COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond

1
COLLAPSEbyJared Diamond

• Chapters 6 9
• Reviewed by
• Chuck Selden

2
Norse Expansion to the Western European Seacoasts
and Rivers, 793-1000

• Push of over-population
• Introduction of sails
• Pull of undefended villages and uninhabited lands
• England 793, Iceland 870, Greenland 984, Vinland
  1000
• Ended as subject lands began to defend themselves
• Vinland 1010, England 1066, Greenland 1420

3
Establishment and Demise of Norse Greenland
Settlements984-1420 (appx)

• European Culture
• Tithes to the Church, Church Buildings
• Communal, violent, hierarchical, conservative,
  Eurocentric
• Fragile Ecology
• Deforested, sod for buildings, overgrazed,
  iron-poor
• Cows, caribou, walrus, some seals, but no fish or
  whales
• Isolated, Little Trade (rare after 1368)
• Harsh Weather
• Cold, fog, ice-bound, little ice age
• Skraelings (Inuit) wretches
• No trade, no learning, hostilities began in 1379

4
Icelands Tenuous Success

• Deforestation
• Buildings, Iron, Farms
• Desertification
• Sheep, Erosion
• Sustained by Trade Fishing and Wool
• No Inuit
• Joint Decision to Control Farming
• Conservative Society
• Stopped Overgrazing
• Marine Subsistence

5
Iceland ------ Greenland

• Peaceful ------------------ Violent
• Fish ----------------------- Cows
• Trade --------------------- Isolated
• Frugal -------------------- Luxury
• No Natives --------------- Inuit
• Environmentalist -------- Ignored

6
New Guinea Highlands

• Millions of people, 46,000 years
• No kings or chiefs
• bottom-up problem-solving talk, talk, talk
• Population control, chronic war
• Gardens, Irrigation 7,000 years
• Terraces, mulches, vertical drains
• Casuarina silviculture 1,200 years
• Lumber (ironwood), nitrogen fixing
• Now no population control, less war

7
Tikopia Island

• 1.8 sq mi, inhabited gt3,000 years
• Population about 1,200
• Birth control coitus interruptus, abortion,
  infanticide, suicide by voyage, re-settlement
• Bottom-up governance, weak chiefs, collectives
• Easy Tropical Environment
• Cyclones
• Isolated trade for rock, marriage
• Use/shepherd/share food resources
• Killed off the pigs1600 A.D.

8
Tokugawa Japan1603-1868

• Highly stratifiedpowerful elite leaders
• Long term political stability, long range
  planning
• Isolated, no war, no guns, strong security,
  little trade, little disease, good crops, much
  seafood, no sheep or goats, no floods, uniform
  currency, standard measures, good roads, coastal
  shipping
• Social-religious homogeneity
• Managed forests, managed land
• Fertile land, lots of rain, Asian and volcanic
  dust
• Rules for wood use, inventories, monitoring,
  contracts
• Famines, city fires, still occurred
• Stable population (25 M) via zero population
  growth

9
Summary of Successful Civilization

• Orkney, Faeroes, Shetland, Iceland, New Guinea,
  Tikopia, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, Greenland
  Inuit, Australian Aborigines, Spain, Philippines,
  India
• Tight social structure, circumscribed uses of
  resources, matched to the environment,
  sustainable, controlled population
• economy must fit environment
• Robust environment helps
• Avoid over-exploitation