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Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond Quotes

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Famous Jared Diamond Quotes

“People often ask, "What is the single most important environmental population problem facing the world today?" A flip answer would be, "The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!”

PeopleWorldImportantProblemWould BeTodayAsksAnswersFocusEnvironmentalPopulationWorld TodayFlipIdentifyingMisguidedPopulation Problem
Book:Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition
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“For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.”

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Book:Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition
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“Besides justifying the transfer of wealth to kleptocrats, institutionalized religion brings two other important benefits to centralized societies. First, shared ideology or religion helps solve the problem of how unrelated individuals are to live together without killing each other—by providing them with a bond not based on kinship. Second, it gives people a motive, other than genetic self-interest, for sacrificing their lives on behalf of others.”

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Author:Jared Diamond
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