"Un but! Vokoun est completement supris!"

I just had a marvelous time watching the Montreal Canadiens top the Nashville Predators, 6-5, in a shootout. The trick was the broadcast the Center Ice feed had was from RDS--the French langauge station. No idea why there was no English feed, but I wanted to see newest Predator Petr Forsberg, and to root against the Preds overtaking the Red Wings in the standings. I could only catch bits an pieces of the commentary, but it was fun nonetheless. And I could read the on-screen promo that some form of food deal was given to fans because the Candiens scored five goals.

Yeah, that French minor was good for something, at least.

Shameful Book Report--Collapse

Collapse is Jared Diamond's followup to Guns, Germs, and Steel, his study of how aspects of geography and speciation have given certain societies advantages over others. In his new work, Diamond examines the fates of societies who stretched their available natural resources, and the ways those societies have either scaled back or continued to their own demise, as well as the whys. He does this from case studies diverse societies, such as Polynesian Easter Island, the Greenland Norse and Inuit, and Native American civilizations in the Southwest.

While these are interesting anthropological investigations in their own right, the book also aims to apply them to ecological issues faced by modern societies, using modern case studies of regions such as Montana and Hispaniola, and industries like mining and petroleum extraction.

It's hard not to find a book like this somewhat depressing. It illustrates societies that overexploited their resources during environmental conditions conducive to expansion, and also couldn't or wouldn't adapt to changes in those environmental conditions. It's hard not to see the same lack of adaptability in our society--including my own lifestyle--and a similar lack of political will in our electorate. However, Diamond makes pains not to be that pessimistic in his conclusions. Although he sees reason for concern, he doesn't think the looming problems are insurmountable.

Partly due to this sense of worry, I didn't find I enjoyed Collapse as much as I did Guns, Germs, and Steel. I didn't find the story or its telling as compelling (though in both cases, Diamond can lapse into lists of facts that can be dry and sometimes repetitive.) I also didn't think the individual stories of societies held the book together as well as the overarching story of human civilization in Diamond's prior work. However it's only in the comparison that this book suffers. Collapse is an interesting look at anthropological stories you may have heard, but not with the most recently learned details. It does a good job of judging societies by their contemporary knowledge and attitudes. Yet, it also shows where these mores failed their societies, and ways in which are modern attitudes may be similar. This is an important read as we face potential tipping points in our modern world.