As I discussed in the previous entry, a recent Guardian blog post (structured loosely as a news article) made worldwide headlines. It was trumpeted by the Guardian blogger as an "exclusive"; he was given a copy of a paper soon to be published in the journal Ecological Economics. Because he didn't provide any context for the paper (the authors were not interviewed, nor were any independent experts), I thought I'd jump into this vacuum. Let's start with the first paragraph of the study's abstract:
There are widespread concerns that current trends in resource-use are unsustainable, but possibilities of overshoot/collapse remain controversial. Collapses have occurred frequently in history, often followed by centuries of economic, intellectual, and population decline. Many different natural and social phenomena have been invoked to explain specific collapses, but a general explanation remains elusive.
Anthropologists are loathe to make sweeping generalizations about the dissolution and/or reorganization of prehistoric cultures. This hasn't stopped popular narratives about carrying capacity from taking hold and remaining immune to mounting evidence that challenges prevailing views. Let's return to the study's abstract:
