In the presentation titled "Why Societies Collapse" presented by Jared Diamond in TED Talks, Diamond started his speech with few examples of collapsed societies in history such as the Easter Islanders and the classic Maya and the Yucatan. Then, he expressed the last decade scientist belief in climate changes as the causes behind these collapses. However, Diamond had a different view in regards to the factors of collapse where he explained five factors and how we can contribute to minimize the effect of them.
Human impact on environments was the first factor such as deforesting to make iron by the Vikings. The second was climate changes. Third is good relations with neighboring societies who extend their support to weak societies. Fourth, relations with hostile societies. The last factor, some cultural, political and social factors.
Moreover, he stated two generalizations behind these collapses that are not controllable by us. The well-known fact that societies collapse as they reached their peak. And the uncontrollable climate changes such as earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes.
By analyzing all factors and studying the history of these collapsed societies, Diamond discussed two important reasons why the people of these societies could not prevent or at least minimize the consequences of the elements behind the fall of these civilizations. First is the conflict of interest between the short-term interests of the societies’ leaders and the long-term interests for the whole community. Second is the disagreement between the good decisions and some of the societies’ valued beliefs such as religion.
At the end of his presentation, he explored the two possible directions available to resolve the issue. Either by our will to do the necessary actions to rectify the problem or against our will by different means such as war, hunger and disease.
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