Jared Diamond

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Guns, Germs and Steel

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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Jared Diamond -- author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse -- is the epitome of the celebrity scientist. His lectures routinely draw thousands of rapt listeners who walk away with a deeper and more nuanced view of the development of human civilization and the continued gulf between rich and poor in the global community.

Diamond's lectures tackle the giant questions: why do some societies thrive and prosper, while others shrivel and die; how can humanity maximize the opportunity for human happiness, while saving the planet from ecological ruin and collapse; are there lessons we can learn from other great civilizations who have grown to world dominance? The huge crowds that attend his talks are testament to his reputation as a great speaker -- to his ability to spellbind an audience with insights into the most important issues we face.

Currently a professor of Geography at UCLA, Diamond is also the author of two other bestselling books, The Third Chimpanzee and Why Is Sex Fun? He has received some of the world’s most prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, the Conservation medals of the Zoological Society of San Diego, and, the National Medal of Science, America’s highest civilian award in science.

Dr. Jared Diamond Speech Topics

Business, The Environment and The Future of Human Societies

When conditions are altered, smart business leaders adapt. Even when those changes challenge long-held beliefs and core values, smart businesses will change—they will look for more efficient processes, source out new markets, or, in some cases, take on a whole new strategic direction. But what is the appropriate response when the changes are as big, far-reaching and potentially devastating as climate change, environmental degradation and societal collapse?

In this compelling and forward-looking talk, Dr. Jared Diamond explores the current and future state of human societies and the role that business can and should play in ensuring that the prosperity we currently enjoy is still here for future generations. One of the world's great minds and most successful non-fiction authors, Dr. Diamond is uniquely able to weave in the inter-connected strands of ecology, history, anthropology, commerce, group psychology, and geography to describe the problems we collectively face, and the ways in which we can respond to them.

This talk is not anti-business. Rather, it is a big-picture discussion of the human condition from a Pulitzer-Prize-winner who has the scientific credentials to identify and describe the damage we are inflicting on our environment—and the resulting effects on human societies—as well as the vision to explore the ways in which we can act to address these problems before it's too late. Dr. Diamond describes individuals and societies that, when confronted with crises or changing conditions, have had the courage to selectively reappraise their core values and were thereby able to survive; he also describes others that have failed. He includes concrete examples of businesses that have adapted successfully to changing circumstances—those companies that have continued both to be profitable and to attract more customers and clients while taking on a much more pro-active role of environmental stewardship. This is a talk that will stimulate discussion and promote awareness at the highest levels.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

The ruined cities, temples, and statues of history's great, vanished societies (Easter Island, Anasazi, the Lowland Maya, Angkor Wat, Great Zimbabwe and many more) are the birthplace of endless romantic mysteries. But these disappearances offer more than idle conjecture: the social collapses were due in part to the types of environmental problems that beset us today.

Yet many societies facing similar problems do not collapse. What makes certain societies especially vulnerable? Why didn't their leaders perceive and solve their environmental problems? What can we learn from their fates, and what can we do differently today to help us avoid their fates?

Guns, Germs and Steel

Dr. Jared Diamond's blockbuster bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel won him a Pulitzer Prize and a place as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. His lecture of the same name takes audiences on an intellectual odyssey that challenges our assumptions about the rise and fall of civilizations. Dr. Diamond asks and answers a very simple question: Why did Europeans and Asians conquer the indigenous peoples of Africa, the New World, Australia and the South Pacific, instead of being conquered themselves?

The answer touches on technology, genetics, genocide, zebras, pestilence, weather, geography, and luck. It also unconditionally refutes racist dogma that claims biological superiority for Eurasians. Geographical accidents, not intelligence, seem to be the reasons for Eurasia's success. Audiences will walk away with profound insights into how we got where we are and what this may mean for where we are going. Entering an intellectual maelstrom, they will be discussing and debating these ideas for months to come.

Globalization: For Better or For Worse

Until September 11th of 2001, we equated globalization mostly with 'us' sending 'them' our modern accomplishments: the Internet and Coca-Cola. Now, we are painfully aware of the unpredictable and reciprocal nature of global contact: AIDS, terrorism, unstoppable illegal immigration and diabetes epidemics. What will globalization really bring the world, and how can we minimize its negative impact while continuing to benefit from the advantages of shared cultures and resources?

Globalization means that remote societies can no longer collapse without influencing the rest of the world (as with Easter Island and the Anasazi societies of many centuries ago,) and we are the first society in history with the chance to develop using a comprehensive contemporary and historical understanding of our collective path.

VIDEOS

BOOKS

Collapse

Guns, Germs and Steel

ARTICLES

"What's Your Consumption Factor?" - New York Times

Review of Collapse - New Yorker

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