Collapse

Lucas recommended me this book. Actually he put it on my desk: read it! It took quit a while before I finished the task. Diamond has a talent to explain complex processes in a understandable way. Nevertheless, it gets tiring to read for 700 pages always the same: we damage our environment and if we carry on we have a good chance to disappear. These ideas might be new to many people in the new world but for an European it is pretty obvious since we have had active and broad environmentalist movements for almost 30 years now. Maybe because the damages to the environment became so obvious in close neighbourhood to the people.
Remove 300 pages and it is an excellent book without repetitions and concise conclusions. What can tells us failed societies (Easter island, the Vikings in Greenland and Ruanda) for our current politics and behaviour. Interestingly, he isn’t blaming only big business (he rather explains why it acts like we know it) but says that we as consumers can do a lot to change the direction. Just read and keep in mind that our earth is now an island without connection to a friendly civilisation as Easter island or Greenland were hundreds of years ago. You will see the analogies. By the way: his book Guns, germs and steel is even better, at least to my mind.