blog number 1: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Summary:
 
This selection spoke mainly of the fears of repeating past societies failures.  The author spoke of past societal collapses and the new discoveries linking many of the collapses to environmental factors, such as over used land due to increased population pressures, poor distribution and allocation of fresh water. An important question was raised of whether we could rely on man made resources to replace the resources which populations have depleted, bringing to light the importance of our natural resources.  Additionally it is mentioned that environmental factors are never the soul cause of a societies fall, and many times are not a factor at all. 



Critical Thinking:

2. What does it mean, according to Jared Diamond, to say that a society collapses?

 Jared states that a societal collapse is "a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/ social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time. " (page 184)