Collapse
I've been reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond who also wrote the best-selling Pulitzer prize winning Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Collapse is fascinating reading, but a touch on the didactic side. It also seems a bit arbitrary. Why did Diamond chose to focus on the problems of the Bitterroots in Montana (where he vacations and fly fishes) rather than those (much more overwhelming) ecological problems of Los Angeles (where he lives)?
The didactic tone is a touch off-putting, but the conundrums and tragedy are very real. Easter Island was lushly forested when it was first settled by Polynesian peoples; civilization went from populous to almost gone, and the island became totally bereft of trees. This was an ecological nightmare that took place in isolation, pre recorded history. The causality was the very success of the society. Could the Easter Islanders have avoided their dark destiny? Can we?
Posted by Harold Davis at January 18, 2005 08:53 AM
