شما بگو 10 بار خوندن لازمه ، من میگم کمه
ملتی که محیط زیست نداره نَه "محیط" داره نَه زیست
یعنی کلا زندگی تعطیل و این یعنی فروپاشی

در خوانشِ بار دوم، ریویویِ تکمیل تری مد نظر خواهم داشت، به شرط حیات و حوصله

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- "Ozymandias" by P. B. Shelley

O Noble Head! Adorned with the
Tilak and well-groomed hair
You who planned to rule the world
Have become a worthless skull...

(free translation of a famous song from the Malayalam movie "Harishchandra")

[2011 Update: I am re-reading this after not quite 2 years. I have come to regard this book as the best non-fiction I've had the pleasure of reading, and recommend it emphatically if you have an interest in any of the subjects in which I have it categorized on my shelves.]

A masterwork, better even than Mr. Diamond's Pulitzer-winning Guns, Germs and Steel. Collapse bridges the gap between anthropology and environmentalism, and critically connects each with our own welfare, both collectively and as individuals.

Diamond rightly takes to task environmental attitudes that appear to mindlessly value endangered birds or coral reefs above people's interests or livelihood. That said, he also clarifies which aspects of the environment we should care about and why. He tallies dollars cost and lives lost. He illustrates in example after well-documented example the consequences for societies disregarding their resource base or destructive practices. He repeatedly and explicitly asks the question: "well it obviously sucks to be a blue-footed bubi bird, but why should Joe Blow Logger care when he has the more pressing need to feed his family?" Well he should care very much about forests because he depends on them for his income. If he wants those children not to struggle with poverty and a declining society and standard of living, he should further care about many other aspects of the environment.

The biggies throughout history that have played a primary role in virtually every societal collapse are deforestation and soil erosion and/or salinization. To that we add a host of other common problems that can and must be solved, including habitat loss, water management and pollution, greenhouse gasses, resource over-exploitation, and energy supply.

Diamond goes deeper than simply blaming corporations for their destructive practices. He examines the policies and economic realities that drive corporations in polluting industries like mining to behave as they do, or the pressures they face. The fact is, in a market economy, where profit is the motive, successful companies will pollute to the full extent that our laws and attitudes allow. He states: "I also assign to the public the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices, which I regard as normal costs of doing business. My views may seem to ignore a moral imperative that businesses should follow virtuous principles, whether or not it is most profitable for them to do so. Instead I prefer to recognize that... government regulation has arisen precisely... for the enforcement of moral principles."

Of course the rest of the book demonstrates how it is far more urgent than a mere moral principle, but a practical one necessary to ensure any society's long-term survival.

4.5 stars

A study on the collapse, near collapse or resurrection of eighteen different 'civilizations' that were in danger either due to environmental destruction and or lack of raw materials.

My favorite chapters and the most insightful were:

1. Rwanda's genocide - the war was in large part due to overpopulation

2. Pitcairn Islands - deforestation leads to inability to build seagoing boats to connect to other islands.

3. The Dominican Republic and Haiti - perhaps my favorite chapter explaining why the Dominican Republic per capita income is 5x that of Haiti. It involves a dictator who wanted to save the Dominican forests.

4. The Maya Collapses - overpopulation and rainfall differences between Mayan regions had a lot to do with who prospered and who collapsed.

5. Mining Australia - fascinating science behind why farming is so unsuccessful in Australia and it is not just lack of water.

I think Diamond is one of the most interesting non-fiction writers of the past thirty years.

الانهيار

كنت قد قرأت كتاب جاريد دايموند والذي حصل على جائزة البوليتزر (أسلحة، جراثيم وفولاذ) قبل سنوات، وأعجبت به كثيراً، كانت دراسة جريئة تحاول فهم الأسباب البيئية الكامنة وراء صعود حضارات معينة وتفوقها على حضارات أخرى.

في هذا الكتاب يعكس دايموند الوضع ويحاول دراسة كيف تتداعى حضارات معينة وتنهار بسبب تدميرها لبيئتها، وهو يعرض مجموعة متفرقة من الحضارات المعروفة أو المعزولة والتي مارست بلا وعي تدميراً واسعاً لبيئتها ووصلت في النهاية إلى انهيار سريع لحضارتها، كما يعرض في المقابل حضارات تنبهت لتدهور البيئة فقامت بإجراءات ناجحة للحفاظ عليها واستدامتها واستطاعت البقاء في بيئات فقيرة جداً.

