Nov 06, 2008 - Claremont, Calif. - The lecture, part of the Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ‘74 Distinguished Speaker Series, was co-sponsored by the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Leadership and Management Forum. A professor in the Department of Geography at UCLA, Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his book “Guns, Germs and Steel.” His latest work, published in 2005, is “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” In his talk, Diamond addressed five factors that he considers when trying to understand a particular society’s success or failure. These include: human impact on environmental resources; climate change; enemies, who take advantage of a society’s internal problems and weaknesses; friends, or neighboring trade partners, who provide necessary resources; and a society’s own political, economic, social and cultural institutions. “One has to ask, ‘Are there any deep lessons we can learn from the past that will help us today in dealing with the same problems that faced [past] societies, the problems of forests and fish and water and topsoil, climates changes, and so on,” said Diamond. “Yes, I think of course there are lessons that we can learn from the past. Diamond noted how vital it is to take environmental problems seriously. “[Environmental issues] did in the Anastasi and the Norse [civilizations]; they can do us in today,” he told the audience. He also discussed how the gradual downhill slide of complex societies operating non-sustainably usually brings on a quick collapse. “When the end comes, when the collapse comes, it will probably be fast,” he said. “[Take] the economic collapse of a couple of weeks ago. The experts did not predict that there was going to be an economic collapse … But, in retrospect, it was a no-brainer because the United States was spending money faster than it was taking money in … So, the collapse itself should have been predictable, although the timing of the collapse was unpredictable. “Similarly, in the environmental area, today we are operating our environment unsustainably. We’re consuming resources faster than we are producing new resources. It’s certain that this cannot go on for long. And if we don’t change our ways, it’s certain that there will be an environmental collapse. What one can’t predict is when that environmental collapse is going to come.” Diamond, who earned his A.B. degree from Harvard College and Ph.D. from Cambridge University in England, has received some of the world’s most prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, the Conservation medals of the Zoological Society of San Diego and the National Medal of Science, America’s highest civilian award in science. He is also the author of two other bestselling books, “The Third Chimpanzee” and “Why Is Sex Fun?”
Revolving around the themes of both books, Diamond’s talk drew an estimated 1,000 people to campus. The renowned scientist drew standing-room-only crowds in Galileo Hall and nearby Beckman Hall, which was set up with a live video feed.
Copyright 2012 Harvey Mudd College