Message-ID: <9700068526.AA852606010@mail2.ausaid.gov.au> Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 19:00:10 EST From: Angus Barnes <mailto:Angus_Barnes@AUSAID.GOV.AU> Subject: Re[2]: pushing development--or pushing the status quo? To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
B. Diamond wrote: No, what I'd really like for us to do is learn sustainability from the only peopl e who have ever really achieved it--the world's indigenous cultures.
The notion that indigenous cultures achieved a sustainable lifestyle is debatable. Tim Flannery in his book "Future Eaters" portrays a disturbing history of human migration through New Guinea, Australia and the Pacific islands which is based on exploitation of the available resources resulting in massive changes to ecosystems. While their technology and population levels meant the impact was over a longer period of time, their role in causing extinctions, alterating forest ecosystems etc was still dramatic.
Indigenous cultures didn't live in a static, environmentally-friendly cocoon for centuries. Its fine to use that as the mythic basis for a new age of environmentalism, but the history of indigenous cultures also includes exploration, colonisation and exploitation of resources.