Keep thinking about "Collapse" by Jared Diamond...

[elfin]

His description of the demise of former cultures due to environmental mismanagement ( in this case, re-routing Mississ. R), , cultural/political priorites ( delay levee repair to pay for Iraq, Homeland Security) and ignore effects of global warming for political reasons), etc.

Anyone else read this important book - thinking the same thoughts??

[DrRang]

1. Yeah, it was amazing.

I wrote a review of it for our local alternative newspaper, The Weekly Alibi, and ended by saying if I were the Secretary of Education, I'd have every kid in the nation read Collapse instead of screwing around with censoring Spongebob Squarepants.

One of the things so great about Diamond is that he comes across as a non-partisan, just-the-facts engineer. You have certain circumstances and people are doing certain things, therefore you have an extremely high probability of creating certain disasters in a certain length of time.

[Eloriel]

2. Good point. -- NOMINATED

FWIW, I had a very strong feeling before the war that if we actually did go to war with Iraq, it would be the beginning of the end of the USA as we know it, and that it would quite possibly (eventually) cease to exist as a nation. My sense was that it could take a number of years, but that historians (if there were such a thing in the future) would point to this war as a turning point.

I said earlier today all we need right now is another huge disaster, and lo and behold, as if on cue, I read later that there was a small 4.4 earthquake in CA. Could be nothing, but it gave me pause, I'll tell you.

[alarimer]

3. I am reading it right now

well not this minute. Right now I am at the chapter where he talks about Easter Island, where they overharvested their trees and plants and basically killed themselves off. I think that may be what we are doig. Good book; it should be required reading by the Bush administration but we know they don't read.

[smirkymonkey]

4. We are one more major natural disaster short of a complete

systemic breakdown. The sooner it happens, the worse it will be.

[Arugula Latte]

9. I keep thinking about a Calif. earthquake.

Too terrible to contemplate, right now.

[schrodingers_cat]

10. Especially considering all of the left coast refineries...

but I catastrophise.....

[HereSince1628]

5. His discussion on why people keep doing bad policy was interesting

Looking back at collapsed civilizations we all say, why didn't they fix it.

New Orleans touches on many of the same things, and Bush's decision to cut the funding from the CoE levee projects to spend money on a war is classic.

[novak goes postal]

6. "Collapse" pretty much nailed it....

Bush has failed at everything except the most important thing to himself which is stealing.....

[TheCentepedeShoes]

7. I've been reading

his "Guns, Germs and Steel." I need to read "Collapse" next.

[byronius]

8. Just finished Guns, Germs and Steel.

Very powerful, well-thought-out, disturbing. Kind of the 'naked truth' sort of thing. I hear Collapse is even better.

[eridani]

11. But remember the contrast of Easter Island with Tikopia

Both settled by people similar in genetics, culture, language and survival technologies, but their people made very different choices. Easter Island is more familiar to people, but I hope that eventually Tikopia will become a household word also. A tiny scrap of land, a couple of square miles, 1000 miles from the nearest anything else, stable population of about 1000, under continuous cultivation for 1300 years!

They had a major crisis when they lost a productive lagoon a long time ago, and they made the collective decision to give up pigs as too expensive. I'm betting that there were people on the other side of the argument saying "What!?!?! No luaus every now and then where we scarf all the pork we can hold?!?!? That's, that',s....unPolynesian, I tell you!" The anti-pig faction won, which is why Tikopia remained inhabited.

We are all Tikopians now, or at least those of us left at the end of the 21st century will be.