Jared Diamond is a BIG picture thinker. Experience in biology and anthropology allows him to see issues in a very global way. In looking at human societies that have succeeded or failed on 6 continents over thousands of years, Diamond distilled 5 contributing factors in understanding collapses - and they aren't just environmental.
1) Environmental Damage. Ok, the first one is environmental. You know, and I know...and even the most fervent anti-environment politicians know that humans impact our environment. We've all see oil soaked birds and post-nuclear wastelands. The only difference of opinion is how much humans impact the environment and what effect that impact really has. In collapsed societies, it turns out those questions (how much? what effect?) are key. Some areas of earth are naturally more resilient or more fragile depending on a whole host of factors like rainfall, climate, soil... This means human action in different environments has different consequences. Cutting down a single, slow-growing 1,000 year old redwood tree at a high elevation has a different impact than cutting down a stand of rapidly growing locust trees in Indiana.
2) Climate Change. "...a term that today we tend to associate with global warming caused by humans. In fact, climate may be hotter or colder, wetter or drier, or more or less variable between months or between years, because of changes in natural forces that drive climate and have nothing to do with humans." Before the phrase "global warming" crossed the lips of an unwashed hippy, changes in the sun's heat, volcanic eruptions and movement of continents created changes in climate that affected all life on earth.
3) Hostile Neighbors. Most human societies are and were within warring range of other societies. Military conquest doomed many societies (including Rome) and the ability to fend off attacks was an important consideration to survival.
4) Decreased Support from Friendly Neighbors. Most societies also have friendly trade partners that provide essential goods. If your trade partner is weakened or disappears, this affects your society too. Those who remember the 1973 oil embargo particularly understand this.
5) How Societies Respond to Problems. This is Diamond's most important factor. "Different societies respond differently to similar problems. For instance, problems of deforestation arose for many past societies, among which Highland New Guinea, Japan, Tikopia and Tonga developed successful forest management and continued to prosper, while Easter Island, Mangareva, and Norse Greenland failed to develop successful forest management and collapsed as a result."
In most cases of collapse these factors are intertwined. Rome, for example, fended off enemies and thrived for over 1,000 years. Why did invaders eventually succeed? Was Rome weakened by some internal economic, political, or environmental problem before it fell?
With this framework in mind, the rest of the book reviews modern and ancient collapses of diverse societies, including Easter Island, the Maya, Norse Greenland and the Anasazi of the American Southwest. Norse Greenland seems particularly fascinating as two societies inhabited one island for many years, facing all 5 pressures mentioned above with one society succeeding and the other failing.
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