Collapse

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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 In his million copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how andwhy Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical cultural narratives Moving 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, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted 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 Download Collapse – kino-fada.fr Jared Diamond looks at several societies that have collapsed as a result of misusing their natural resources, plus a couple Tokugawa period Japan is the star example that miraculously managed to pull back from the brink At the end, he also talks about some present day cases where we still don t know what will h...Fascinating work by the same author who won a Pulitzer prize for Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies This exhaustive study in Malthusian economics as applied to several societies in history that have failed, such as the Easter Islanders and Greenland Norse, details the thematic traits common to each example His chapter on Easter Island made me think of Thor Heyerdahl s work there.Most notably is how deforestation and imprudent population control applies to modern societies in Fascinating work by the same author who...The Pulitzer prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel by this dude forever changed the way I look at history And believe me, I am a history buff of sorts so this means a lot Unfortunately, Collapse fails to measure up to that classic.The real problem with Collapse isn t the research that goes into the thesis, or even the soundness of the thesis itself though there are some qualms I have about how politically unstable Mongolia is or basing his analysis of cod fisheries on a single popular accun The Pulitzer prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel by this dude forever changed the way I look at history And believe me, I am a history buff of sorts so this means a lot Unfortunately, Collapse fails to measure up to that classic.The real problem with Collapse isn t the research that goes into the thesis, or even the soundness of the thesis itself though there are some qualms I have about how politically unstable Mongolia is or basing his analysis of cod fisheries on a single popular accunt The central contention, that population explosion, interdependency, unsustainable harvest, adverse cultural values, and about 8 other factors contributed to a society s collapse, is innocuous enough, though admittedly somewhat vague Rather, the problem is that Diamond is so intent upon clearly and explicitly detailing every freaking argument to paint a convincing picture of the ancient medieval societies or the current polluting industries that he ofte...This is a major work Diamond looks in detail at the factors at play in the demise of civilizations in human history, using a wide range of examples He offers a framework in which to structure the analysis and looks in great detail at possible and in many cases certain reasons why various societies collapsed He is not a one note analyst All problems do not fit the same mold There is considerable nuance and common sense brought to bear on this examination ...I considered giving this book 4 instead of 5 stars simply because it can be over dense in its detail and the style can be rather dry but then I figured that saysabout my stamina and laziness than about the quality of the book, so the book gets 5 and I get a 4 for effort We re all winners.So despite the headline grabbing title, the author Jared Diamond a cross between an Amish garden gnome and avuncular Glastonbury festival supremo if you go by his picture tries its darndest to avoid I considered giving this book 4 instead of 5 stars simply because it can be over dense in its detail and the style can be rather dry but then I figured that saysabout my stamina and laziness than about the quality of the book, so the book gets 5 and I get a 4 for effort We re all winners.So despite the headline grabbing title, the author Jared Diamond a cross bet...The halfway point review One question I ve been wrestling with as I read, as I watch these societies move slightly past sustainability, as I read about societal collapse and the squandering of resources by the wealthy and then the inevitable cannibalism that always seems to show up in the last act, I keep asking myself how the environment became a political issue There s no question that environmental resources aren t infinite, yet it seems like the majority of people or at least the loudest The halfway point review One question I ve been wrestling with as I read, as I watch these societies move slightly past sustainability, as I read about societal collapse and the squandering of resources by the wealthy and then the inevitable cannibalism that always seems to show up in the last act, I keep asking myself how the environment became a political issue There s no question that environmental resources aren t infinite, yet it seems like the majority of people or at least the loudest faction care less about human life on earth than their own comfort and status Or else, how can they ju...In Collapse, Jared Diamond draws our attention to the following problems, which have plagued humanity throughout history.1 Deforestation and loss of habitat2 Overhunting3 Overfishing4 Soil degradation5 Water management problems6 Population growth7 Increased per capita impact of people8 Impact of non native speciesAnd now we face four9 Human caused climate change10 The build up toxic waste11 We re approaching the limits of the Earth s photosynthetic capacity12 Energy shortages In Collapse, Jared Diamond draws our attention to the following problems, which have plagued humanity throughout history.1 Deforestation and loss of habitat2 Overhunting3 Overfishing4 Soil degradation5 Water management problems6 Population growth7 Increased per capita impact of people8 Impact of non native speciesAnd now we face four9 Human caused climate change10 The build up toxic waste11 We re approaching the limits of the Earth s photosynthetic capacity12 Energy shortagesThere are societies that failed to resolve these problems and they collapsed because of it Perhaps the best example of this is Diamond s discussion of the isolated Poly...This is an exhaustive and exhausting read Should ve been tightened up and trimmed down, not only did I get tired of the meandering but I got worn down from getting machine gunned with an avalanche of what I considered often superfluous details Still, I thought it was very good, the historical examples of collapse and also the examples of societies that successfully changed to avoid disaster were interesting It put the contemporary analysis problems we face in perspective I remember reading This is an exhaustive and exhausting read Should ve been tightened up and trimmed down, not only did I ... Guns, Germs and Steel occasionally felt like monday morning quarterbacking, but Collapse is superb In GGS, Diamond tried to explain how technologies that evolved in some places did not in others, how some communities thrived due to excess food andadvanced agriculture, while others, perpetually on the verge of starvation, had to devote all of their time to dealing with that and thus didn t have time for building the Parthenon The argument was not airtight his notion of what constit Guns, Germs and Steel occasionally felt like monday morning quarterbacking, but Collapse is superb In GGS, Diamond tried to explain how technologies that evolved in some places did not in others, how some communities thrived due to excess food andadvanced agriculture, while others, perpetually on the verge of starvation, had to devote all of their time to dealing with that and thus didn t have time for building the Parthenon The argument was not airtight his notion of what constitutes a reasonable amount of time to spend on gathering food could use a little sharpening, and he didn t approach work as part and parcel of culture, which it most certainly is GGS also overlooked a lot of crops available to people he strenuously argued had nothing to eat for example, Acai in theBasin a superfood which constitutes 45% of...

Collapse
  • English
  • 24 February 2018
  • Paperback
  • 608 pages
  • 0143036556
  • Jared Diamond
  • Collapse