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#5 Platform - Collapse
Jan. 11th, 2007 10:40 amAs is likely not much a surprise, I ended up not really writing a post for what I've been up to of late. If I have time today, I'll do it, but take a promissory note for what it's worth. I'd do some here, but I'm thinking I don't want to confuse my book posts with my other posts, such as they are.
So, here we are:
Book #2: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Author: Jared Diamond
Provenance: Bought at McGill bookstore, remaindered (Only $4! I'm still proud.)
I actually started this book towards the end of last year, but I read two other books during it, and had about 300 pages left at the beginning of the year, so I'm going to count it here.
I very much liked this; it was quite thought-provoking, and gives a lot of details without getting bogged down. The main premise is that the response of a society to the environmental problems it causes is the decisive factor determining their ability to survive in the long run. Of course, there are other causes that also lend themselves to collapses, which Diamond also explores, but he keeps coming back to the theme of environmental damage and response to said damage.
The majority of the book is taken up with case studies of different societies, ranging from ancient times (Easter Island, Pitcairn, Greenland, etc.) to modern (Rwanda, Australia, Montana, etc.). Most are used to look at some facet of the problem, and also at the environmental issues involved. These really could have gotten tedious, and there are a couple of points towards the end where you feel like there's a refrain. "Oh, deforestation... depletion of habitats... population impact... yeah... mhmm... sing it, Jared..."
Still, there's something to it, and the sections at the end about why societies might make choices that are in hindsight disasterous are very interesting. Like most environmental books, I finish them, and feel like I should be doing more, but there's not tons more that I could be doing. I'll try something, though. One main thing at the end that he points out is that with the advent of globalization, we have to solve all of these problems everywhere, since societies are in no real sense isolated in their collapses anymore. Sending environmental problems somewhere else might not have repercussions in the immediate future, but he predicts it'll come back to bite the First World in the end. Still, if he's cautiously optimistic, I don't see why I shouldn't be.
Anyway, I can give this one a recommendation; it's a different sort of book from Guns, Germs and Steel, but it's still very interesting, and has a similar scope.
Next up: Genji Days. I blame![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
timingspoons.
So, here we are:
Book #2: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Author: Jared Diamond
Provenance: Bought at McGill bookstore, remaindered (Only $4! I'm still proud.)
I actually started this book towards the end of last year, but I read two other books during it, and had about 300 pages left at the beginning of the year, so I'm going to count it here.
I very much liked this; it was quite thought-provoking, and gives a lot of details without getting bogged down. The main premise is that the response of a society to the environmental problems it causes is the decisive factor determining their ability to survive in the long run. Of course, there are other causes that also lend themselves to collapses, which Diamond also explores, but he keeps coming back to the theme of environmental damage and response to said damage.
The majority of the book is taken up with case studies of different societies, ranging from ancient times (Easter Island, Pitcairn, Greenland, etc.) to modern (Rwanda, Australia, Montana, etc.). Most are used to look at some facet of the problem, and also at the environmental issues involved. These really could have gotten tedious, and there are a couple of points towards the end where you feel like there's a refrain. "Oh, deforestation... depletion of habitats... population impact... yeah... mhmm... sing it, Jared..."
Still, there's something to it, and the sections at the end about why societies might make choices that are in hindsight disasterous are very interesting. Like most environmental books, I finish them, and feel like I should be doing more, but there's not tons more that I could be doing. I'll try something, though. One main thing at the end that he points out is that with the advent of globalization, we have to solve all of these problems everywhere, since societies are in no real sense isolated in their collapses anymore. Sending environmental problems somewhere else might not have repercussions in the immediate future, but he predicts it'll come back to bite the First World in the end. Still, if he's cautiously optimistic, I don't see why I shouldn't be.
Anyway, I can give this one a recommendation; it's a different sort of book from Guns, Germs and Steel, but it's still very interesting, and has a similar scope.
Next up: Genji Days. I blame
timingspoons.
