Civilisation and energy

Sumerian cities.

Mayan civilisation.

Western Roman empire.

Innovation.

Middle ages.

Plague.

Timber.

Solar deficit.

The culmination of the Neolithic revolution can be seen in Sumerian cities.

They flourished on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the middle east, 5500 years ago.

The Sumer people established about a dozen independent states.

Each contained several thousand people.

These settlements lasted for over 2000 years.

They invented the cuneiform, likely the earliest form of written language.

The number of citizens in the cities increased.

There was pressure on the land to produce more food.

This over farming caused an increase in soil salinity. 

This led to a drastic reduction in productivity.

They replaced wheat with barley, which was a more salt tolerant crop.

This did not help much.

Over time fertile arable lands became barren desert.

The Sumerian population fell by 60%.

The process of increasing urbanisation has continued ever since.

The reasons are, population growth, famine, energy shortage, environmental change, 

or a combination of these issues.

There have been times when the impact has been sudden and catastrophic.

At other times it is was a slow and terminal decline.

Sometimes there is a return to growth and prosperity.

At the time the Sumerian society was imploding, 

in central America, an even more mighty civilisation was beginning to establish itself.

The Mayan civilisation flourished from 2000 BCE to 900 CD.

It extended from southern Mexico to Northern El Salvador and western Honduras.

The Maya are notable for having the only fully developed written language.

This allowed them to develop a sophisticated system of, sustainable government.

At its peak several Mayan cities had population in 10s of 1000s.

The capital Tikal had 100 thousand people.

The Maya lacked access to heavy draught animals like horses or buffalos.

They had to rely on human muscles for heavy work.

Despite this they developed sophisticated methods of food production.

Most agriculture took place in terraces.

They also had forest gardens and managed fallows.

By 800 CE their cities were abandoned.

Their technological expertise was forgotten.

The Maya exceeded the carrying capacity of their environment.

They exhausted the lands agricultural potential.

They over hunted the regions indigenous megafauna to extinction.

Research suggest that converting much of their forest land to crop land, 

may have reduced evapotranspiration, and rainfall.

This and other reasons, resulted in a  drought, that seems to have lasted 200 years.

The Maya civilisation declined.

For nearly 800 years Rome was the dominant power in western and southern Europe,

North Africa and the Middle east.

Its empire stretched from the Tyne to the Euphrates.

The population density of the empire’s capital, with one million people, 

was greater than 21st century NewYork city.

For most of its history it appeared as a technologically advanced and unassailable state.

Yet it disappeared in a few decades.

Europe was plunged into a dark age.

There is no single reason why it failed, but population growth was a major contributing factor.

There were pressures across Rome’s border with Germany and eastern Europe.

Various Germanic and Slavic tribes increased competition for resources.

What began as a steady trickle of refugees became a series of full blown invasions.

The western Roman empire came to an end.

Neither the Mayan, nor the Romans had the wherewithal to develop technological solutions,

to the challenges they faced.

The empires were big, but they are also inefficient.

The Roman empire in particular had no real culture of innovation.

This was true across its 800 year history.

Romans invented little of any significance and preferred to import technology.

They did not have a formal education system.

Middle and upper class children were taught in special schools.

A roman education consisted essentially of learning 100s of classic texts by heart, 

and writing them out repeatedly.

The mindless repetition was relentless.

There were no weekends, and very few holidays.

The boredom was broken only by occasional thrashing.

This created a culture in which innovation was a cultural taboo. 

The brightest of minds were coached systematically to be mediocre.

The romans did not have ink and paper or papyrus.

They knew how to stamp complex designs into coins,

but did not invent the printing press, or any kind of printing.

Books were mass produced by scribes, who were usually literate slaves.

The Romans could not think of a more efficient way of printing.

Innovation wise the Romans made very little progress.

In central America civilisation did not return to the technological levels achieved by the Mayans,

till after the Columbian discovery.

In Europe it was almost 800 years until comparable levels of technology were achieved.

It was 1000 years before cities could rival the size and grandeur of the empire’s capital.

After the fall of Rome, there was a dark age for about 200 years.

Romans left England in 400 BC.

Civilisation was fairly advanced during this period.

In 200 years the situation rapidly changed.

There seems to be a technological regression in England.

