The End of the World as We Know It – On the Collapse of
Societies by Jared Diamond History warns us that when once-
powerful societies collapse, they tend to do so quickly and
unexpectedly. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: peak
power usually means peak population, peak needs, and hence peak
vulnerability . . . . While some societies did indeed collapse
spectacularly, others have managed to thrive for thousands of
years without major reversal. When it comes to historical
collapses, five groups of interacting factors have been
especially important: - The damage that people have inflicted on
their environment; - Climate change; - Changes in friendly
trading partners; and - The society’s political, economic and
social responses to these shifts. Let’s consider two examples of
declines stemming from different mixes of causes: the falls of
classic Maya civilization and of Polynesian settlements on the
Pitcairn Islands. Maya Native Americans of the Yucatan Peninsula
and adjacent parts of Central America deve