Lurking behind the mystery of ancient ruins is the mystery with the nagging thought: might such a fate eventually befall our own wealthy society? Will tourists someday stare mystified at the New York skyscrapers, much as we stare at the jungle overgrown ruins of Maya cities?

Perhaps we can still learn from the past, but only if we think carefully about its lessons. The book has a 5 point framework of possible contributing collapse to societies:

1 - Environmental damage

Could be exceptional imprudence of the people and exceptional fragility in aspects of the environment, or both.

2 - Climate change

Today we refer to human induced. But in the past it was natural climate change, including the advance and retreat of continental ice sheets during ice ages from about 1400-1800 AD, or the global cooling from the enormous volcanic eruption of Indonesia's Mt Tambora on 1815

3 - Hostile neighbours

Relationships might be intermittently or chronically hostile. A society may be able to hold off its enemies as long as it is strong, only to succumb in a moment of weakness. The proximate cause is the conquest, but the ultimate cause that leads to the collapse is the temporary weakening

4 - Decreasing support by friendly neighbours

Either depend on imports of essential trade goods . If your partner comes weak for any reason, then they no longer can supply the essential goods

5 - The response of the society

Different societies respond differently to similar problems. Deforestation for example has arose in many cultures - some went down, some developed sustainable management practices

In this episode we'll explore the collapse of Easter Island, the Great Maya Civilisation and The Vikings, and the risk of collapse of modern-day Australia and China through the 5 point framework.

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