MacArthur Fellow to Give Talk on Environment
Scientists across the region to visit Holy Cross
Scientists throughout New England will join Holy Cross students, faculty and staff to hear a talk by David Montgomery, a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and one of the nation’s most accomplished environmental scientists, on Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in O’Neil Hall, Room 112. He will discuss some of the findings from his book, “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations,” which examines the role of soil in the evolution of ancient and modern societies and offers a number of solutions to contemporary soil degradation worldwide. His talk is free and open to the public.
Dr. Montgomery is a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, studying geomorphology, the evolution of landscapes. Sara Mitchell, assistant professor of biology, is serving as Dr. Montgomery’s host for the event.
In his book, Dr. Montgomery makes the case that humans are using up Earth’s soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain through agriculture, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, faster than they can be naturally replenished. The erosion is slow enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.
Soil erosion should be seen as a threat to the planet as serious as climate change, contends Dr. Montgomery. Civilizations don’t disappear overnight. They don’t choose to fail. More often they falter and then decline as their soil disappears over generations. Although historians are prone to credit the end of civilizations to events like climate changes, wars or natural disasters, the effects of soil erosion on ancient societies were profound, he writes.
Dr. Montgomery also points to the recent rise of organic and no-till farming in bringing hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help the world avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
The event is sponsored by Environmental Studies, biology department, and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.
