ABSTRACT
Jared M. Diamond, the author of Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, was born in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts. In Collapse, Diamond asks why some past civilizations experienced a severe reduction in population and considerable decreases in political, economic, and social complexity, before eventually collapsing. His answer is that they fell victim to one or more of the following five key factors: environmental degradation, including overpopulation; changes in the climate; hostile neighbors; weakened trading partners; and an absence of the cultural resources that enable a society to tackle these and other problems. Collapse urges readers to become conscious of the importance of human activities in shaping the future of civilizations, and to take corrective action against upcoming environmental catastrophes. In Collapse, Diamond reaches conclusions that are relevant for one of the most controversial debates today: man-made climate change, its consequences, and the ways in which we should respond to it.
