permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

In a message dated 6/13/2003 9:37:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, mmay.lmft@cox.net writes:

History like that would change us all!  I would like to read more, please suggest some sources.

 

Thanks:

 

Michele

There's a lot right on the web. You can search for <indus valley civilization> and find a lot of articles. But really, all the old hydraulic civilizations messed up one resource base or another. Usually what happened was they discovered how to dig deep wells and made the desert bloom. After a few centuries, all the salts that came up with the deep groundwater settled on top and you couldn't grow crops any more. So the cities died and the people moved away-- often to make war on their more fortunate neighbors.

In much of Asia there was a tale about Genghis Khan's hordes killing everyone way back when, and sowing salt in the fields so nothing would ever grow there again. It makes a great story, and was probably true in many places. But mostly I think that's a story that sounded plausible to travellers across the interior of Asia, where civilization began, who found dead cities in the desert and an inch of salt crust on everything.

We're still making the same mistakes. Fortunately we're developing the technology now to wean ourselves from a fatal dependence on phosphate fertilizers. These make a nice profit for the agro-giants, but they sure fry your soil. After a generation there's no more tilth-- all you have is this grey-white fluff that turns to powder in the wind. If we only had a brain, we wouldn't be setting ourselves up to be future dead cities in the desert.

Mike Elvin