In 1997, Jared Diamond wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning and New York Times best seller, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies in which he laid out in fascinating narrative and breadth through thousands of years of history, why some societies flourished and came to dominate over others.  With his ground-breaking latest book Collapse, he employs the same engaging style as he brings us the other side of the story: why some societies disintegrate when faced with environmental problems, or as in some ancient cases, even disappear.

 

Diamond, who is a professor of geography at UCLA, combines his impressive grasp of multiple hard sciences and his background in history, linguistics, and writing to create a surprisingly enjoyable “must read” for anyone interested in contributing to a preferred future for the planet.  While the attention-getting title may, in part, be intended as a warning, it is also a technical working definition he employs to describe the specific types and degrees of breakdown which he observes and analyzes.  He then offers lessons for our consideration in order to meet the challenges of our time, hopefully, with better outcomes than the former collapsed societies.

 

Reasons for Hope is, in fact, the title of the last chapter.  That is one of the things that I especially like about this book. While Professor Diamond goes into great detail drawing sobering parallels between the examples of past environmentally-influenced societal collapses and the frightening trajectories in our current global society, he frequently refers to significant examples of individuals, corporations, non-profits and government leaders who have had a huge impact in reversing a destructive environmental trend or policy and suggests how the individual reader can make a difference.

 

While this is a book about environmental issues, it is much more than that. Diamond sees five factors at work in each collapse:  environmental damage, climate changes, hostile neighbors, decline of relationship with friendly trade partners, and the most significant being the society’s response to its environmental problems. This is another thing I like about the book. Although it has plenty of necessary science, it integrates several disciplines and suggests connected causes and holistic solutions that lie beyond just science or regulation.

 

Writing in a style that makes you feel like “you are there,” Diamond applies the five factor framework to studies of communities as diverse as the Polynesians of Easter Island, Norse colonies in Greenland, the Central American Mayans, Haiti, Rwanda, China, Indonesia, and even modern Australia and Montana. For those who hold to a constructive view of changing the future, there is much to ponder.

 

Remains of monumental ruins from ancient societies, like Easter Island, witness to us of their former development. Did their obsession with building massive monuments to their gods and the manner of building these statues ultimately destroy them? How could they allow their ideology to drive them to cut down every last tree? What were they thinking? How could they not understand the consequences of their actions? Will that inquiry be made by future generations about us in relation to the impact of our energy consumption or our neglect in addressing global warming?  

 

Haiti and the Dominican Republic occupy different parts of the same island, yet the economic and environmental situations of the two countries are quite different. Originally both parts of the island were forested, now Haiti is 1% forested compared with 28% of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has a much better economy and relative political stability. Haiti is a “basket case” economically and politically, yet it used to be much richer and more powerful than its next-door neighbor.   Why were the outcomes of similar countries so different? Why did Haiti go on to collapse?  Diamond shows that although there are some environmental differences between the two halves, the larger part of the explanation has to do with differences between the people’s attitudes, self-defined identity, institutions and government leaders’ actions and inactions.

 

As productive as it is to observe their past history, Diamond helps us to consider their futures, which he sees as becoming increasingly intertwined and demanding collaboration in order to overcome their increasing economic and environmental challenges. However, he indicates that they will need to overcome their long-standing prejudices and mistrust of one another.

 

The need to learn new values, often in relation to one’s neighbors, is a theme that Diamond mentions frequently as an aspect of the most important of the five factors—a society’s response to its challenges. He suggests it would have made a difference for Greenland Norse if they would have learned survival skills from the neighboring Greenland Inuit people instead of mistrusting and isolating themselves from them. The cultural values and skills of the Inuit equipped them to survive the extremes of an Arctic habitat while the Viking settlers did not.

 

Another example is Montana which used to have one of the highest per-capita incomes of the 50 states. Now it is near the bottom. The values and goals of poorer long-time residents of Montana, who once thrived while working in the now-crippled extraction industries, clash with those of the newer, richer developers and out-of-state, third-vacation-home owners.   Diamond doesn’t know what the ultimate outcome will be in the beloved state where he has spent many summers, but he does know that alongside the polarization are small signs of potential new alignment. For example, the conservative, anti-government-regulation attitudes of the old-timers are giving way as they see the need to regulate the new rapid growth and development and the excessive water use of the newcomers. The differing visions of these two groups strangely now include different reasons for wanting to protect the environment. Perhaps that shared larger objective could lead them to pursue a more collaborative future.

 

Diamond knows many old-time Montana residents personally and tells us their stories in the opening chapter of the book. “[A]s you read this book, and as you consider environmental problems posed mostly in impersonal terms, please think of the problems of those other societies as viewed by individual people like Stan Falkow, Rick Laible, Chip Pigman, Tim Huls, John Cook and the Hirschy brother and sisters. When we discuss Easter Island’s apparently homogenous society…imagine an Easter Island chief, farmer, stone carver, and porpoise fisherman each relating his or her particular life story, values, and goals, just as my Montana friends did for me.”

