local+ecological+collapses

back Do you think "local" ecological collapses are, as Diamond does, of great concern to the global community?

Local ecological collapses can affect the international community greatly. If a place that the world relies on for a certain resource, for example, wood or oil, goes into a collapse a major amount of that resource will be lost and the global community may need to take actions to counteract the loss of the resource.

In some ways i agree with statement but when it comes to Easter Island i don't. Because Easter Island was so isolated, their problems had no effect on neighboring countries and its not as if the Island had any major resources that the world wouldn't have survived if they couldn't get it anymore. So basically, it really depends on where the country or island is in the world and whether or not that country made a extreme impact on the world during the time for that country to cause a "concern to the global community"

I agree that local ecological collapses affect the internaional community, but not to a GREAT extent. For example, with the war in Iraq and the falling of that society, a couple ways that it has affected the U.S. includes increased gas prices, family members joining the army, increased security in airports etc. Certain collapses can affect different parts of the international community but not to essentially everybody. Take Easter Island for another example. How did that collapse affect our lives here in China? Or anywhere else for that matter. The affect of the collapse depends enormously on that societies ties and connections with other countries. Easter Island was isolated and made little impact on anywhere else in the world.

The collapse of Easter may not have affected any certain part of the world at that particular time, but now as we learn more about the collapse, we are impacted by the event. In the last paragraph of the reading, “Twilight at Easter,” it explains how the collapse could be seen as a metaphor to our future. We can somewhat imagine how much damage would be done to our society by just comparing it to Easter Island.

I definitely agree that local ecological collapses are of great concern to the global community because if an environmental problem such as global warming is the cause of a collapse then this can easily mean that another country is likely to be affected by this problem as it is a global environmental problem. When a local collapse for an environmental reason just happens, it will inevitably create panic and be a cause for concern as it serves as a warning that this too could happen to any other country in the world.