The Bitterroot Valley is home to beautiful country, but also many issues within their environment. These issues include human impacts on the environment, climate change, societies relations to their neighbors, exposure to other hostile societies, as well as the importance of a society’s response to these problems. As Diamond explains throughout the text, the problems highlight the issues humans have caused in many different areas of the environment including wastes, forests, water, soils and climate change. (Diamond, 33). When examined, it is evident these issues have all been caused by humans. The data and research done on these issues can show how they have grow with the growth of human population. It is for this reason one can determine that this issues, in such magnitude, have never been seen in nature before. The Bitterroot Valley has fallen victim to these issues in the well being of their people as well as the economic health in the Ravalli County. The resources the valley needs to survive and thrive have been depleted by human impact in one way or another, and we must learn from it.
The biggest thing we can examine is asking ourselves if these issues can impact a place as sparsely populated as Montana, how quickly and drastically can these issues impact people and environments in places with much denser populations and more rapidly increasing problems. This doesn’t just pertain to the environment but also impacts the economic health in affected areas. When our environmental resources are negatively impacted, the people who profit off these businesses have nothing left. Losing access to resources has contributed to the high poverty rates in Ravalli County (Diamond, 30). The anecdotes from the four Montana residents highlight the personal effects these issues leave, the world must pay attention and learn from mistakes.
Ms. Thomas,
your post does an excellent job of summarizing and building upon the hypotheses posited by Diamond, as well as beginning to form a theory for reparations. I also thought that your bringing in of the individual stories was an excellent point, as a large part of the environmental issues plaguing Montana are first visible as strain upon the smaller communities and individual farmers. However, I do think that it is necessary to acknowledge the historical nature of the problems, and how our continued acceptance of such traditions only propagates the destructive nature of out traditions.