Can we avoid the fate of the Mayans?

by kyle simourd

Jared Diamond Video: With Climate Change, Americans Have Unique Chance to Avoid the Fate of Ancient Maya
[Via Climate Progress]

DIAMOND: There are so many societies in which the elite made decisions that were good for themselves in the short run and ruined themselves and societies in the long run….

Similarly, in the United States at present, the policies being pursued by too many wealthy people and decision makers are ones that — as in the case of the Mayan kings — preserve their interests in the short run but are disastrous in the long run.

Jared Diamond, author of the bestseller “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” has a fascinating video discussion of climate change.  Below is the video and a blog post on it by WWF’s Nick Sundt.

In a new video, Jared Diamond talks about climate change, drawing parallels between modern Americans and the Classic southern lowland Maya – who failed to take the actions that might have avoided the collapse of their civilization. However, unlike the Maya, we have the “unique opportunity” and capacity to “learn from remote places and to learn from places remote in time,” Diamond says. “And among all the things that might incline me towards pessimism, that is the biggest thing that in the end inclines me towards optimism.”

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He thinks we will eventually make the changes we need to because we will have the evidence of other places in time and in distance that did not make the right changes.

I think it all depends on just how much real control over decisions the elite maintain. Until that level of control is broken or diminished, we will continue on the Mayan’s path.