What Jared Diamond thinks about sustainability
Geographer at the University of California, Los Angeles; author of Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), Collapse (2005) and Upheaval (2019).
Jared Diamond did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Only Jared Diamond on sustainability. See everyone on sustainability
5 dated positions, c. 2005 to 2008, in their own words. Our reading of what Jared Diamond has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsWhat really matters is total world consumption, the sum of all local consumptions, which is the product of local population times the local per capita consumption rate.
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Our readingPromising developing countries a first-world lifestyle is an impossible promise, a cruel hoax.
Their wordsThis promise is impossible, a cruel hoax: we are having difficulty supporting a first-world lifestyle even now for only one billion people.
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Our readingRich countries will soon consume less, willingly or not, because present rates are unsustainable.
Their wordsNevertheless, whether we get there willingly or not, we shall soon have lower consumption rates, because our present rates are unsustainable.
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Our readingRun sustainably, the world's fisheries could yield at maximum historical rates indefinitely.
Their wordsIf we were to operate all fisheries sustainably, we could extract fish from the oceans at maximum historical rates and carry on indefinitely.
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Our readingWorld society is on a non-sustainable course
Their wordsOur world society is presently on a non-sustainable course, and any of our 12 problems of non-sustainability that we have just summarized would suffice to limit our lifestyle within the next several decades.
↗Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2005)archive.org All 3 from this book