The Ends of the World as We Know Them

NY Times ^ | January 1, 2005 | JARED DIAMOND

[jwpjr]

I must admit I have little knowledge of such matters. I guess it's pretty obvious that the best solution is to use as many approaches to the problem as possible. We've got to know that any one or more of them will fail at the most inopportune time! My philosophy would be to get as near the end result as possible and that would be to educate the people who will die if they don't recognize the signals of an approaching tsunami and act accordingly. I see it as sort of the same approach as heart attacks. After all is said and done the best protection is for the patient to recognize the problem and act on it. All the prehopital emergency care and ambulances are of little use if the patient has had chest pain for 12 hours before going into cardiac arrest. It's much better for the patient to get to an appropriate facility before the arrest. But I realize I'm pointing out the obvious to you and preaching to the choir. Thank you for the info about using existing buoys. That certainly makes sense!

[JimSEA]

Mr. Diamond attempts to claim the West dominates the world due to its happenstance of geography, domesticatable animals, indigenous plants, etc. He ignores culture and religion.

I agree with your statement but feel that environmental determinism cannot be brushed off. Surely geography as well as culture accounts for the current supremacy of the "west". It can be argued that Indo-European culture originated (along with language) in the region of present day Georgia. Vast areas are wasteland and tribalism and disfunctional Islamism dominate the greater perportion of the Indo-European territory. Disease and lack of resources surely are influential.

The fact that someone is liberal doesn't mean they are totally wrong. Rather it alerts the reader to look for intentional and unintentional bias. Bias in presentation does not, by itself, void the basic concept.

[o_zarkman44]

Limiting our oil imports could be a good thing in the long term. Can you remember the days when small town America was supported by it's own residents and small town America flourished because most of the jobs were locally produced.
People stayed at home and shopped the local markets for the items they could not grow in their own gardens and farm plots. When an item was out of season it was not available. Vast amounts of energy were not spent in pursuit of fruits and vegetables from out of the area. Same for milk. Every community had a local dairy and the milk was good. Now milk is trucked perhaps hundreds of miles from farm to dairy to consumer, wasting more energy.

It was unheard of to purchase California sweet corn in Missouri. But now since it is available perhaps Missouri has slacked off on it's own sweet corn production. This creates more dependence on another region, and siphons money out of the local economy.

Granted, these examples of self sufficiency may seem distant and lost in the fast paced progress we now participate in. But sometimes unchecked progress does create undesirable side effects. With better localized planning, energy expenditures cauld be reduced considerably.

We do not have to be such a mobile society and could certainly exist without the foreign oil. For some urban dwellers, life could become more difficult because their ability to survive has become dependent on too many factors out of their control. But for anyone who grew up in small town America, they know how to make do with what they have.

[goldstategop]

He does present a number of problems for consideration. One can reasonably disagree whether the solutions he offers solves them but there's no denying we face a number of threats. Burying our heads like the proverbial ostrich in the sand will not make them go away. Of course Diamond is a liberal. His politics leave something to be desired but he still shows us things its good to want to learn about.

[Maynerd]

The fact that someone is liberal doesn't mean they are totally wrong.

I agree. As I posted earlier, parts of his book are interesting but his underlying thesis is deeply flawed. He is but another sprig from a long line of academic anti- western civilization doom and gloomers.

[endthematrix]

"Conversely, the Maya...failed to address their forestry problems and so collapsed."

And eventually the forest reclaimed the land, totally covering the barren cities. I had the pleasure of visiting some ruins in Belize and Guatemala on my Honeymoon.

Happy New Year! Keep on posting!

[xkaydet65]

I was going to invest 35 bucks and buy this when I saw it in Borders of Westbury on Thursday. I decided to put off the purchase. Good decision. In reading his conclusions about the collapse of America one sees the author making staggering comparisons. Living in a gated community means you won't support the Police. Drinking bottled water means you won't pay for water suppplies. Having a pension means you don't care about Social Security. And sending you kids to private school means that you will abandon spending tax money on public schools. The author is painting the picture of a small elite class denying its support to the masses which will, in one way or another, lead to social, political, and economic collapse.

The USSR had no private schools, bottled water, private pensions, an gated communities( at least none paid for by private funds).By all odds they should never have collapsed.In the USA, people without children in public schools have been voting on taxes for their local schools for generations. Perhaps Mr. Diamond would visit Long Island each May to examine school budget votes. And does Mr Diamond believe that Social Security was ever conceived to be an individual's sole, or even main, source of retirement income. He must since he believes the possesion of a private pension by too many Americans will doom SSS. Does Mr. iamond have a 401k and does possession of such cause a lack of concern about SSS? I won't even respond to his bottled water nonsense save that most drinkers of bottled water I see in NY would scarcely appreciate a forum like Free Republic.

Diamond may have collected some interesting and accurate historical facts. He may ask some interesting historical questions. But his staggering jump from Poland Spring water and IRAs to the Fall of the Mayans makes me doubt he has the earned the right to have his conclusions and warnings taken seriously.

[MissAmericanPie]

Our area is in the middle of a gang war over the park across the street. Eight games claiming a park that they have no right to. So as far as I am concerned the war has already begun.

The police visited our house last night with instructions about staying away from windows, my son can't sleep in his bedroom now, and I'm at the limit. Every house around the park is in danger. I'm afraid they have crossed my line in the sand. I hope the situation doesn't escalate but the police seem to think we are in a "grave and dangerous' situation. One went so far as to recommend high powered military type weapons after I mentioned that all we have to throw back at them is pop corn.

This could very well be the place where it all comes apart, I can imagine angry neighbors blasting away from the cover of their back yard fences at gang members. This neighborhood association has determined to fight back with bullets and buckshot if this situation escalates.

[Max Combined]

"I only enjoyed the history part, not the claptrap advocacy."

Since Jared Diamond is a committed leftist, all the history he presents is filtered through a leftist lens and massaged to support his liberal worldview.

As a doctor, you must realize that genes are much more important than Diamond leads us to believe in his book. Notice that even after the introduction of modern inventions and methods, Africa still lags behind Europe. I am sure Diamond could concoct some complicated theory explaining this, but it would fail the law of parsimony, just like his Guns, Germs, and Steel does not stand up to Occam's razor. But it does make liberals feel better.

[SunkenCiv]

Greenland Ice Cap Is Melting, Raising Sea Level
Source: The Associated Press
Published: Jul 20, 2000 - 04:05 PM Author: By Paul Recer
Posted on 07/20/2000 14:37:50 PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3977712e1941.htm

[SunkenCiv]

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