كلا كتابي دايموند واجبي القراءة لكل مهتم بالتاريخ والبيئة والعلم، فدايموند يقدم هذا كله بأسلوب جميل جداً وممتع.

Van ugye az a mondás, hogy tanulhatnánk az elődeinktől, de hát mi ignoráljuk azt, viszont Jared Diamond nem (de ő mégiscak a UCLA földrajz professzora), több civilizáció összeomlásának párhuzamait vizsgálja. Ez maga nem lenne újdonság, de ő egyrészt elég távolról nézi, a megszokottól több irányból, a külső ellenségeken kívül nemcsak a társadalom szerkezetét, hanem az ökológiai jellemzőket, klímaváltozást és a szomszédokkal való kapcsolatot is vizsgálja, miközben képes lemenni egészen az egyén szempontjáig is, ha kell. Innen már csak egy lépés persze, hogy tudatosan tegyünk az összeomlás ellen, mert elkerülhető, nem kell a spanyolviaszt újra és újra feltalálni
Diamond bámulatra méltó tárgyi tudással rendelkezik és ténylegesen van tanítái rutinja, nagyon feszes, logikus szerkezetű a könyv, az adatok interdiszciplináris összefüggéseire mindig rávilágít, miközben pont jókor, pont a jó mennyiségben oldja valami személyes élménnyell, történettel, viccel az egész merevségét. Mesél Montanáról, aminek a változásait közelről látja, után régi társadalmakat elemez, amelyek a fénykoruk után megszűntek, többek között a maják, a Húsvét-szigetek társadalma, vagy a vikingek. A harmadik fejezetben pár modern társadalom folyamatait cincálja szét, ruandai népirtás, Haiti és Dominika, Kína és Ausztrália.
A könyv anyagát Diamond tanította egy-két egyetemen (vagy a tananyagból lett a könyv?), és igen, ez oda való, minden egyetemen kellene tanítani, sok kredittel, kemény számonkéréssel, a könyvben leírtakkal minden egyes diplomás embernek tisztában kellene lennie.

Diamond analyzes why societies past and present succeed or fail based on an application of five criteria; people’s impact on their environment, climate change, hostile neighbors, support of near-by cultures, and finally societies response to its problems. Diamond identifies 12 environmental problems facing past and present societies and importantly explains 11 myths that currently exist related to environmental concerns. The book is quite detailed in its analysis of cultural and environmental geography. The author says we just need the political will to apply solutions already available and to look at problems with long-term planning approach not quick fixes with popular political rhetoric.

รีวิว 22/2021
แปลจากหนังสือ: Collapse
ผู้เขียน: Jared Diamond
ผู้แปล: อรวรรณ คูหเจริญ นาวายุทธ
สำนักพิมพ์: โอ้มายก้อด
จำนวนหน้า: 797 หน้า ปกอ่อน
พิมพ์ครั้งที่ 1 — กันยายน 2552
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หนังสือเล่มนี้ชนะรางวัลพูลิตเซอร์ปี 1997
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โคตรมหากาพย์ของหนังสือ ในตำนาน ที่ต้องใช้เวลาอ่านนานมาก
เนื้อหาอัดแน่นมาก จนบางพาร์ท มึนหัวกันไปเล้ย
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สิ่งที่หนังสือ ทิ้งไว้ในหัวผมแน่ๆ คือ ทำให้เราตระหนักเรื่องสิ่งแวดล้อมเพิ่มมากขึ้น ๆๆ ชัวร์
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หนังสือเล่มนี้โดยภาพรวมจะบรรยายถึง เรื่องที่ว่า
เหตุใดสังคมในอดีตจึงล้มเหลวในการแก้ไขปัญหาสิ่งแวดล้อม จนทำให้สังคมของตนเองนั้นล่มสลายหายไป แต่บางที่ก็ไม่ถึงกับล่มสลายหายไป แต่ตกต่ำลงอย่างมีนัยยะ
โดยไอ้การล่มสลายเนี่ย มันเกิดขึ้นจากหลายสาเหตุ ที่เราอาจจะไม่เคยนึกออก เช่น
อยู่ดีๆ กระต่าย จากที่นึง มาโผล่อีกประเทศนึงมันทำให้เละได้ไง
การที่ประเทศๆ นึงเลี้ยงวัวมากไปมันมีผลขนาดไหน
การที่ประเทศๆ นึงล่าปลามากไป มันทำให้คนอดตายเลยหรือ
จนไปถึงสภาพของดิน การคุมกำเนิดประชากร และอีกมาก
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ไม่ว่าจะเป็น
- การล่มสลายของ สังคม รัฐมอนทานา
- การล่มสลายของ เกาะอีสเตอร์ในอดีต
- การล่มสลายของ เมือง มายา ในอดีต
- การล่มสลายของ ชาวนอร์ส (ไวกิ้ง)
- การล่มสลายของ ที่ราบสูงนิวกินี
- การล่มสลายของ โดมินิกัน เฮติ
- หรือ ปัญหาอื่นๆ เช่น ของ ออสเตรเลีย และ ญี่ปุ่น
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และแน่นอนแต่ละหัวข้อมันยาวมาก และ อัดแน่นไปด้วยข้อมูล
ทั้ง สัตววิทยา ธรณีวิทยา อุตุวิทยา ชุดตัวเลขมากมาย ไม่หวาดไม่ไหว
ชื่อพืช ชื่อสัตว์ ชื่อ แร่ธาตุ เยอะมากๆๆๆ
จึงทำให้อ่านยากกว่า UPHEAVAL ครับ
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.ทุกประเทศทุกที่ก็จะมีประเด็นคล้ายๆ กัน ที่ทุกคนควรใส่ใจร่วมกันอยู่ โดยหนังสือสรุปออกมาดังนี้

