grade: A-
Diamond is a good writer. His words flow well, he tells stories about people to point out environmental issues. He never loses sight of the fact that it is normal people, making perfectly sensible decisions that mold the making of history. And not once does he refer to AlGore!
My only suggestion of what could've made it better, would've weakened his effort. He gives so many examples, that after awhile, I was thinking "OK, I get it, now to the next point." I learned a lot, mostly it could be called trivia, but in the context of how/why it was more meaningful, and I'm more likely to remember both the lesson and the trivia.
For instance, he describes 17th century Japanese silviculture, in excruciating detail. There is a paragraph describing the results of a forest census, it wasn't enough just to say there was a precise counting of trees, he lists the number, species, and quantities of a 1773 census of 4114 in a small forested area. I didn't need that information, and after I read the long list (my fault) I was a little bitter about wasting my time. However, I will now never forget the lesson, that the Japanese, hundreds of years ago, were practicing forest management.
I recommend that everyone read at least some parts of "Collapse".
Chapter 12 - About China, and their current environmental issues
Chp 15 - Big Business & the environment - it's not all bad news
Chp 16 - What it all means
Then, the first 9 chapters have excellent history / anthropology of earlier societies, and I learned something from each chapter. Choose a few if ya wanna, there's Vikings & Indians & Polynesians!
The chapters are independent enough that the book doesn't have to be read in a particular order.
Diamond shows that what might have been a successful strategy for a couple hundred years, can eventually lead to your destruction if you cling to certain core beliefs. That is one of his themes, is that in order to survive, sometimes you need to let go of certain values. For example, Vikings in Greenland wanted to dress European, and refused to eat fish...eventually that caused them to starve.
In discussing rational behavior that is destructive, Diamond brings up the "tragedy of the commons". There is a finite resource that is shared, but everyone takes more than their fair share, rational because "if I leave a bit extra, someone else will take it, and I need to feed my family."
Regarding mining and timber, Diamond never calls these industries evil. He quickly points out that we need metals & lumber.
Some disagreements I have:
He claims the wealthy like to insulate themselves from the problems of the common man. I will counter with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Bono, Dikembe Mutumbo & Oprah. I hope that soon, some wealthy heirs, who have done minimal work especially in comparison to their money and fame, will want to cement their legacy through their generosity.
He claims that there is a connection between environmental hot spots, and politically unstable nations. I don't believe the connection is 100% causal. Especially in light of his chapters on Australia & China.
To sum up
Diamond is "cautiously optimistic", and points to recent successes we've had. He cites Chevron's oil business in Papua New Guinea as very impressive in being environmentally sound (pg 443 - 452). Chevron is doing this in order to gain long term access to oil fields (pg 451). Cleaning messes is costly, and a public relations nightmare, "Exxon Valdez, Piper Alpha and Bhopal ." (pg 446). Diamond points to a nation wide 25% decrease in six major air pollutants during the past three decades in USA (pg 523). He tells of the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent 3rd party auditing system, which gives the consumer (at HomeDepot for example) a way to know if their purchase came from soundly managed forest (pg 473).
What is the public to do? We need to find links in the supply chain that are sensitive to our wishes. Because businesses change in response to public want, and though we have no influence on a metal mine, Tiffany's wants to look good in the public image, and so they can influence the mines. (pg 467)