Jared Diamond's most recent work [ISBN 0-670-03337-5] is an important contribution to the subject of mankind's interaction with the environment. The first chapter is a personal reminiscence of the author's experiences as an outlander in Montana, a state undergoing stress owing to changes in land use from the mining and ranching of the old frontier to the vacation land of the coastal, urban well-to-do. The relevance of this introduction becomes apparent in later sections, particularly in the comparison to environmental impacts in Australia.

Succeeding chapters read quickly, more like a novel than a reference text or treatise, as Diamond delves into case studies of former, less familiar terrains with a litany of prior societal disasters - Easter Island, the Pitcairn group, the Anasazi, the Maya, the Norse Vikings in Greenland. These each stemmed largely from the social, economic and political failures of the inhabitants to manage the variabilty, fragility and recovery rate of each particular environment. The dirge is mitigated by, and contrasted with, a sprinkling of survival success stories: notably the Norse in Iceland vis-à-vis those in Greenland, and the latter's rivals, the Inuit.

Diamond extracts five factors that, depending how they are addressed, contribute to a culture's success or failure in fragile, sensitive environments: environmental impact; climate change; support from friendly societies or cultures in times of crisis; adaptability or rigidity of cultural response to stress; and external threats or hostilities. Success societally depends on neither just population size, nor specific political and economic organization; the tiny island of Tikopia is contrasted with the New Guinea highlands, and Tokugawa Japan, prior to western intrusion. Rather it depends on how well societies respond to the environmental facts of their situation, specifically, "some societies evolve practices to avoid overexploitation, and others fail at that challenge."

The middle section of this work presents recent and current national examples - Rwanda, Hispanola, China and Australia - that make a notable complement to another recent offering, "Limits to Growth, A 30-Year Update." "Collapse" provides micro details that augment the latter's broadbrush approach, with similar conclusions. The comparison of the current world situation to historical cultures is ominous at best.

How do some societies make disasterously self-destructive decisions where others avoid them? Although environment matters tremendously, Diamond concludes the linchpin is whether a culture’s ability is engaged, consciously or intuitively, to distinguish inappropriate, self-destructive behaviors from appropriate responses to physical, chemical, biological and geological facts of life and survival on this planet, and to choose the latter. A society's form of political organization doesn't seem to guarantee either success or failure. In some cases, top-down, authoritarian control, whether enlightened or just lucky, has side-stepped impending environmental disasters; in others, not. Bottom-up, community control has an equivalently mixed record. Whether conscious or intuitive, appreciation of the environmental consequences of both acts and inaction, coupled with prior caution until that appreciation has been developed and achieved, seems to matter most. But awareness alone, without the will to act upon it, is insufficient. And most modern societies are not organic, well-integrated wholes, but swarming, competing, conspiring schools of predators and victims, each trying to survive and protect their 'interests' in the often hostile environment posed by the others. Today, many societies 'choose' only in the sense that they acquiese to the choices, or demands, of their most insistent others.

The penultimate chapter, Big Businesses and the Environment, is truly appalling. Set against background vignettes of occasional, odd instances of corporate environmental responsibility is a catalogue of wanton abuse, deceit, cheating and irresponsible exploitation. The question is not what is wrong with a culture that allows private, personal or corporate profiteering to trash our common heritage: the mere statement demonstrates that! The question is why our culture permits thievery at that level while diligently prosecuting purse snatchers and roadside trash tossers? Punishment to misfit the crime? Why is it acceptable for one person, one corporation, syndicate or cartel to profiteer at the expense, for generations if not forever, of the rest of us? Insufficient outrage and care on the part us unwitting, unknowledgeable, victims; and insufficient accountability for the malefactors. Rape and run, it is called; historically societies that have allowed this to persist chracteristically fail.

Diamond has some sympathy for the business community: they do what they must to 'make' money. But money is 'made' by governmental printing offices; others who try it are called counterfeiters! But corporate scoundrels historically have 'taken' it, both money and their environs, for all they can, without regard for the damage they leave behind, without so much as nod to 'the duty of care'. They are what F. S. Fitzgerald called 'careless people', leaving their messes for others to clean up. Rather than indicting greed, the profit motive, and self-interest above the common good, Diamond concludes, "the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior of even the biggest businesses." His aim is to empower and arouse hope in his offering means by which the public can divert the culture of corporate unconcern for the commons by showing the latter the ultimate profitability of environmentally responsible, sustainable policies and behavior.

In the final chapter, Diamond lists the twelve past and present environmental problems he considers most urgent to address and offers suggested talking points in response to Luddite anti-environmentalists. There is also an extensive additional readings section for individuals and small groups to use to arouse public awareness and couple that with effective action.

In places the style is self-referential and the content excessively repetitive. Perhaps because the initial drafts were beta-tested on his students at UCLA, the work is written in a conversational, chatty, almost off-hand manner, liberally seasoned with personal anecdotes and commentary, that will annoy some, yet intrigue others. For those used to a more succinct, professional tone, bear with it for the sake of the book's almost encyclopedic compendium of relevant fact and authoritative interpretation. There is occasional carelessness in the editing: typographical omissions, and obscure acronyms introduced well before they are defined. The index is disappointing with trivial acronyms featured but no reference to Diamond's five-factors, crucial to his understanding of the phenomenon of societal collapse. Despite these criticisms, ultimately this work's integrated, compelling assemblage of fact and analysis makes it thought-provoking and well-worth the 524 page trek.

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