While reading Jared Diamond’s A Tale of Two Farms I thought a lot about how many societies choose to fail or succeed. I agree with Diamond’s thoughts that to avoid a collapse that we must learn from our mistakes, but we can only learn if we think carefully about the lessons that occurred. Diamond made the comment that the United States is the most powerful country; however, I do not fully agree with him. I do not know much about power in the world, but I believe many countries are just as powerful as the United States. I completely agree with his statement that we are at a lower risk and a greater risk for collapse. There are certain aspects that make us at specific risks for collapse. For example, we are at a lower risk for collapse because of our powerful technology, globalization, and modern medicine. However, we are at a greater risk because of our potent technology, our dependence of millions, and our large human population. I believe collapse is possible for any society depending on the aspects the society deals with at certain times.
Another good point that Diamond brought up was ecocide, which I had no idea what this word meant until reading this article. Ecocide is also known as ecological suicide. Diamond stated that there are many unintended ecocides that have occurred in out societies. These unintended ecocides are deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita of people. All of these things are destroying our environment, and I believe there are ways to change. Some of the newer ecocides in today’s societies include human-caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity. All these aspects of the environment can be changed or at least improved.
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