401
God Neptune. Not only were pine nuts found in the rubble after 79 AD, when Mount
Vesuvius finally blew up in everybody’s face (after many threats to do so), but it was
a common staple for the Roman Legions wherever they roamed. In fact, these pine
nuts were probably the preeminent European snack, going back as far as one cares
to look. And for nutritional benefits, beauty, and tenacity, the Italian Stone Pine is
considered among the most steadfast and loyal of pine trees in the world.
Loyal, you ask? A tree that is loyal?
Si. Pinocchio is born of such a tree.
Chemist, environmentalist, and justifiably proud historian of his native Tuscany
Professor Ugo Bardi from the Dipartimento di Chimica at the Università di Firenzi
declares, “Plant trees, disband the army, work together: the Tuscan way of surviving
collapse.”
1
What is he referring to? Jared Diamond’s “Collapse”? Collapse in general? Writing his essay in 2006, he was most certainly speaking of the current
dependency on foreign oil and the spate of ecological problems that have historically affected this remarkable region of Italy, Tuscany. Tragic earthquakes and the
Coronavirus were yet to strike. But Bardi was certainly drawing graphic conclusions from Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and
from such examples of 22 civilizations described by the late historian Arnold
Toynbee, cultures that vanished because they violated their most important compact, namely, a respect for wilderness and ecological carrying capacity. Instead,
these cultures, one by one, succumbed to the same gruesome syndrome of selfdestruction by which the soils were destroyed, the trees cut down, every last precious mineral extracted, rivers fouled, fisheries, docile birds, anything that moved
within striking distance decimated.
For Professor Bardi, Tuscany, birthplace of Pinocchio, remains a fitting and paradoxical metaphor for what continues to happen across the planet. Bardi examined
the over-exploitation of the soil by the Roman Empire, later waves of deforestation
that filled the River Tiber with silt, consequent famines that erupted, and the first
European waves of environmental refugees. With the final implosion of the once
vast Roman military hegemony, Tuscany was liberated in the sense that it could
breathe freely again, her soils regenerating critical nutrients, and ecosystems returning to some level of stability.
But by the time of the early Italian Renaissance, there was more industrialization, a repeat scenario of centuries before; Pisa’s port was filled with silt from all the
new erosion that came with the cutting down of second- and third-growth trees.
Commerce coincided with the production of charcoal used in the making of firearms; these weapons in turn argued for their use. And used they were: In battle after
battle, as adjoining territories bleating with warriors took up arms, power struggles
ensued, and life was again imperiled. The history of Europe.
In the 1520s the leadership of the Republic of Florence, cognizant of approaching adversaries, the Spanish Imperial Armies heading directly toward Tuscany, built
1 See “Transition Culture – 11 Dec 2006”,”Plant trees, disband the army, work together: the Tuscan
way of surviving collapse” by Ugo Bardi, at: http://transitionculture.org/2006/12/11/
plant-trees-disband-the-army-work-together-the-tuscan-way-of-surviving-collapse-by-ugo-bardi/.
44.3 The Loyalty of Trees
God Neptune. Not only were pine nuts found in the rubble after 79 AD, when Mount
Vesuvius finally blew up in everybody’s face (after many threats to do so), but it was
a common staple for the Roman Legions wherever they roamed. In fact, these pine
nuts were probably the preeminent European snack, going back as far as one cares
to look. And for nutritional benefits, beauty, and tenacity, the Italian Stone Pine is
considered among the most steadfast and loyal of pine trees in the world.
Loyal, you ask? A tree that is loyal?
Si. Pinocchio is born of such a tree.
Chemist, environmentalist, and justifiably proud historian of his native Tuscany
Professor Ugo Bardi from the Dipartimento di Chimica at the Università di Firenzi
declares, “Plant trees, disband the army, work together: the Tuscan way of surviving
collapse.”
1
What is he referring to? Jared Diamond’s “Collapse”? Collapse in general? Writing his essay in 2006, he was most certainly speaking of the current
dependency on foreign oil and the spate of ecological problems that have historically affected this remarkable region of Italy, Tuscany. Tragic earthquakes and the
Coronavirus were yet to strike. But Bardi was certainly drawing graphic conclusions from Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and
from such examples of 22 civilizations described by the late historian Arnold
Toynbee, cultures that vanished because they violated their most important compact, namely, a respect for wilderness and ecological carrying capacity. Instead,
these cultures, one by one, succumbed to the same gruesome syndrome of selfdestruction by which the soils were destroyed, the trees cut down, every last precious mineral extracted, rivers fouled, fisheries, docile birds, anything that moved
within striking distance decimated.
For Professor Bardi, Tuscany, birthplace of Pinocchio, remains a fitting and paradoxical metaphor for what continues to happen across the planet. Bardi examined
the over-exploitation of the soil by the Roman Empire, later waves of deforestation
that filled the River Tiber with silt, consequent famines that erupted, and the first
European waves of environmental refugees. With the final implosion of the once
vast Roman military hegemony, Tuscany was liberated in the sense that it could
breathe freely again, her soils regenerating critical nutrients, and ecosystems returning to some level of stability.
But by the time of the early Italian Renaissance, there was more industrialization, a repeat scenario of centuries before; Pisa’s port was filled with silt from all the
new erosion that came with the cutting down of second- and third-growth trees.
Commerce coincided with the production of charcoal used in the making of firearms; these weapons in turn argued for their use. And used they were: In battle after
battle, as adjoining territories bleating with warriors took up arms, power struggles
ensued, and life was again imperiled. The history of Europe.
In the 1520s the leadership of the Republic of Florence, cognizant of approaching adversaries, the Spanish Imperial Armies heading directly toward Tuscany, built
1 See “Transition Culture – 11 Dec 2006”,”Plant trees, disband the army, work together: the Tuscan
way of surviving collapse” by Ugo Bardi, at: http://transitionculture.org/2006/12/11/
plant-trees-disband-the-army-work-together-the-tuscan-way-of-surviving-collapse-by-ugo-bardi/.
44.3 The Loyalty of Trees