jared diamond on economics and sustainability

This is a bit old but I recently returned to it for some reason I can't remember. Link is here, enjoy!

'There is a parallel based on the same fundamental mechanisms of the economic collapse that we’re seeing now and the collapse of past civilisations such as the Maya,' he continues. 'The message is that when you have a large society that consumes lots of resources, that society is likely to collapse once it hits its peak.'

He helps himself to a mouthful of vegetables, bought from the supermarket but as fresh-tasting as if he had dug them from the garden. Chewing slowly, he continues: 'The Maya collapse began in the late 700s, and then simply the most advanced society in the New World collapsed over the course of several decades. They were mostly gone a century later,' he says wistfully. 'When a complex structure like that starts collapsing, you are pulling out dominoes in the whole structure.'