Collapse: Third World and Norse Greenlanders

China approaching the turning point Anant Seksaria Professor Paul Schmitz Paper no. 1 8th February 2013
In the book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond throws light on the many reasons why ancient societies have been unable to survive: environmental issues, the wide disparity between resources required and the resources available and the making of incorrect decisions in terms of the utilization of resources and their opportunity cost. This is a result of its ongoing desire to achieve globalization and ‘its goal of achieving First World living standards.’ In this paper, the relevance of the isolated ‘’fallen societies’’ (Easter Island and Norse Greenland) will be explained in relation to my argument of how they are used as metaphors by Diamond in order to explain the imminent future of China and how it’s desire to see itself experience the same level of economic and social progress as a first world country is paving the way for its decline, as suggested by the title.
In explaining the current scenario of China, Jared focuses on emphasizing the rapid increase of the production and consumption of various resources there: ‘It has the world’s highest production rate of steel, cement, aqua cultured food….the top in production of production of electricity and (soon) motor vehicles, and in consumption of timber;’. However, these increases have been characterized as potentially unsustainable and having harmful environmental effects:’...75% of Chinese lakes, and almost all coastal seas, are polluted…Only 20% of domestic waste water is treated, as compared to 80% in the First World.’. This depleting of resources in order to accelerate itself forward on the race to becoming a superpower can be compared to the actions of the Easter Islander chiefs who would try to prove their superiority over another chief/tribe in the form of the size of a statue erected, called ‘’moai’’, that stood on a stone platform called ‘’ahu’’. The building of

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