1. ประเด็นการขยายตัวของสังคมเมือง
2. การเลี้ยงปลาจริงๆ แล้ว มันก็ไปลดทรัพยากรปลาในธรรมชาติ เพราะปลาที่เราเลี้ยงมันก็ต้องกินอาหาร ตามธรรมชาติด้วย
3. ทุกวันนี้ความหลากหลายเชิงระบบนิเวศนั้นลดลง
4. การสึกกร่อนของดิน นั้นเกิดขึ้นเร็วกว่าการเกิดขึ้นของดินมาก
5. น้ำมันและก๊าซธรรมชาติ มันใช้แล้วหมดไป เพราะมันใช้เวลาเป็นแสน เป็นล้านปี กว่าจะออกมาได้
6. น้ำจืดในโลกนั้นมีน้อย และการแปลงน้ำเค็มเป็นน้ำตืดนั้นค่าใช้จ่ายสูงมาก
7. การใช้ประโยชน์จากพลังงานแสงอาทิตย์ และ ลม ทุกวันนี้ยังน้อยอยู่
8. สารเคมีที่มนุษย์สังเคราะห์ขึ้น มีผลกระทบต่อธรรมชาติ
9. ระวัง Alien species ไม่ว่าจะพืชหรือสัตว์ เพราะมันมีอำนาจทำลายล้างสูงมาก
10. ทุกวันนี้ ตัวการทำลายโซน ก็ยังเป็น CFC อยู่
11. จำนวนประชากรทั่วโลกกำลังเพิ่มขึ้น
12. ต้องพิจารณาผลกระทบของประชากรที่มีต่ิสิ่งแวดล้อมด้วย

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ความเห็น
- จุดสังเกตุ คือบางเรื���องที่���ู้เขียนใส่มา โดยบอกว่า เพื่อนผมในประเทศนี้เล่าให้ฟังว่า ....... ต้องระวัง ว่ามันอาจไม่น่าเชื่อถือ เท่าการที่อ้างมาจากแหล่งข้อมูลนะครับ
- การจัดการเหมือง ป่าไม้ สัมปทาน น้ำมัน สำคัญมากต้ออความเป็นอยู่ของประเทศนั้นๆ
- มีตัวอย่างที่ดีของการจัดการ ของหัวหน้าประเทศในเล่มอยู่บ้างเหมือนกัน
- มีส่วนผสมของภาษาวิชาการครึ่งนึง บรรยายแบบนักเล่าเรื่องครึ่งนึง
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9/10 ตัด 1 คะแนน เพราะ Upheaval อ่านง่ายกว่าครับ 4555 แนะนำไปเล่มนั้นก่อน

The Pulitzer-prize winning "Guns, Germs and Steel" by this dude forever changed the way I look at history. And believe me, I am a history buff of sorts so this means a lot. Unfortunately, "Collapse" fails to measure up to that classic.

