Collapse

De: Jared Diamond

Narrado por: Christopher Murney

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization.

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society’s apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana.

Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?©2004 Jared Diamond; (P)2004 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Mr. Diamond...is a lucid writer with an ability to make arcane scientific concepts readiily accesible to the lay reader, and his case studies of failed cultures are never less than compelling." The New York Times

"...Collapse is a magisterial effort packed with insight and written with clarity and enthusiasm." Businessweek

"Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse represent one of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation. They are magnificent books: extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in their ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past. I read both thinking what literature might be like if every author knew so much, wrote so clearly and formed arguments with such care." Gregg Easterbrook, The New York Times Book Review

A Better Title: Environmental Collapses Then & Now

Diamond is indeed a good storyteller, but the content of the book was far more insular than I expected. The text could be more aptly titled: "Environmental Collapses of Society: Then & Now". This is a book about how misuse of environmental resources have led to the collapse of many past societies and how it threatens to do the same to our own society.

The two points that I found unsatisfactorily address were: 1) How applicable are past lessons about resource use and reliance from Easter Island and Viking Greenland to 1st world societies today? 2) What factors outside of our environmental reliance on dwindling resources may also contribute to 1st-world collapse in the modern age? The first question was dealt with quickly only via a straw man argument, while the later is not touched on at all.

That said, the book does provide interesting cultural history lessons, and its applicability to the third world today (as evidenced in the Hati and Rwanda examples) is compelling. Diamond also provides a interesting look at what economic factors contribute to certain industries being more or less environmentally responsible. This section was compelling, but too small a portion of the whole text in my opinion.

If you are looking for a book on the management of natural resources, or a look at several interesting historical cultures, I think you will enjoy this book. If, like me, you are looking for a more pragmatic discussion of the large problems threatening society today, you may want to pass.

Don't Play Around with Mother Nature

Inevitably the decline of various societies and civilizations has been connected with man's indiference to the natural world. COLLAPSE details the often unexpected effects on the environment of what may seem simple and harmless endeavors of man. We need to pay attention to the misteps of our forbears to avoid our own demise.

Must read!

This book should be required reading for everyone living in a developed country in the 21st century. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, Diamond raises valuable questions in his comparison of current societies to those of the past. This book should help listeners view present-day cultures as situated in history, something citizens of the USA are all too likely to loose sight of. It is a powerful reminder that "infallibility" is an illusion, and that power is fickle. Diamond can be criticized by specialists for a few incorrect archaeological details. However, in my opinion these mistakes do not detract from the powerful, synthetic message he conveys. The book is long and reads (in text) somewhat unevenly; if you won't actually have the time to sit down and get all the way through it with the printed page, this abridged version has all the essentials and is just as thought-provoking.

great naration

Was a great work.Also A wealth of knowlage I will listen to it over and over to remind myself of my duty as a human cohabiting with others.I am a bering sea fisherman and would love if the auther did a whole book just on fishing oceans and forestry,farming. And there subsaquent relation to one another .sincerly Justin
France

A classic

Any additional comments?

I have now seen a tv show based on the book, read excerpts of the book, and listened to the full audio version. I must say that while the topic lends itself nicely to a visual presentation, I got the most out my Audible version. Why? It forced me to examine things too easily glossed over by a reader's eye half-fixated on the clock and visuals that too easily molded my tv-tuned gaze into a kind of flashy tunnel vision. The most important issues raised by Diamond really require the reader to hit the pause button and ponder. It is in these moments that extrapolations become most vivid because they are very personal and immediate. Yes, one could summarize the main themes and points of this book rather quickly, but that would be a shame. The book should be taken in slowly and its final pages should serve as the beginning of any reader's exploration of the matter, not the end.