COMMENT: Why societies collapse

Jared Diamond, author of Collapse, was interviewed last night on the ABC's PM Programme. Now, Jared quite likes Australia, in fact he said that "it's a country that I really love, and I've been there frequently and I considered emigrating to Australia." This just to let you know that even someone as friendly disposed towards Australia as Jared can't help noticing the following:

MARK COLVIN: You've already come under some attack here. Asa Wahlquist, who's the Rural Writer with The Australian newspaper, says that you have used a number of out of date figures, and in particular she accuses you of taking in your statement that 80 per cent of Australia's agricultural profits are derived from less than 0.8 per cent of agricultural land. You've taken that from one particular year, and that was a very particular and not a very good year. Are you convinced that you've taken a wide enough slice through Australian recent history?

JARED DIAMOND: Yes, I am convinced that I've taken a wide enough slice, because I've talked to an awful lot of Australians, Australian farmers and people in the Australian Government. As for Asa Wahlquist's complaint about my choosing a particular year, this was in regard to my saying that most of Australia's profits, agricultural profits, are derived from a small per cent of its farmland. Yes, there are years that are worse than that particular year, '96-'97, and there are years that are better than that particular year. But the writer, Asa Wahlquist, neglected the obvious factor that every Australian knows – that most of the area that Australia devotes to farmland and pastureland is not good for very much, and that most of the profits come from a small per cent of the land.

(snip)

JARED DIAMOND: As far as land clearance is concerned, yes, many Australian states have done a wonderful job in reducing land clearance. Australia as a whole has not done enough, and Australians would be the first to say this, because Australia is the first world country that's still clearing more native vegetation than any other first world country. In fact, the only other countries in the world that now exceed you at land clearance are Brazil, Indonesia, Congo, and Bolivia, which are largely covered by forests, whereas Australia has only a small amount of residual forest. (my emphases)

Let me repeat that: Australia clears more land than any other first world country. And how many Australians, do you think, know this and care what effect this has on the global climate?