 

Although this is the most personal chapter of Diamond’s book, it is not the only one. His years of research and studying birds in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Indonesia allows him to tell us in story-like fashion of the people, their customs, and descriptions of the five factors currently at work in those regions. His personal knowledge and experiences in these places make it even more meaningful and interesting to me. At times I found myself wanting to skip over some of the scientific details and delve into the story.

 

With this region as backdrop, Diamond educates the reader about the impact of the resource extraction industries.  He discusses non-renewable resources (such as oil and metal) and renewable ones (such as fish and wood).  He takes us on-site with two different oil companies. Chevron astonished him with its policies and procedures that beautifully safeguard the environment even while effectively procuring the oil. The other company leaves destruction in its wake. Diamond is realistic and appreciates that big business will be driven by making a profit for it shareholders, but he shows how Chevron has come to the realization that environmental protection is good for the bottom line. 

 

Another positive story is that of the Forest Stewardship Council (“FSC”). Big business and environmental organizations in consultation with representatives of indigenous peoples participated in the formation of the FSC in 1993.  The FSC actually goes on site to global logging industry locations to perform audits verifying sustainable practices. Diamond empowers us as consumers in changing the future. We can buy products from FSC participants in the FSC such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, the Anderson window company, Kinko’s and IKEA furniture.

 

In 1997, a similar group started the Marine Stewardship Council to address the collapse of numerous worldwide fisheries. Again, Diamond suggests that the individual buyer can not only choose to avoid buying the types of fish that are in collapse but also look for products and companies certified by the MSC. Among them are Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Safeway in the US and Kailis and France Foods in Australia. These initiatives are some of the signs of hope and cooperation. 

 

Diamond describes a far different scenario being carried out by the hard rock mining industry. He say it currently does not have the same motivation to safeguard the air, water, soils, animals, plants, and fish, and humans due to the differences in the industry’s technology, economics, attitudes within the industry itself, as well as that of the public and government toward it. Sadly he describes the religious views of a prominent mining company executive as seeing no need to repair environmental damage,  because the imminent return of Christ makes it irrelevant..

 

Diamond helps the reader understand that negative environmental conditions also contain a geo-political component.  He writes, “The copper mine at Panguna on Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville Island was formerly the country’s largest enterprise and biggest earner of foreign exchange, and one of the largest copper mines in the world. It dumped its tailings directly into a tributary of the Jaba River, thereby creating monumental environmental impacts. When the government failed to resolve that situation and associated political and social problems, Bougainville’s citizens revolted, triggering a war that cost thousands of lives and nearly tore apart the nation of Papua New Guinea. Fifteen years after the war’s outbreak, peace has not been fully restored on Bougainville.”   

 

Collapse includes a world map showing that some of the key hot spots in terms of political instability are also the most troubled environmentally. He indicates that even Rwanda’s genocide had an environmental component with too many people competing for limited resources. What about the impact of China’s 1.3 billion people?  They already have some of the worst environmental problems in the world.

 

“The long list ranges from air pollution, biodiversity losses, cropland losses, desertification, disappearing wetlands, grassland degradation, and increasing scale and frequency of  human-induced natural disasters, to invasive species, overgrazing, river flow cessation, salinization, soil erosion , trash accumulation, and water pollution and shortages.” Diamond explains that they are not just domestic problems. The rest of the world shares the planet, oceans and air with what Diamond calls the “Lurching Giant” and is already affected by it being the largest contributor of ozone-depleting substances.

 

Diamond says, “Even more important than those other impacts will be the proportionate increase in total human impact on the world’s environments if China with its large population, succeeds in its goal of achieving First World living standards.” Their demand for and import of lumber already contributing to deforestation. What will happen as automobile ownership increases along with the accompanying oil consumption and air pollution?

 

Diamond sees the impact of globalization as a two-edged sword. It is accelerating environmental problems. On the other hand, he believes the modern ease of communication, sharing of information are bringing an increase in public concern and private and government countermeasures. “Which horse will win the race? Many readers of this book are young enough and will live long enough to see the outcome.”

 

I’m new at being “green.”  I would not have been interested in this book a few years ago. I thought those who we were passionate about the environment had misplaced priorities and probably had an agenda antithetical to my values. Property rights are “the American Way,” and I was out save souls, not trees. I wanted to go into all the world to make disciples. Wasn’t that what the healing of the nations was about?

 

I am thankful for coming to a better theological understanding of the gospel and redemption as “life giving to all of God’s creation.”  I now see more clearly the connection between caring for the environment and loving my neighbor, between loving everything that God said in Genesis was “good” and bringing healing to the nations.

 

All I could think of when I read Collapse was how key and timely is the Transmillennial message. I don’t think Collapse is a perfect book or the most important book that you will ever read, but I do think it is excellent and one of the most important you will read. Read it soon. It is 592 pages, is also in audio-book form and can be had for less that $20 on Amazon or at most bookstores.   

 

Equipped with its information, a willingness to change, and a belief in the future, we can be God’s instruments in making a different world.

 

Jan O’Brien is an attorney and a nurse living in Kansas City.  Jan is a board member of Presence.