A Tale of Two Farms

After reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed “A Tale of Two Farms” by Jared Diamond in the Colloquium Reader, there were a couple quotes that really stood out to me.  The first quote that really caught my attention was “Will modern technology solve our problems, or is it creating new problems faster than it solves old ones?”  I think that this quote brings up a very interesting point on whether we are inventing new technology faster than we can even keep up with.  Most people just assume that the better technology, the better off we are on all fronts but that is not the case.  Every time a new technology is discovered, that just opens the door for 10 more different things.   While I think technology is very beneficial, I think it would be more beneficial to master what we have discovered before moving on to the next thing.  

The next quote that really interested me was “Hence the risk arises that, if your trade partner becomes weakened for any reason (including environmental damage) and can no longer supply the essential import or the cultural tie, your own society may become weakened as a result.”  People just assume that the U.S. could survive on our own, but that is just not the case.  We rely on other countries around the world for various items.  Without certain trade partners, we may not be able to obtain some things that we do not already have here in the U.S.  For example, we rely greatly on importing a lot of our oil because it is not very abundant here.  If for some reason we lost one of our oil trade partners, the economy here would have a direct negative affect.  This is why it is very important that we keep a good relationship with all of our trade partners and continue to do whatever it takes to keep these relationships strong.  

The last quote that had a lasting impression on me was “My view is that, if environmentalists aren’t willing to engage with big businesses, which are among the most powerful forces in the modern world, it won’t be possible to solve the world’s environmental problems.”  I do not think most environmentalists understand how much some of these big companies can help them out.  The one thing that allows you to get your point across or to make something happen is money and these big businesses have plenty of it.  Just by teaming up with one of these companies, the environmentalists would have more success than they could have ever imagined.  Both of the parties involved must put their differences aside and team up to accomplish something for the greater good.