Diamond

Fist quote: :" it has long been suspected that many of those mysterious abandonments were at least partly triggered by ecological problems: people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended. " (page 20).

 I never though that the past societies could destroy the environmental resources.  When I lived in Peru, Schools teach you the history of Peru almost every year in Elementary and High School. Teachers usually talk about the interesting and how smart our ancestors were such as, Moche, and  Inca societies. The end of those civilizations is a mystery, some  teachers said that they died from diseases, or foreign people was trying to conquest their land, and killed all the inhabitants. I never heard that our ancestors killed them self for the actions they did in their own land or home. I heard different theories we still do not know why those civilizations collapsed. After reading Diamond, I understand that the end of those civilization was probably responsibility of their own inhabitants, and not only from external factors that the old civilizations could not control.

This picture was taken by my husband in one of  Inca's ruin in the city of Cusco- Peru  named Sacsayhuaman.

Second Quote: " Past people were neither ignorant bad managers who deserved to be exterminated or dispossessed, nor all- knowing conscientious environmentalists who solved problems that what we can't solve today. they were people like us, facing problems broadly similar to those that we now face." (page 26)

 Very True, as I say in the first quote, the end of a civilization can be the result of the negative actions of the inhabitants. We have to understand that old civilizations did not have enough knowledge like we do. Diamond says that we are more aware of the causes and consequences of our actions in our natural environment. Past civilizations probably were trying to survive and find the solutions of their problems without knowing the level of destruction they were causing to the civilization. The decadence of the past civilizations is mystery. We always have to analyze all the possible theories to make our own conclusions.

 Moche civilization in the north of Peru that lasted aproximally 100 AD to 700 AD. "The sacrifice Ceremony"  Retrieve this picture from http://www.news.wisc.edu/10229

Third quote: "A third consideration is hostile neighbors. All but a a few historical societies have been geographically close enough to some other societies to have had a least some contact with them"

Here we have again the economic and the personal interest of our "neighbors" or people that does not belong to the civilization. The envy and the greed make people to start wards and destruction in a civilization. They also bring unknown diseases and exotic vegetation that can harm the species in the invaded land.

I am sure past civilizations ate better that we do now. They had fresh food without hormones, and  they could enjoyed the natural environments as we never did because they did not have any technology.

Retrive this picture from  http://www.moddb.com/mods/europe-at-war