¶ … Americans: Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization" by Jared Diamond.
With a BA from Harvard University and PhD from Cambridge University, as well as a vast amount of works published, professor Diamond uses his extensive knowledge as well as his equally extensive field work and research to put on the table what he found disturbing about the fall by self-destruction of ancient civilizations, among which, he focuses on that of the Mayas.
The author opens his essay with Percy Shelly's poem, Ozymandias, using poetry to appeal to the reader's sensibilities. By creating a sad, hopeless atmosphere, he is setting the tone in anticipation of the rest of the essay. His choice for the poem of an incurable romantic as Shelley, may seem odd for the opening of an essay about the environment. However, it strikes several cords and thus opens the reader's heart instead of just one's mind. This approach is also suggesting that he is strongly attached to this topic, instead of keeping the calm, cold uninvolved attitude of the scientist. He is a scientist, but he will use hos knowledge only to provide support for his ideas and conclusions. He is further showing his strong involvement to the subject by using the first person pronoun: "our politicians." By using the plural, he is also making any reader an accomplice to his endeavors.
Diamond unequivocally blames the decline of great ancient civilizations such as: the Anasazi, the Kahokia, the Greenland Norse, the statue builders from Eastern Island, the Angkor Wat in Cambodia and a few others to the depletion of their resources. He places the moment of greatness of such civilizations very close to the moment when their fall begins. His tone d dismissive, he does not let any space for interpretation. In order to make sure the reader got the message correctly, he immediately jumps to our contemporary society, pointing to the fact that his exploration of history aims at drawing the alarm for the way the world evolves today. In a way, he is going against the stream of voices that repeat endlessly and hopelessly: History is doomed to repeat itself.
2nd Article: Children in the Woods, by Barry Lopez
An academic and full time writer, berry Lopez wrote extensively for audiences who are dedicated to nature, or just seek to expand their knowledge about the natural world that surrounds them. This essay's title is both metaphorical as well as practical. The author will talk about his actual experience going exploring with children in the woods, but this is rather the pretext for his approach. This leads to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his "Discourse on Inequality": "he first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody" (Rousseau, 1754)
The first thing that strikes between the Lopez' and Diamond's essays, although they appear to be speaking of quite different things, is their similarity in thinking: the message is loud and clear. Diamond just uses different ways over and over again to say in many words that the world is ours to take care of, protect, share and pass on to our future generations. His method of saying this is by example. As mentioned above, he chooses alarm system, the history that we know.
While Diamond is using logical deductions, evidence from scientific theories, studies and researches to prove his point, Lopez is apparently keeping away from such methods, emphasizing a different kind of communication....
Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, explains how he went from being a biologist, studying birds in New Guinea, to developing an entirely new theory on the evolution of human societies. It began in 1972, when a native New Guinean asked him "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea,
The Italian cities prospered from the transport of Crusaders. Trade passed through Italian hands to Western Europe at a large profit that created a commercial power, which served as the economic base for the Italian Renaissance (History World Int., 2007). More recently, organized religion led al-quaeda to fly two passenger jets into the world trade centre, because those involved were promised eternal life after death. Originally, organized religion united society,
9. Wild almonds contain cyanide: a person can die from eating only a few dozen of them (Diamond, p. 114). They taste bitter due to the presence of amygdalin, the precursor to cyanide. The chemical serves as a defense mechanism for the almond, deterring animals (and people) from eating them and better ensuring the propagation of the almond plant because the nut is its seed. As Diamond points out, if
What are the symbols of group identity in the United States? Are they good or bad in your opinion? Symbols of group identity often pertain to foodstuffs (such as the critical evolution of wheat, corn, and the animals consumed) and cultural symbols such as literacy. What one eats, where one lives, and how one expresses one's self-reflects one's cultural associations -- whether a society was a hunter-gatherer or agrarian in ancient
Then, in 1000 a.D., Polynesian farmers colonized New Zeeland -- the group would break into two tribes, the Maori and the Moriori, who would later on collide (Diamond). In 1500 a.D., Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil and claimed it as a territory for his country. The period also represented an ascension in arts, as numerous works, such as sculptures and cathedrals, had been completed. Books were being printed;
Till the period up to 11,000 BC every individuals remained Stone Age hunters/gatherers. Nearly that time, the roads of growth of human societies on various continents started to move away in a large scale. (Guns, Germs, and Steel- the Fates of Human Societies: (www.2think.org) During that period, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers comprised the total human population, a big segregation happened in the proportion that the human societies progressed. In
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