All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable use. Jared Diamond Read Quote
Take air quality in the United States today: It’s about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there are now more people driving more cars. Jared Diamond Read Quote
The United States has long thought of itself as the land of infinite plenty, and historically we did have abundant resources. But now we are gradually exhausting our fisheries, our topsoil, our water. On top of that, we’re coming to the end of world resources. Jared Diamond Read Quote
The main thing that gives me hope is the media. We have radio, TV, magazines, and books, so we have the possibility of learning from societies that are remote from us, like Somalia. We turn on the TV and see what blew up in Iraq or we see conditions in Afghanistan. Jared Diamond Read Quote
Eurasia ended up with the most domesticated animal species in part because it’s the world’s largest land mass and offered the most wild species to begin with. Jared Diamond Read Quote
Although native Africans domesticated some plants in the Sahel and in Ethiopia and in tropical West Africa, they acquired valuable domestic animals only later, from the north. Jared Diamond Read Quote
Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction – namely, complete isolation from other humans for 10,000 years. Jared Diamond Read Quote
Human societies vary in lots of independent factors affecting their openness to innovation. Jared Diamond Read Quote
We’re uncomfortable about considering history as a science. It’s classified as a social science, which is considered not quite scientific. Jared Diamond Read Quote
