Iron Denominator Commentary

On New Years Day, Jared Diamond (of Guns, Germs and Steel for those of you who've read that excellent book) wrote a column for the New York Times here. Login required.

Expanding on material he began in GG&S, Diamond's latest book (Collapse) is about societies that, for whatever reason, are unable to deal with clearly evident problems and result in systemic collapse. Diamond ties this in to the modern day, with an obvious moral to the tale - we should wake up!

The part of GG&S that has stuck with me the most since I read it was his description of finding half-finished heads at Easter Island - which was deforested to roll the stone heads and erect them in place. That they were half-finished meant that people literally kept chopping down trees until the island was bare. This is particularly odd because Easter Island isn't that large - it can be crossed in a few hours by foot. People had to know what was happening, but did nothing.

Similarly, one wonders why, despite the abundance of knowledge about what we're doing to the earth, we do nothing.

I'd like to discuss this more, but I'm going to bed. More tomorrow. Would have written more, but was distracted.