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Is anyone else reading this? It's a really stunning piece of work. It's a popular science study of the hows and whys behind the disintergration of various societies. He extrapolates from these causes to look at the modern world and what we might face.
He deals with a number of ancient socities (Easter Island and various other Polynesian island societies, the Anasazi Indians in Mexico, the Maya, Norse Greenland) and a number of modern ones (Rwanda, Haiti, Australia, the Dominican republic, China) providing a readable case study of each one, showing the ecological and social faultlines that lead (or may lead) to collapse or survival. He gives the basics of the science behind his conclusions, very useful for a science know-nothing like myself, and the final few chapters try and draw out some lessons for us. He also gives a few very practical tips to approach dealing with these issues socially.
A very sobering read so far, one gets a sense of how fragile so many of these socities were, despite how they must've seemed at the peak of their success.
Anyone else? |
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