Jared Diamond

In Jared Diamond's follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?

Vaikka ihmisen geeneistä 98 prosenttia on samoja kuin simpanssilla, lajimme on kehittynyt täysin ainutlaatuiseksi. Tässä teoksessa Jared Diamond tutkii, miten tämä alle kahden prosentin ero geeneissä on johtanut siihen, että juuri ihminen kehitti kulttuurit ja uskonnot, monimutkaisen kielen, luovan taiteen ja oppineen tieteen, mutta samanaikaisesti keksi keinot tuhota kaikki saavutuksensa ja itsensäkin hetkessä. Kolmas simpanssi on klassikon maineen saanut käänteentekevä, viihdyttävä ja ajoittain pelottava selvitys ainutlaatuisesta ja loistavasta ihmiseläimestä. Jared Diamond on fysiologian ja maantieteen professori University of California at Los Angelesissa ja ulkomainen akateemikko Suomen akatemiassa. Kolmas Simpanssi on hänen ihmiskuntaa ja sen vaiheita käsittelevän teossarjan kolmas, ihmisen evoluutiota käsittelevä osa, jonka aikaskaala on viisi miljoonaa vuotta. Kaksi aikaisemmin suomeksi ilmestynyttä teosta ovat Tykit, taudit ja teräs ja Romahdus.

Uhkaako kulttuureja romahdus? Onko selkeitä syitä, miksi Angkor Vatin rauniot ovat autiot, mayakaupungit peittyivät viidakkoon ja Pääsiäissaarta vartioivat salaperäiset patsaat? Mikä aiheutti ne rakentaneiden kulttuurien tuhon? Tässä teoksessa Jared Diamond esittää globaalin teesin, joka perustuu historiallisiin tapaustutkimuksiin. Kulkemalla esihistoriallisista Pääsiäissaaren ja mayojen kulttuureista historiallisiin Grönlannin viikinkeihin ja nykyiseen Ruandaan tämä teos etsii romahduksen syitä. Se myös testaa näitä syitä nykyisiin Haitiin, Australiaan ja Kiinaan. Diamond hahmottelee romahduksen kulun pääpiirteet. Hän kertoo, mitä tapahtuu kun haaskaamme luonnonvaramme, emme välitä ympäristön viesteistä, kun lisäännymme liian nopeasti ja hakkaamme metsämme. Hänen keskeiset romahdukseen vaikuttavat tekijänsä ovat ympäristövauriot, ilmastonmuutos, nopea väestön kasvu, epävakaat kauppakumppanit ja vihollisten paineet. Olennaista kuitenkin on, että kaikki yhteiskunnat eivät ole romahtaneet, vaan osa löysi ongelmiinsa ratkaisut ja menestyi. Yhteiskunta valitsee tuhon tai menestyksen omilla päätöksillään. Millaisia taloudellisia, sosiaalisia ja poliittisia valintoja meidän on tehtävä, jotta globaali maailmamme ei romahtaisi? Jared Diamond on maantieteen ja fysiologian professori Kalifornian yliopistossa Los Angelesissa ja Suomen akatemian ulkomainen akateemikko. Hänen edellinen teoksensa Tykit, taudit ja teräs käsittelee kultuurien nousua.

Birds have long held a unique dual role as a model group for scientists and as the focus of birders' passionate quests. Despite centuries of observation, each year brings the discovery and description of several entirely new avian species and hundreds of other taxonomic "splits" or "lumps" based on DNA data. In this arena of continual and increasing taxonomic change, The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World is a compendium of the more than 9,800 species of birds recognized by the scientific and birding communities. This completely revised sixth edition incorporates hundreds of updates since the last edition. In taxonomic sequence, it provides the scientific and English name of each species and a description of the worldwide range of each species and subspecies. The most established resource on the taxonomy and biogeography of birds for the world birding community, The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World is the official world checklist of the American Birding Association (ABA) and is used as the authoritative reference in the birding competitions and listing activities of this preeminent North American organization for serious birders. • Comprehensive indexes with all taxa listed by English and scientific names • Tables and maps showing the world distribution of total bird species and endemics by geographic area, which will be of special interest to conservationists • Space to record the location and date of individual sightings, providing the user with a personalized ornithological journal

Wie sich der Mensch innerhalb kurzer Zeit von einer Säugetierart unter vielen zu einem Eroberer der Welt aufschwang; und wie wir die Fähigkeit erwarben, all jenen Fortschritt über Nacht auszulöschen. In diesem mehrfach ausgezeichneten Buch erklärt Jared Diamond den Menschen und seine Fähigkeiten aus seiner Abstammung als 'dritter Schimpanse'.

