Dirt Quotes

“Small societies are particularly vulnerable to disruption of key lifelines, such as trading relations, or to large perturbations like wars or natural disasters. Larger societies, with more diverse and extensive resources, can rush aid to disaster victims. But the complexity that brings resilience may also impede adaptation and change, producing social inertia that maintains collectively destructive behavior. Consequently, large societies have difficulty adapting to slow change and remain vulnerable to problems that eat away their foundation, such as soil erosion. In contrast, small systems are adaptable to shifting baselines but are acutely vulnerable to large perturbations. But unlike the first farmer-hunter-gatherers who could move around when their soil was used up, a global civilization cannot.”
― David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

“With rare exceptions, the fields of all countries have been made to bear their crops without the least reference to the interests of future generations.”
― David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

“One of the more interesting things I learned from my first job as a foundation inspector was that preparing a building site means carting the topsoil off to a landfill. Sometimes the fine topsoil was sold as fill for use in other projects. Completely paved, Silicon Valley won't feed anyone again for the foreseeable future.”
― David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

“Irish exports to England increased. The British Army helped enforce contracts as landlords shipped almost half a million Irish pigs to England at the peak of the famine in 1846.”
― David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

“With just a couple feet of soil standing between prosperity and desolation, civilizations that plow through their soil vanish.”
― David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations