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ecological collapse For several years I have been whingeing that this book should be written. Now it has, hot off the presses - January 2005. I have read about half of the book so far. Usually, I wait until I have completed a book and mulled it awhile before commenting on and reviewing it. However, I think the lessons of this book are so important that I am going to recommend it without waiting my usual process. This book, Collapse, is ponderous at times, but it is vital that the data gets `out there' as soon as possible. Collapse is at least good enough to serve the purpose and that is enough for me lacking anything else since the rapidly dating A green history of the world. One month later! While Jared Diamond does refer in passing to specific industries from his own knowledge, such as oil, mining and forestry, his discussion of the nuts and bolts of ecology is much more limited than is Ponting's. The strength of the book is in the collecting together of large numbers of case studies of previous collapsing societies and societies under stress. Several reviews have waxed lyrical about the 100 of 550 pages that are devoted to difficulties in Norse lands. As far as I am concerned, the book would have been better without it. Diamond writes in lifeless, tedious prose, and struggling through the book I regard as hard work. In fact, he could have lost yet another hundred pages to great advantage. Nevertheless, as with so much poorly written science popularisation, this is probably the best you have at the moment. It does not, however, fully surplant Ponting's work, reviewed below. In summary, the prime value of this book is in the case studies, which fortunately comprise the bulk of the book. Unless you are coming new to this area, better to regard this work as a data source, than to bring expectations of theoretical insight to the joy of reading it.