Jared Diamond's 2004 study of why past societies collapsed — examining Easter Island, the Anasazi, Norse Greenland, and others — and identifying common patterns (environmental damage, climate change, enemies, trade partners, societal response) that explain civilizational collapse.
Creates the comparative framework for civilizational collapse — Diamond's five-point framework for why societies fail (damage to environment, climate change, enemies, withdrawal of trade partners, political/cultural failure to respond) has been widely applied to contemporary environmental challenges.
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