Visualizzazione post con etichetta NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Mostra tutti i post

11.1.11

COLLAPSE: download Jared Diamond & National Geographic (book+video)

How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive?


Diamond Jared, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Viking Press, 2005.
trad. ita
Diamond Jared, Collasso: Come le società scelgono di morire o vivere, Einaudi Editore, 2005.

"This book employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute. My previous book (Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies), had applied the comparative method to the opposite problem: the differing rates of buildup of human societies on different continents over the last 13,000 years. In the present book focusing on collapses rather than buildups, I compare many past and present societies that differed with respect to environmental fragility, relations with neighbors, political institutions, and other "input" variables postulated to influence a society's stability. The "output" variables that I examine are collapse or survival, and form of the collapse if collapse does occur. By relating output variables to input variables, I aim to tease out the influence of possible input variables on collapses."
(Jared Diamond)


National Geographic Channel – Collapse

The National Geographic Channel looks 200 years into the future in Collapse, based on author Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, to examine how current habits might affect humans’ ability to survive. This documentary examines how relationships among current methods could lead to human extinction. Shortages of land, water, and energy could potentially propel civilization to collapse; choices such as sustainable, local farming and organic practices are highlighted as ways to ensure life on Earth continues.

12.12.10

download National Geographic & Jared Diamond (travel book+video)

Understanding the roots of global inequality

Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
Why didn’t the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

BOOK

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years, W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.

trad ita: Jared Diamond, Armi, Acciaio e Malattie, Einaudi editore, 2005.

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (including North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while attempting to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. 

"Guns, Germs and Steel lays a foundation for understanding human history, which makes it fascinating in its own right. Because it brilliantly describes how chance advantages can lead to early success in a highly competitive environment, it also offers useful lessons for the business world and for people interested in why technologies succeed."—Bill Gates

VIDEO
National Geographic – Guns, Germs and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a thrilling ride through the elemental forces which have shaped our world and which continue to shape our future.

Episodes:
Part 1: Out Of Eden 
Part 2: Conquest
Part 3 : Into The Tropics