Almost a month has passed, but I don’t want to forget to mention Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond is unafraid to tackle the big topics. His blend of personal experience and lots of secondary research tells a persuasive story of how the environment underpins cultural success…and failure. This is the flip side of Gun, Germs, and Steel, where he explained why certain cultures “won” over others.
Collapse is more pessimistic. Still, he points out the “Red Queen” hasn’t run her race yet. There are warning signs in environments all over the world. Yet, there is also a rapid change in thinking and action on the environmental front going on in many parts of the world.
Whether progress can arrest (or even reverse) the damaging effects of the past decades and centuries is yet to be seen.