"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" av Jared Diamond är en banbrytande utforskning av de faktorer som formade mänsklig historia. Från geografi till biologi avslöjar Diamond krafterna bakom samhällsutveckling och erbjuder en tankeväckande analys av vårt gemensamma förflutna.

Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life even more intriguing and important than accounts of dinosaurs and glaciers. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be. It is a work rich in dramatic revelations that will fascinate readers even as it challenges conventional wisdom.

To us humans the sex lives of many animals seem weird. In fact, by comparison with all the other animals, we are the ones with the weird sex lives. How did that come to be? Just count our bizarre ways. We are the only social species to insist on carrying out sex privately. Stranger yet, we have sex at any time, even when the female can't be fertilized (for example, because she is already pregnant, post-menopausal, or between fertile cycles). A human female doesn't know her precise time of fertility and certainly doesn't advertise it to human males by the striking colour changes, smells, and sounds used by other female mammals. Why do we differ so radically in these and other important aspects of our sexuality from our closest ancestor, the apes? Why does the human female, virtually alone among mammals go through menopause? Why does the human male stand out as one of the few mammals to stay (often or usually) with the female he impregnates, to help raise the children that he sired? Why is the human penis so unnecessarily large? There is no one better qualified than Jared Diamond,renowned expert in the fields of physiology and evolutionary biology and award-winning author,to explain the evolutionary forces that operated on our ancestors to make us sexually different. With wit and a wealth of fascinating examples, he explains how our sexuality has been as crucial as our large brains and upright posture in our rise to human status.

'A book of big questions, and big answers' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe?

More than 98% of human genes are shared with two species of chimpanzee. This is a survey of man's life-cycle, culture, sexuality and destructive urges - both towards ourselves and the planet - which explores the ways in which we are uniquely human, yet still influenced by our animal origins.

In recent times, the science of ecology has been rejuvenated and has moved to a central position in biology. This volume contains eighteen original, major contributions by leaders in the field, all associates of the late Robert MacArthur, whose work has stimulated many of the recent developments in ecology. The intellectual ferment of the field is reflected in these papers, which offer new models for ecological processes, new applications of theoretical and quantitative techniques, and new methods for analyzing and interpreting a wide variety of empirical data. The first five chapters explore the evolution of species abundance and diversity (R. Levins, E. Leigh, J. MacArthur, R. May, and M. Rosenzweig). The theory of loop analysis is newly applied to understanding stability of species communities under both mendelian and group selection. Species abundance relations, population fluctuations, and continental patterns of species diversity are illustrated and interpreted theoretically. The next section examines the competitive strategies of optimal resource allocation variously employed in plant life histories (W. Schaffer and M. Gadgil), bird diets and foraging techniques (H. Hespenheide), butterfly seasonal flights (A. Shapiro), and forest succession examined by the theory of Markov processes (H. Horn). The seven chapters of the third section study the structure of species communities, by comparing different natural communities in similar habitats (M. Cody, J. Karr and F. James, E. Pianka, J. Brown, J. Diamond), or by manipulating field situations experimentally (R. Patrick, J. Connell). The analyses are of communities of species as diverse as freshwater stream organisms, desert lizards and rodents, birds, invertebrates, and plants. These studies yield insights into the assembly of continental and insular communities, convergent evolution of morphology and of ecological structure, and the relative roles of predation, competition, and harsh physical conditions in limiting species ranges. Finally, the two remaining chapters illustrate how ecological advances depend on interaction of theory with field and laboratory observations (G. E. Hutchinson), and how ecological studies such as those of this volume may find practical application to conservation problems posed by man's accelerating modification of the natural world (E. Wilson and E. Willis).