Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Abstract

Mankind has been remarkably successful at surviving and succeeding throughout the world. However, there have been disasters and calamities as well as successful civilizations. Men have often destroyed the very environment which nurtured them, whether through over-hunting, or over-grazing. And now, at a time when hurricanes, floods, and droughts, have increased in intensity, one seeks information and insight as to the possible causes and for consequences for human society, not just for natural events, but regarding human activity as well. Professor Jared Diamond has written a serious book to examine such phenomena concerning their social and environmental impacts. He uses detailed information from diverse sources on many societies which have undergone - indeed often caused - important environmental degradation with the result (often) of total disaster for the humans involved. He also documents how some cultures with an enlightened appreciation and knowledge of their own circumstances have survived by working with the natural world to create sustainable societies, successful for many hundreds of years.