Post #6 Jared Diamond

Over thousands of years we have seen many societies come and go or suffer a serious collapse. There are eight main reasons why scientist believe that this happens beginning with; Deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people. These issues brought up a lot of interesting questions that were mentioned with in the article. Of these questions the one that stuck out the most was “Does it stand reason that today’s human population of nearly seven billion , with out potent modern technology, is causing our environment to crumble globally at a much more rapid pace then a mere few million with stone and wooden tools made it crumble locally in the past?”. I feel that a huge issue that our world has with the modern collapses of certain societies come from our new technology. Our technology being so advanced we have found ways to alter nearly everything to make it bigger, “better”, and more readily available. Smaller countries that do not have access to this technology or still live off the land entirely find it difficult to sustain life from a health perspective along with an economical one as well.         

Also with in the reading it talks about new findings those scientists have related to how forests have been destroyed or certain species have become extinct. Many people are turning it into racial attacks instead of seeing the underlying meaning behind it. People point the finger and attack one another or say the facts are now lies when it pertains to them. Instead of taking these new findings and using them to better own world today, people find the need to attack others. If we do not cope or find a way for us to learn from our past and keep modern civilizations from making the same mistakes our countries will begin to collapse all over the world.

            After considering some of the examples given I found my self in agreement with Jared Diamond (writer of this article) when he spoke about the reasons for collapse. Collapse of a society has historically been blamed on solely environmental damage. I feel that this is not true, although there may be environmental damage there is always contributing factors relating to that. Diamond developed a 5-point framework that a collapse of a society could be based off consisting of; environmental damage, claimant change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and the society’s response to environmental problems. With all society collapse you can find at least 2 or more of these factors contributing to the demise of the society.