think or thwim

Jared Diamond summarizes his latest book in a talk at UC Santa Barbara.

Guns, Germs and Steel was about the reasons that some societies overpowered others. Collapse looks at the reasons some societies fell apart. For instance, Easter Island, once covered by lush forest was scalped by it’s human inhabitants leading to a collapse into war and cannibalism. What was the Islander thinking as he was cutting down the last palm tree?

Jared Diamond | Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Still #402 Amazon sales rank.