Summary Of Jared Diamond's Collapse

According to the author of Collapse, Jared Diamond, all societies collapse due to one of the five factors such as: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental issues, and failure to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. The Domino Effect illustrates Jared Diamond’s theory perfectly; if one variable falls, it is the spark to start an engulfing flame.
1) “The Greenland Norse damaged their environment in at least three ways: by destroying the natural vegetation, by causing soil erosion, and by cutting turf.” 248
a. Over exploiting their woodlands and excessive livestock grazing caused a low stock of lumber which their lifestyle depended on.
b. This is an example of the Norse’s ignorant behavior in dealing with their resources.
2) “Easter’s isolation makes it the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by over

This quote illustrates the failure at adaptation to the change in the environment, which caused immense moral breaches along with depravity of basic necessities.
b. The quickly depleting food supply acts a beginning spark to the fall of Easter Island’s economic system.
7) “… two main sets of factors behind Easter’s collapse: human environmental impacts, especially deforestation and destruction of bird populations…” 118
a. Civilizations depend entirely on resources which are deprived from their environments. However, once Easter abuses the environment, which provides their resources, these resources are diminished. Consequently, giving a foothold to sudden environmental changes.
8) “Weisler’s archaeological excavations uncovered extensive evidence of trade among all three islands, whereby each island’s deficiencies were filled by the other islands’ surpluses.”127
a. Each island supported each other by creating an efficient trading triangle with filled the deficiency in each economy.
b. This quote shows that without an effective trading relationship causes a loss in a nation’s efficiency