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>Latium, Campania, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, Northern Africa, as Roman granaries, were successively reduced to exhaustion. Abandoned land in Latium and Campania turned into swamps, in Northern Africa into desert. The forest-clad hills were denuded. 'The decline of the Roman Empire is a story of deforestation, soil exhaustion and erosion,' wrote Mr. G. V. Jacks in The Rape of the Earth. 'From Spain to Palestine there are no forests left on the Mediterranean littoral, the region is pronouncedly arid instead of having the mild humid character of forest-clad land, and most of its former bounteously rich top-soil is lying at the bottom of the sea.'
—G. T. Wrench, Reconstruction by Way of the Soil
Why does nobody talk about the environmental factors that led to the destabilization of the Roman Empire?
It seems like a way more important factor than
>muh degenarcy
>muh christianity
>muh germanics
All the above were just symptoms of an already crumbling civilization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_during_the_Roman_period
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That whole wikipedia article reads like slow decent into the apocalypse
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A bigger factor imo was the abandonment of large crop producing areas. When you have gaul peasants revolting in Gaul, and angry Franks in your doorstep how do you expect to get food for your provinces.
I think it was the unstable political structure that allowed Alaric into the empire and later the goths into Spain.
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>>1211733
>Why does nobody talk about the environmental factors that led to the destabilization of the Roman Empire?
You can't project alt right memes through them.
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Could we reverse it today if we would really try hard?
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>>1212167
Possibly, but it would take multiple generations.
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>>1212167
Europe is more forested now than hundred years ago, so maybe?
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>>1211733
Because these days we make artificial forest barriers and have better crop rotation. (The occasional dustbowls not withstanding.)
Though if you wanna see a civilization that instantly went to shit due to poor farming methods, you're better off pointing at the Aztecs or the Mayans.
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>>1212212
Anasazis failed even harder.
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You are on target.
Braudel raises his head again.
Too many persons try to find a single reason for an event, but this reductionist tendency can only provide a limited view.
Many factors, including barbarians, overextended lines, Christianity, reliance on foreign mercenaries, etcetera.
Your environmental point is well made.
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>>1212197
This makes me happy.
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