In August we heard about new satellite evidence that shows how the ancient Khmer civilisation around Angkor Wat collapsed when its consumption of water resources exceeded natural limits.
A new study outlined at the recent Climate and Humans conference in Murcia, Spain, and appearing in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, shows that one of Western Europe’s earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall by humans meddling with the environment. Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain – Europe’s driest area, but new data suggest the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
It is clear to many that humanity, as a species, is now doing the same with the planet as a whole. We may point to oil as the principal candidate, because it fuelled extraordinary growth in population, technology and consumption during the past 100 years, and oil resources, relative to the rate of consumption, have already peaked. But we are also consuming resources that are critical to the functioning of the biosphere far beyond the ability of the biosphere to adjust.
The warning from ancient Spain is another that we must eat less, consume less and live within the laws of nature.
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