Climate Change: Indonesia's Collapse Model

In September 2016, NASA reported that the earth’s carbon dioxide level had passed the maximum level of 400 PPM when it was supposed to be at the lowest point of that year (Kahn 2016). This data from NASA (2016) shows that ever since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have been responsible for creating more greenhouse gases and the earth’s climate has rapidly changed. Climate change is one of five factors that Diamond mentioned in his collapse model and which became the basis of this research. There are five factors that might cause a society to collapse which are, climate change, environmental damage, trade relations with other countries, hostility from neighboring countries and cultural values. Most of the factors that were mentioned …show more content…
Given the above issues and based upon an analogy by Diamond of a two-horse race between the likelihood of collapse and a positive solution, this essay will argue that Indonesia is at the risk of collapse. This argument is built on there being no change in both government and citizen’s behaviour and related to factors such as, deforestation, overpopulation and rise of sea level.

To begin with, deforestation is arguably the biggest problem that Indonesia is encountering. It is the hardest one to solve since it is related to Indonesia’s national income. According to FAO State of the Forest, in 2011 Indonesia ranks the second country with biggest tropical deforestation. Nevertheless of this fact some people argue that deforestation is inevitable since Indonesia needs the land to expand palm oil plantations, which is the top export commodity for Indonesia in 2011 (Ministry of Trade & Ministry of Industry). However, this argument is somewhat questionable since deforestation that has been caused by the expansion of palm oil plantations has actually …show more content…
It had been argued that "having many children is perceived as prestigious" (Koentjaraningrat 1985). Most traditional Indonesian, according to this argument, are expected to have a big family with a large number of children because the children can help them actively in housework and the workforce. As a result, in the 1960s they tended to greatly contribute to the rising population at 2.31% (Indonesian BPS 2015). Regardless of what is purported here, overpopulation brings a tendency to collapse. Malthus (1803) said "human populations grow exponentially, while food production grows at an arithmetic rate". Consequently, the population is increasing faster than food production so Indonesia does not have enough supply to cover the society 's demand. As a result, Indonesia is more dependent on other countries, such as Thailand and Vietnam, to fulfill main groceries. This also refers to Diamond 's model that indicates the contribution of overpopulation to Indonesia 's collapse. To overcome the debt, Indonesia is producing more palm oil to obtain more income. Presumably, Indonesia’s problems always run like a cycle. It becomes more and more complex, as the government makes a new problem to solve another problem. In addition, overpopulation also leads to poverty. Since the number of job-searchers is