, the book is thoroughly readable, and its contents easily grasped.
Too bad my old Social Studies teacher didn’t have it under his belt. He could have ranted about what really happened and what we must do moving forward if our human golden age is to survive.
I remember a Social Studies teacher in high school 63 years ago ranting about population explosion. He said the food supply couldn’t keep pace. There would be mass starvation in the world, and it had already started in Bangladesh. Despite modest attempts at birth control, it kept right on exploding and I often wondered why the starvation threat never materialized. This book explains why.
Darrin Qualman describes how injection of fossil fuel powered energy has transformed Nature’s closed loop animal and plant life cycle into a linear supercharged food production system. While it’s easy to grasp the impact of modern machinery and irrigation, one tends to underestimate the impact of over 200 million tons of fertilizer used each year and rising. Most of it is derived from petroleum. We are feeding the ever-growing population through depletion of fossil fuel resources. This of course is on top of what is burn for transportation, heating, energy production, etc.
The book goes far beyond what a review should even attempt to summarize by showing how the energy captured and used in all these ways relates to the level of civilization enjoyed and population supported. Reading “Civilization Critical” will broaden your knowledge of many factors impacting our societies and lifestyles, how we got to this point and where we are going in future. For me, the most “Critical” aspect Qualman reveals is the point that today’s corporate and government leaders strive toward a goal of “sustainable growth” which he shows is not sustainable at all. Must we continue to pursue “sustainable growth” until doomed by depletion of fossil fuel resources or can we move away from that to a truly sustainable civilization? Qualman provides a wonderful background understanding leading to this culminating question.
Noting that the author grew up farming in Saskatchewan, I found myself guilty of stereotyping by expecting a “down on the farm” approach. Quite the opposite, Qualman displays his academic credentials throughout. At times he has a penchant for big words and occasionally seems to belabor a key point. However, the book is thoroughly readable, and its contents easily grasped.
Too bad my old Social Studies teacher didn’t have it under his belt. He could have ranted about what really happened and what we must do moving forward if our human golden age is to survive.
February 13, 2019
Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley
Civilization Critical by Darrin Qualman is an incredibly thought-provoking and unique illustration of our civilization - especially the differences between nature's material cycles and our linear systems of production and consumption.
The author highlights the importance of energy and material flows for understanding today's society, the significance of not only the Industrial Revolution, but also the energy and transport revolutions in shaping our civilization, and the ways in which humanity is manipulating the entire biosphere. He describes the problems concerning society's sempiternal striving for progress, efficiency, and an increasing GDP.
Qualman urges for a change in our ways of thinking, producing, and consuming. He states finding humanity's place "in a cyclical ecological system" the most important project of the 21st century as "we are colonizing the past and future to obtain resources for the present."
All things considered, the book is definitely a must-read for everyone. It's written from a very distinctive perspective, the arguments and explanations are detailed but not long-winded and the topic is sadly more relevant than ever before.
Civilization Critical by Darrin Qualman is an incredibly thought-provoking and unique illustration of our civilization - especially the differences between nature's material cycles and our linear systems of production and consumption.
The author highlights the importance of energy and material flows for understanding today's society, the significance of not only the Industrial Revolution, but also the energy and transport revolutions in shaping our civilization, and the ways in which humanity is manipulating the entire biosphere. He describes the problems concerning society's sempiternal striving for progress, efficiency, and an increasing GDP.
Qualman urges for a change in our ways of thinking, producing, and consuming. He states finding humanity's place "in a cyclical ecological system" the most important project of the 21st century as "we are colonizing the past and future to obtain resources for the present."
All things considered, the book is definitely a must-read for everyone. It's written from a very distinctive perspective, the arguments and explanations are detailed but not long-winded and the topic is sadly more relevant than ever before.
December 22, 2019
I haven't read anything even remotely close to this before. It's like a theoretical take on energy systems with themes intimately related to human development and man-made climate change. I would recommend this just for the mind-bending yet very grounded take on agriculture, infrastructure, and energy. My only terribly minor complaint is that it's more academic than typical pop-science so a little tough to get into, but it's worth the effort.
December 29, 2021
What a fun yet thought-provoking way to look at and understand current society - both the realities and the adjustments humanity needs.
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