Haiti is the poorest and most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere, with a (pre-earthquake) population of around 10 million persons and a population density of 335 persons per sq km (10 times the density of the U.S.).[i] With a long history of colonial and political oppression, shortened life spans, massive poverty, energy shortages, poor health care, a raging HIV/AIDs/TB epidemic, and numerous other deep-seated social, political and economic problems, Haiti also represents a vivid and tragic example of Catton’s “Overshoot” concept of when a population exceeds the long term carrying capacity of its natural environment.[ii]
The border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti is to the left and the Dominican Republic is the greener area to the right (source: NASA).
As Amiel Blajchman and many others have pointed out, a major cause of Haiti’s environmental degradation has been the population’s need for cheap energy.[iii] Its growing and impoverished populace is perched on a small shared island landmass with almost no domestically available fossil fuel energy resources and few hydroelectric power supplies.[iv] The cause and effect has been a massive deforestation as wood became the primary but diminishing energy source for heating, cooking and lighting for much of its population. This dramatic deforestation[v] is even visible from NASA satellite imagery.[vi] The numerous ramifications of this environmental degradation are well described with adverse impacts on agriculture, hurricanes, transportation infrastructure and several ecosystems.[vii]
Now, with the worst earthquake shaking the Caribbean in 200 years, we must sadly add another chapter to the Haitian book chronicling the linkage between its human and ecological disasters. Without significant domestic lumber sources or the resources to import replacements, much of the Haitian housing consists (or “consisted” in the areas hardest hit) of unreinforced or poorly reinforced concrete and concrete blocks of varyng quality.
Buildings lie in ruins on a hillside in Port-au-Prince (source: Ivanoh Demers / AP)
As can be seen by the utter devastation in the numerous aerial surveys and neighbourhood panoramas posted over the Internet, those type of structures fare much worse than that of wood frame housing known to perform well in earthquakes from a human safety perspective. Thus, the Haitians share all too much in common with the experience of the Easter Islanders ecocidal slide into oblivion discussed by Jared Diamond.[viii] Had the Haitian forest environment been managed differently they might have been able to build their homes out of wood and the human suffering from this rare but predictable earthquake would arguably not have been as great.
With the help of massive embodied energy in the food and disaster response resources imported from generous international humanitarian efforts, some of the longer term devastation and loss of life from this event will be averted or postponed. But one can’t help but shudder at the possibility of an entire world so constrained by energy/economic decline induced transport constraints where no help will arrive in time, if at all, in inevitable future earthquake and other natural and man-made disasters. Collapse may be slow and sometimes imperceptible by the current generation, as both Diamond and Greer[ix] eloquently discuss, but sometimes nature’s fury, compounded by mankind’s short-sightedness and foibles, wreaks havoc and death in a heartbeat.
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti
[iii] http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/05/10/haitis-poverty-is-directly-linked-to-deforestation-and-habitat-loss/
[iv] http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/ene_cou_332.pdf
[vi] http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002600/a002640/
[vii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Haiti
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 17, 2010 at 3:17 am
Jan Lundberg
A very timely and well reasoned article.
When the author says, “Collapse may be slow and sometimes imperceptible by the current generation, as both Diamond and Greer eloquently discuss…” I would say “We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
For more on collapse from an oil-industry reality standpoint, please see my contribution in “Our Post-Peak Oil Future: A Comparison of Two Scenarios Following the Global Peak in Oil Production” http://www.baylocalize.org/files/Our_Post-Peak_Oil_Future.pdf
Please join the Fast for Haiti to Raise $ for Aid. I’m getting into Day 2, personally. Health after petrocollapse will rely on fasting and not petrochemical pharmaceuticals, I predict. Practicing now is worthwhile.
See http://culturechange.org/go.html?592 and http://culturechange.org/go.html?593.
The latter lists our participating fasters and has links to the best relief organizations for donating.
It’s a simple concept: go without food and give the money you save to Haitian aid groups.
Cheers,
Jan Lundberg
Portland, Ore.
January 17, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Paul Robbins
I think this short article is insensitive and riveted to ideology.
It is true that Haiti is an environmental basket case and that overpopulation has exacerbated its poverty. It is also true that there was some warning of the quake.
But I cannot believe that much of this would not have happened anyway if Haiti had trees. Are you trying to tell me that poorly built wooded structures would not have taken the place of poorly built concrete structures? Are you trying to tell me that people cannot be crushed by wooden beams instead of concrete, or the wrecked lumber would not become a fire hazard after the earthquake?
In my opinion, your arguments are tenuous and come off as insensitive. It the wake of this horrible disaster, it does not make Malthusian critics look very responsible.
You have the right and duty to comment on events, whether or not it is politically correct. But unless you do it with better arguments than what you have given here, don’t count on convincing many people.
PR