The real problem with Collapse isn't the research that goes into the thesis, or even the soundness of the thesis itself (though there are some qualms I have about how politically unstable Mongolia is or basing his analysis of cod fisheries on a single popular accunt). The central contention, that population explosion, interdependency, unsustainable harvest, adverse cultural values, and about 8 other factors contributed to a society's collapse, is innocuous enough, though admittedly somewhat vague. Rather, the problem is that Diamond is so intent upon clearly and explicitly detailing every freaking argument to paint a convincing picture of the ancient/medieval societies or the current polluting industries that he often loses sight of his larger arguments. For instance, his discussion of Viking Greenland v. Iceland is insightful but whether it warrants nearly 100 pages in a 500 page book I doubt. The same could be said of his discussion of modern Australia; China, in contrast, gets really short shrift. He goes at pain to explicate the archaeological evidence by which we understand the Anasazi collapse, but here too he gets a little repetitive and locquacious. For instance, the logic behind dendrochronolgy and salinization were explained more than once to elucidate yet another nuance. Indeed, here Diamond the scientist persistently gets in the way of Diamond the popular writer. Were it not for his stellar writing skills this would have been even more of a chore to read.

Apart from the lack of effective editing, Collapse suffers from Diamond's penchant to almost bend over backward to point out that he is not engaged in a crude form of "Environmental determinism" whereby the significance of cultural and political events are misleadingly downplayed. He certainly didn't do this in Guns Germs and Steel but many people, including the NY Times, accuse him of it. Nevertheless Diamond was sufficiently sensitive to this interpretation (as well as eager to show that we can prevent environmental catastrophe) that he repeats this ad nauseum and, IMHO, belabors this point to being beyond repetitive.

The cumulative effect of all these shortcomings is that the book ends up presenting really rather very little that is new, argues persistently against straw man hypotheses, and is informative but almost in a trivial sense. At 520 odd dense pages this is a lot to ask of a reader, and it is a pity that this simply does not measure up to Diamond's earlier works.

In case his name rings a bell, but you can't place it, he is best known for "Guns, Germs, and Steel", a weighty and well-crafted tome on the topic of how and why Europe conquered the rest of the world, instead of some other continent. The answer is (partially) in the title.

His latest effort is on a similarly cheery topic, the ways in which societies do (or do not) exhaust their environments to the point of extinction. He ranges across many centuries and continents, including a look at 20th-21st century Wyoming, but concentrates on a couple clusters:

1) pacific islands, from Easter Island to Pitcairn Island to Henderson Island
2) Norse societies, from Iceland to Greenland to Vinland

The advantage here is that he can look at societies with a similar origin (Pacific Islander or Scandinavian), and compare how they did in different environments. Other cases include the Maya, the Anasazi, and modern Australia and China.

The most haunting case histories are, of course, the failed ones. What did the Easter Islanders think as they were cutting down the last trees on their island, condemning themselves to poverty and imprisonment on an island they could no longer make the ships to leave? What did the Greenland Norse tell each other as they watch the non-Christian newcomers (Inuit) prosper, while they wasted their most valuable resources on churches dedicated to their God, and nonetheless declined into extinction? What did the Anasazi or the Maya think was going wrong, as their cities were abandoned near the end?

Which all brings up, of course, the obvious parallels to 21st century Earth. It has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but here Diamond manages to avoid the near-ubiquitous vice of the environmentalist writer: the Hellfire and Damnation Sermon.

The true H&DS lays out the manifold sins of the listeners mercilessly, spells out for them just how bad the fires of the netherworld will be, and demands that they beg God for forgiveness, all the while assuring them that they don't deserve it.

Sadly, it is the most common pattern for the modern environmentalist activist, who (in style, if not in beliefs) resembles 18th century Puritans more than a little. Which calls to mind why the Puritans eventually decline after every revival: they're depressing. Regardless of whether the populace believes they are right or not, after the novelty wears off, it's just gloomy and morbid. Abandon technology, or Mother Earth will bring on the ecopocalypse. But it's probably coming anyway, whatever you do.

To counter this, Diamond adds a number of success stories, where societies came to the bring of ecological catastrophe, and managed to learn, and pull back. Interestingly, they don't all follow the same path to get there. Tokugawa Japan is one such case, Norse Iceland is another, and the Dominican Republic and New Guineau are others.

This sort of thing, I've noticed, drives ecopuritans nuts. They apparently can't stand to hear anything positive said about the state of any ecosystem anywhere, for fear that people will think they can relax and go back to unlimited despoilation. The end result is the opposite of their intention, by the way: mainstream politics eventually learns to ignore the protests of any group (feminist, christian conservative, whatever) which is never happy.

By providing both examples of how things can go wrong (and in the past, actually have), Diamond also courts antagonism from those who believe in the Noble Savage, i.e. the idea that only modern Western-style capitalism wrecks ecosystems, and the people who got the worst of it in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" would never do such a thing. Which is bollocks, because stupidity exists equally in all races.