In Europe, the population remained fairly static in the middle ages.

By 1250 the economy was benefitting from a rapid increase in population.

The population reached a peak which would not be seen again till the 19th century.

This particular growth’s spurt was checked by a series of events in the 14th and 15th centuries.

By the late 13th century Europe had become over populated.

Frontiers had stopped expanding.

Internal colonisation was coming to an end.

The population was not only high, but also young.

At the beginning of the 14th century, 80% of people in England were under 20 years of age.

Experience and expertise was in short supply.

People were living at the edge of natural resources.

Climate change brought an end to the medieval warm climate.

A mini ice age set in.

This led to harsh winters and smaller harvests.

Across northern Europe the land became harder to till.

Famine, under employment and inflation become endemic.

By the fourteen century malnutrition was rife.

This reduced immunity to disease and increased motility rates.

In 1314 extra ordinary heavy rainfalls resulted in catastrophic famine, 

the worst in European history.

The population was reduced by more than 10%.

Government attempted to provide an economic response.

Export of food was prohibited.

Prices of cereals and staples was fixed.

To conserve supplies large scale hunting and fishing was prohibited.

In some cases these measures exacerbated the problem.

The countries that were hardest hit, including England were unable to import any grain.

Black markets flourished.

Europe was suffering from chronic hunger, low productivity and raising international confident.

Its debilitated citizen succumbed to virulent epidemics like typhoid.

Disease also wiped out livestock populations, reducing food supplies.

In a final blow, the Bubonic plague struck Europe.

The plague spread across Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England and Germany.

It killed 45 to 50% of the population.

In countries like Spain and France, where people lived in towns and cities,

the death rate was 75 to 80%.

An estimated 75 to 200 million Europeans died due to plague. 

The shape of society changed.

Labour was at a premium.

Peasants and agricultural workers were no longer tied to the land owner.

They could work for any one who paid the best price.

This created a mobile transient population.

The changes were sociological and geographical.

The population progressively became more urban.

By 1550 most town and cities regrew to pre-plague levels.

In 1350 London and Paris had populations of 50000 and 215000.

This grew to 200000 and 325000 by 1600.

By the middle of the 16th century, population had stabilised.

Food supplies kept pace with demand.

But Europe was faced with another crisis.

This was the Elizabethan energy crisis.

The situation was remarkably similar to our position today.

We are now contemplating a peak oil situation.

The Elizabethans were coming to terms with a peak wood situation.

What was considered as a cheap and plentiful supply was completely unsustainable.

Timber then was the most important natural resource.

It provided domestic heating, construction material, ship building material, etc.

The charcoal was used for Iron and metal industries.

The highest demand for good quality oak, came from Britain’s vast naval and merchant fields.

Around 650 fully grown trees was required to build one galley.

In the 16th century, one wood cutter would have cut down 30000 oak trees,

during his working life.

Each of those trees would have taken 80 years to grow.

Land owners welcome the process as it cleared the land for grazing for sheep.

In 1650 85% of  UK Exports was provided by wool.

Wood was getting expensive and increasingly difficult to get.

This unsustainable condition could have had a catastrophic impact on society,

potentially creating a Mayan style collapse.

However, an under used alternative fuel came to the rescue.

Prior to 16th century, the use of coal was very limited.

Coal was transportable by land or sea and could generate tremendous heat,

for industrial processes.

It was far more effective than wood.

The energy density of coal is much higher than wood.

Greater energy could be supplied to urban areas.

In 1260 coal was shipped to London, from Newcastle.

It was used by blacksmiths and lime smelters.

By the time of Elizabeth 1, all easily accessible sources had been exhausted.

Mining for coal now became widespread.

The scarcity of wood was the trigger to shift to this new form of energy.

The Elizabethan energy crisis marks the point at which we disconnected from the solar cycle.

We began to consume more energy than we were able to renew.

There were innovations in materials to use the heat produced from coal.

Houses were built with bricks.

Windows were covered with glass.

Producing glass was possible with coal fired furnaces.

The impact was most felt in the commercial world.

In 1700, 80% of the world’s coal was produced in Britain.

Later the steam engine took over from the waterwheel and the windmill.

The period of solar deficit had began.

This was a turning point in the use of energy by civilisation.