Chapter 3 of collapse was a short and sweet vignette on three neighboring islands in Polynesia. There was extensive trade between Henderson, Pitcairn and Mangareva; each lacking a vital resource that the others could provide. Mangareva could support the highest population (the other two absolutely required import of resources to sustain a normal life), but as the population rose the environment ofMangareva bore the cost. Deforestation and dwindling resources led to infighting within Mangareva and reduced efforts to trade with the other islands. As such, human life on the other two islands that required Mangareva eventually collapsed. I'm noticing that Diamond really likes use these case studies as metaphors for the modern world. The unstable trading partner that other rely on for imports could easily be countries that export oil.
I've also started Cosmos by Carl Sagan. The first chapter was fairly short and was basically a panoramic view of the galaxy to set the scope for the book. There was also a brief aside into humans' first conception of the cosmos as well as the information lost in the Library of Alexandria. While Diamond has deliberately painted himself into a corner to focus exclusively on one phenomenon, I'm hoping that Sagan will continue to branch out to interestin asides.
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