DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

   1. There is a lot of talk these days about how environmentalists have damaged 
their credibility by crying wolf—for example, issuing dire warnings about exploding 
population and the effects of global warming that have not (yet) been borne out. Do 
you think Diamond is vulnerable to the charge of crying wolf in Collapse? If not, 
why not? How does his argument and approach differ from alarmist environmentalists?

   2. “I am writing this book from a middle-of-the-road perspective,” writes Diamond 
in the introduction, “with experience of both environmental problems and of business 
realities” (p. 17). The middle of the road is often a tough place to be—since it opens 
one to attacks from either side. How successful is Diamond in staking out this 
position? How does he balance (or fail to balance) environmental concerns with business 
realities?

   3. “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there,” is the famous 
opening line of L. P. Hartley’s novel The Go-Between. Collapse is based on the implicit 
assumption that the past is not really that foreign after all—that the mistakes and 
blindness and bad luck that led to past collapses can and will happen again, that a 
lot of the problems of the world today result from the fact that we don’t do things 
differently. Do you agree with Diamond’s position that the past and present are closely 
connected, or do you think there is an essential quality that definitively sets us apart 
from previous civilizations?

   4. Diamond describes Tikopia as a kind of island paradise where natives saved their 
environment through eco-friendly gardening and devised a kind of rudimentary democratic 
system of government. Yet Tikopians also practiced infanticide and abortion to limit 
population growth. What does this say about our ability to judge the morality of past 
societies? Can one (must one?) differentiate between macro- and micro-morality?

   5. What view of human nature do you think underlies Collapse? Where do you think 
Diamond would stand on the nature vs. nurture debate—i.e., the role of genetics versus 
culture in determining human behaviors and responses?

   6. How important are leaders in determining the ecological success or failure of a 
civilization? To what extent did bad leadership contribute to or cause the collapses 
Diamond talks about? What about in our own culture—do you think progress will come from 
enlightened leadership or rather from grassroots activism?

   7. If the United States does collapse, how do you think it will happen? Which of 
Diamond’s five factors would play a role in the demise of American civilization as we 
know it? Do you think our collapse will occur suddenly, like the crash of Easter Island 
or Maya civilization, or is it more likely that we’ll experience a gradual but stable 
decline, as Great Britain did after World War II?

   8. Which example of civilizational collapse described in the book do you find most 
compelling and why? Which best fits Diamond’s thesis? Diamond notes that “no other site 
that I have visited made such a ghostly impression on me as Rano Raraku, the quarry 
on Easter Island” (p. 79). Which image or passage in the book made the most powerful 
impression on you?

   9. Diamond writes that our world “cannot sustain China and other Third World countries 
and current First World countries all operating at First World levels” (p. 376). Yet 
how can we ethically deny Third World countries the comforts and advantages that we in 
the First World enjoy? In your opinion, what should our leaders do to lessen or resolve 
looming conflicts over resources between First and Third World countries?

  10. Diamond reveals that while writing the book he found himself lurching between 
hope and despair. What emotions did Collapse inspire in you? Did you come away depressed, 
cautiously hopeful, or did you have an entirely different reaction?