Diamond: Collapse—The Flip Side of Guns, Germs and Steel - Page 2

He then examines collapses in progress or barely averted in more recent societies: Rwanda, New Guinea and the Dominican Republic. Finally, he turns that carefully developed spotlight on nations as he looks at how these factors play in China and Australia; and on global corporations, as he examines input from and impact on the oil, mining, farming, lumbering and fishing industries.

The author pulls no punches in this endeavor; where there are culprits in human skins, Diamond identifies them. It was chastening to realize, though, how often the collapsed societies simply had bad luck. For example, Diamond and another researcher isolated nine factors that tend to promote deforestation of Pacific Islands once they are settled by men. Of those nine, Easter Island had eight. The Easter Island deforestation and the subsequent catastrophe was there in potentio the day men first landed on its shores—but collapse was hastened by the islanders' practice of cremation. Without that extra impetus, the forests of Easter Island might have survived to the time of contact with white explorers.

Diamond closes with a note of hope, gleaned from his experiences in developing and writing the book. Cultures can change, disasters can be averted, he stresses, but only if we have

...the courage to make painful decisions about values. Which of the values that formerly served a society well can continue to be maintained under the new changed circumstances? Which of those treasured values must instead be jettisoned and replaced with different approaches?

If you enjoyed Diamond's treatise on why societies succeed, you will want to read Collapse. Then we can debate his closing questions from an informed position.

Article Author: DrPat

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