Analysis Of Collapse By Jared Diamond

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In the book “Collapse” written and theorized by Jared Diamond, historical societies known for their peril due to environmental and human catastrophes. Jared Diamond analyzes the root causes of failed societies and uses his knowledge to depict today’s warning signs. The main focus of this book is to present clear and undeniable evidence that human activities corrupted the environment. To prove this Diamon used past societies, modern societies, and social business societies as a foundation. The most specific and beneficial theories that Diamond analyzes would be the decline of biodiversity on Easter Island, the deforestation of the Greenland Norse, the mining mismanagements in Australia and big businesses.

Jared Diamond stated that …show more content…

One critical point that was examined from modern perspective was the impact of mining and oil extraction has on the environment. In Australia, the soils have been leached of nutrients, and is being deposited all over (Diamond, 2005, p 380). Mining and extracting fossil fuels have depleted the land to an extent that is harmful to the environment. The absence of adequate controls over some mining and oil extractions are the cause of sediment, acid drainage, and pollution into the environment (Kaya, 2001). Those environmental issues scratch the surface of why these civilizations failed. Diamond theorized that governmental regulations on environmental practices has allowed for businesses to continue on with their extraction ideals. The issue with businesses and the public is that minerals and resources are becoming a rare commodity, that instead of cutting back, they are accumulating and collecting as much as they can. Both the book and Kaya mention that is the mechanism processes that disrupt the natural order of the environment. The issue with this is that sooner or later the core will be depleted of natural resources and will limit production of what today’s society relies on for …show more content…

Jared Diamond may be correct in that human activities have caused environmental issues that irreparable. The thing that is missing from this book, was the individual position. The book goes into explanations on how societies as a whole make the decision to impact the environment, when in reality it is the individuals who make the choices and influence those around themselves. What is intriguing is that Jared Diamond not only talks about the mismanagement of environment or the natural destruction of environment, he focuses on how human culture and beliefs influenced the mismanagement. It is very appropriate to engage into the rationalization of why events or the mismanagement occurred. Understanding that hunters and gatherers had to fail in one civilization otherwise there would be no need to enter into the agricultural era. From reading this book, one might find it oddly frightening that the environment is in peril because of personal action. The ideology that this book presents works in a way that it gets people thinking if their way of living is best for the society or if it is slowly, but gradually destroying the

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