Collapse

Collapse is a non fiction book by Jared Diamond, the author of Guns,Germs, and Steel. Collapse is about the collapse of great civilizations like the Mayans, Easter Islanders, etc... there are something like 7 factors that seem to cause the downfall of societies. One that seemed to be uniform throughout was that they would cut down their trees, the soil would blow away and then they were f'd. The Easter islanders were a totally isolated island so they are the perfect study for collapse. The warlords kept trying to outdo each other by building bigger statues (Moai) using up the islands resources. The huge red rocks on top were supposed to be especially impressive. One sentence resonated with me was "What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?” His answer was something like when you're in there you don't realize it and you can't realize that you could be responsible for all this. The correlation between these past fallen societies and today are made, because we are making the same mistakes. It is great (but a depressing) read. One big thing i took away from this is, cut down all the trees and you're f'd.