Collapse of the Societies - Essay Example

He has clearly mentioned out that more than climatic variations; a society’s attitude towards addressing the environmental problems plays a key role in the demise of the society. It depends on the people and the government that how they consider it and what measures they take it in response to those environmental problems. He has stressed upon one factor that it depends on the society to choose its fate; to fail or to succeed. He has clearly mentioned that there are some societies that have sustained themselves even in the hard times such as Japan and on the other hand, there are some societies that have totally collapsed such as Somalia or Zimbabwe or those societies which are closer to collapse such as Nepal.

According to him, we can learn from their downfall that what were the key factors that played a significant role in their collapse and then we can make an analysis of our selves that where are we standing today; near to collapse or we are already collapsed. Further Diamond has identified that environmental problems are due to the irresponsible attitude of the humans. Humans have been the basic cause of societal collapse such as in case of Vikings; who happened to cause a lot of damage to their environment such as they caused soil erosion, they wilding cut the trees as a result deforestation occurred and the gradually the environmental problems and climatic changes occurred which caused inevitable damage to the overall society and hence a point came when those societies were swept off from the world.

In other words we can say that, human interaction with its environment play an important role in determining the fate of a society. Here Jared has quoted the example of Montana which was a prosperous state with sound environmental conditions in USA. But today, the societal pattern of Montana has completely collapsed. It is one of the poorest states with unstable environmental conditions. The climate of Montana is getting warmer with no proper action plan or government plan. However, we can say that today Montana’s invulnerable condition is becoming a threat to the overall United States.

On the other hand, Jared sees that some of the societies collapse when they reach their peak such as Soviet Union. According to him Soviet Union faced a sudden decline in the time when USSR was in its greatest power. According to him, the main causes in such sudden collapse may be the mismatch between the resources available and their consumption or it could be a mismatch between economic potential and economic plans. There are some environmental factors that make some societies fragile than other societies.

According to him there are two basic factors that cause a society to collapse such as conflict between the short term decision making interest of the elites and long term interest of the society as a whole. Whatever that is good in the interest of the elites for short term could turn out to be worst for the society in the long run. The American society could suffer from the same consequences from their governed bodies and business elites. It is imperative for the societies to understand all the problems and to take effective measures in addressing these problems.

Addressing one problem would not be sufficient enough to tackle and overcome the issue of collapsing societies but it is highly important that all the problems should be highlighted and addressed on time to avoid collapse. Analysis