The sum total, however, is a well-reasoned examination of how societies come to exceed the limits of their environment's resources. One intriguing point is how the collapse often comes shortly after the peak prosperity, in a phenomenon similar to a bubble economy. Drawing on your ecosystem's resources as fast as possible does boost your productivity, including the production of more tools for exploiting additional resources. Right up until the point where something important (water, trees, topsoil, arable land) runs out, and then the crash is compounded by the fighting among too many for too little. Rwanda is a particularly brutal recent example of the multiplicative effects of resource scarcity and civil war.

If you like hard-nosed, fact-driven analysis, with a broad historical (and even pre-historical) sweep, this is a good one. Highly recommended. Not something to read while falling asleep, though. All those tales of ruined civilizations (toppled Easter Island statues, Mayan cities fallen back into jungle, crumbling Norse churches in Greenland) do not make for good dreams.

Diamond is well qualified to write this as he is Professor of Geography at the University of California. In this book he looks at the reasons why some societies survive and others fail.
The first chapter of the book considers Montana, it seems slightly odd as this is still a functioning state, but it has dropped to 49th in the state income chart from one of the top earners. It has always been a mining and logging state and is blessed with some of the most beautiful landscape. And yet there are underlying problems there; mine owners that have extracted the ore and have not considered the costs incurred with clean up; forests fires that proper management would reduce but that the local population won’t consider; invasion of non native species that have in certain case devastated local species, and so on. Part of the reason for the decline is people who live there temporarily and are not prepared to be part of the local community by paying taxes, but still want the landscape to remain as it is. Montana is dependent upon external monies coming in now, and if those were to dry up, then its circumstances will become perilous.
Diamond looks at the evidence for Easter Island that suggests the reason for its decline was that the local population had eaten all the native animals and felled all the trees. This led to rapid erosion of the soils and further degradation of the landscape. By this time the natives had been contacted by Europeans, who bought with the diseases such as small pox, and their fate was sealed.
Diamond then expands these theories of societies collapsing by looking at The Pitcairn Islands, The Chaco and the Maya. All of these had substantial populations in their time, and either had consumed most or all or their resources locally, or were living at the limit of what the environment could sustain. All it took was a shock of some form, i.e. a drought, and the population would take a dip, either temporarily or permanently.
The next three chapters look at the Vikings. Most people know of the violent expansion of these Scandinavian people into England and France, but they also established settlements in Iceland and Greenland. They arrived there just as the climate was favourable, and brought with them their farming techniques from Europe. The environment there is very fragile, and with the import of livestock to the land stripped back the trees and the grass. This led to significant erosion of the landscape and made a perilous existence even more susceptible to shock. They failed to learn from the Inuit people, who used the local resources sustainably. The Norse are still there in Iceland, but parts of the landscape there have been devastated.
The third section of the book looks at the state that some modern societies are in; China, Australia, Rwanda, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Each of these have particular problems from over population to corruption to serious environmental issues. For each there is a detailed description of the problems that they have got, either of their own making, or because of external factors like weather.
The final section is about how we as a planet can deal with these problems. He gives examples of oil companies who now routinely start with the best environmental methods as they know it saves them money in the long term, gives them credibility and more opportunities. He compares these to mining companies who frankly couldn’t give a monkeys, and who use all the political clout they have to pass all the cleanup costs to the state, even to the point of declaring bankruptcy to avoid these costs and staring a new company soon after.
He then list the twelve points that he thinks will have to be resolved, note not solved, as he thinks that these may be resolved by violence and war. He detail two of the organizations that are trying to put in place sustainable organizations, and showed that consumers are aware of them, and what they are trying to achieve.
He sees see some hope though. Humanity would not have got this far if we had always eradicated ourselves at each stage. That said, he does realise that we are at the point where our action will affect millions of people unless we do something soon.
This was an interesting read. Diamond has written a comprehensive book detailing all manner of reason why a society fades or suddenly ends. Even though I found it fascinating, I have only given it three stars as it is now out of date, and I feel could not do with being re written. I have one of his other books on my shelf, and I aim o read that soon.
The book can be summed up though by the American Indian quote: “When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money”

An amazingly informative book on the failure of some past societies, an insight into some highly volatile current socities and the lessons to be learned. Diamond identifies a five-point framework of contributing factors: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners and society's response to its environmental problems. These factors apply today as well and the biggest lesson to be learned is that the perishing of Maya, Easter Island and Greenland Norse societies could happen to us in our globalized existence as well. We have no reason for arrogance and should get off our high "First World" horses. A highly recommendable read!