I really enjoyed the perspective Jared Diamond has on why different societies, both past and present, have succeeded or failed. He begins the book by telling a story of two farms, which in my opinion is always a good start, with pretty much identical strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the story he reveals that the two farms are from separate time periods and then analyses why one has succeeded and the other failed.
After the story, analysis, and in my opinion some rambling that had me on the verge of sleep, he arrives at his next interesting point: a five point framework made up of possible factors contributing to an environmental collapse. This was a nice change from the environmentalists views expressed in the other movies and readings we have done thus far. The five points are environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and a society’s response to environmental problems. The most significant of the five points is how a society responds to environmental problems.
The first point refers to human’s effect on the environment. This is determined in part by the damage done to the environment, the fragility, and the resilience. Secondly, Diamond describes climate change, not only as global warming caused by human beings, but as the change in climates as they become hotter, colder, wetter, or drier and the variability involved due to natural forces. He then goes on to talk about relationships with neighboring civilizations and how possible environmental changes can affect these relationships. For instance, if your allies become weakened by an environmental change that decreases the amount of support they can provide you, you could also become weakened. Lastly, he talks about the way different societies respond to environmental problems and relates back to the beginning story with the two farms.
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