human-environment

History is full of stories of how environmental stress can hasten social and economic collapse. However, if you take a closer look, you find that the notion that environmental stress leads inevitably and directly to social collapse masks a more complicated, and often more hopeful, model. For example, extreme drought has triggered both social collapse and ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human responses to the environment lead to the development a complex web of multidirectional connections in time and space.