The Ends of the World as We Know Them: The Unites States is seemingly at the height of its power, but how long will our ascendancy last? (Jared Diamond, 1/01/05, NY Times)
When it comes to historical collapses, five groups of interacting factors have been especially important: the damage that people have inflicted on their environment; climate change; enemies; changes in friendly trading partners; and the society's political, economic and social responses to these shifts. That's not to say that all five causes play a role in every case. Instead, think of this as a useful checklist of factors that should be examined, but whose relative importance varies from case to case.
