Revised Edition of Collapse: Examining How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

C. Bulstrode: This is now a little dated but what he predicted has come to pass. It would be an excellent undergrad text or even a journal club

United Kingdom on Aug 13, 2023

Amazon CustomerAmazon Customer: Starting few chapters were good, middle chapters were quite boring, in the sense of relating stories so old. Really, enjoyed chapters from modern societies. A must read for all.

India on Aug 12, 2023

Simon Rotelli: Non posso dire di averlo letto tutto d'un fiato, è stato davvero impegnativo, ho interrotto e ripreso tre volte.
Questo perchè il rigore scientifico applicato da Diamond rende il libro lungo e in alcune parti un pò ripetitivo, ma sono felice di averlo completato perché mi ha aperto gli occhi sulla centralità del dibattito sulla sostenibilità.
Non posso dire di essere ottimista sul futuro.
Si parla di sostenibilità ma nel frattempo stiamo assistendo con un mix di senso di impotenza e apatia ad un conflitto europeo legato al controllo delle risorse, e la conseguente corsa agli armamenti ha coinvolto anche paesi come la Germania e il Giappone, impensabile fino a pochi anni fa.

Assolutamente consigliato !

Italy on Jan 30, 2023

Pierre Jean Lavelle: On ne peut pas parler d'Écologie sans avoir d'ABORD lu ce livre du début à la fin. Panorama des conséquences de mettre la satisfaction des pressions immédiates au péril de l'avenir, coupant des arbres, élevant des chèvres et ayant trop d'enfants. Les technologies nous permettent certaines croissances, mais il faut bien en comprendre les limites: par exemple l'irrigation entraîne la salaison des terres et inéluctablement à leur infertilité. Le Montana était LA belle montagne, maintenant c'est une montagne de problèmes. L'Île de Pâques était fertile, maintenant c'est fini. Le Moyen-Orient était le Croissant Fertile, maintenant c'est fini. L'Afrique du Nord était le grenier à blé de Rome, maintenant c'est fini. Les chèvres ont tout détruit. Le Kenya, le Soudan, bientôt l'Égypte... etc. En fait presque partout. La Chine a compris, replante des millions d'arbres pour contenir et espérer repousser le désert de Gobi. Il y a un timide effort au sud du Sahara et des bruits sur l'Amazonie. En refermant ce livre, on court vers le jardin pour y planter un arbre, et on ne rie plus des Végétariens. Vive la viande synthétique. Relire le roman "Make Room! Make Room!"...

France on Aug 03, 2021

Andrew Ravensdale: Jared Diamond is a scientist and academic. He has also been a senior official in the environmental movement. Diamond is a trained biologist who became an ornithographer and finally a geographer. He has been US regional director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Collapse is based on science, but not on Diamond’s original research. Like some of Diamond’s other popular books, such as Guns, Germs and Steel, it is a form of intelligent popularisation; what the French sometimes call haute vulgarisation.
Collapse is one of the popular classics of environmentalism. It should perhaps be read in conjunction Tainter’s remorselessly logical The Collapse of Complex Societies.
Diamond is an optimist. He accepts completely that environmental issues are ‘serious and in need of addressing’. He does not however think that human extinction or an apocalyptic collapse of human civilisation is likely. He sees the future, if we do not address the problems we are facing, as one of ‘significantly lower living standards, chronically higher risks, and the undermining of what we now consider some of our key values’. Bad enough.
Collapse is based on case studies. That is both its...

United Kingdom on Nov 28, 2017

Matt Raybaud: Collapse by Jared Diamond accurately discusses the concept of societies failing to thrive and falling apart. Within the book, Diamond analyzes societies of the past from all corners of the globe, from the Norse in the Arctic to the Easter Islanders in the Pacific. Through each society Diamond figures out how the territory was set up and what exactly brought down the collapse of the people there. Most of the reasons that societies collapsed had to deal with the environment that they were attempting to live in.

For example, if people attempted to colonize an area that had poor soil, that would lead to a variety of problems for the society. The fields there would only be fit for farming or animal raising for a couple of years before the resources were depleted, and it would take a very long time for them to grow back due to poor soil quality. This would mean growing food would have to take place on a very small scale, limiting resources greatly and increasing the risk of starvation. The poor soil would also lead to slow tree growth, meaning that if a society wasn’t careful then they would use up their lumber supply quicker than they can grow it back, and without wood a...

United States on Apr 09, 2014

Daniel Benor, MD: Jared Diamond. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. NY: Penguin Group 2005. 575 pp. Further readings 32 pp. $17.00

Jared Diamond brings us a cogently argued discussion of numerous societies over several thousand years that collapsed, and of a very few that have survived. He has gathered a convincing mass of evidence that the fall of most societies is due to destruction of their environments, which he calls “ecological suicide.”

…The processes through which past societies have undermined themselves by damaging their environments fall into eight categories, whose relative importance differs from case to case: deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems (erosion, desalinization, and soil fertility losses), water management
problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people. (p. 6)

Diamond points out that modern society considers itself immune to collapse because of modern technology, but that in fact, we are simply destroying our planet on a much vaster scale and at a much faster rate than ever before. Our much larger population and...

United States on Dec 08, 2013