Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail Or Succeed, Part 537In Jared Diamond's follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide' |
Contents
A Tale of Two Farms | 1 |
Under Montanas Big Sky | 27 |
Twilight at Easter | 79 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition Jared Diamond Limited preview - 2011 |
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agriculture already American Anasazi animals archaeological archaeologists Australia became Bitterroot Bitterroot Valley bones cause century Chaco Canyon Chapter China climate change coast collapse colony consumers Copán costs countries cows crops damage decades decline deforestation developed Dominican Republic drought Easter Island economic environment environmental problems European export farmers farms fertility fish fisheries fjords forest Gardar global Greenland Greenland Norse growing Guinea Haiti Hence Henderson human hunting Hutu Iceland impacts increase industry Inuit irrigation Japan killed land largest livestock living logging Mangareva Maya middens miles million mining companies modern Montana native Norse North Norway numbers ocean overseas Pacific past societies Pitcairn plant Plate Polynesian production rates Ravalli County remains result River Rwanda seal sheep ships soil erosion species statues stone survive Third World Tikopia timber tion trade trees Tutsi Valley vegetation Vikings Vinland Western Settlement wood