Indeholder "List of Maps", "Prologue: A Tale of Two Farms", " Two farms", " Collapses, past and present", " Vanished Edens?", " A five-point framework", " Businesses and the environment", " The comparative method", " Plan of the book", "Part One: Modern Montana", "Chapter 1: Under Montana's Big Sky", " Stan Falkow's story", " Montana and me", " Why begin with Montana?", " Montana's economic history", " Mining", " Forests", " Soil", " Water", " Native and non-native species", " Differing visions", " Attitudes towards regulation", " Rick Laible's story", " Chip Pigman's story", " Tim Huls's story", " John Cook's story", " Montana, model of the world", "Part Two: Past Societies", "Chapter 2: Twilight at Easter", "The quarry's mysteries", " Easter's geography and history", " People and food", " Chiefs, clans, and commoners", " Platforms and statues", " Carving, transporting, erecting", " The vanished forest", " Consequences for society", " Europeans and explanations", " Why was Easter fragile?", " Easter as metaphor", "Chapter 3: The Last People Alive: Pitcairn and Henderson Islands", " Pitcairn before the Bounty", " Three dissimilar islands", " Trade", " The movie's ending", "Chapter 4: The Ancient Ones: The Anasazi and Their Neighbors", " Desert farmers", " Tree rings", " Agricultural strategies", " Chaco's problems and packrats", " Regional integration", " Chaco's decline and end", " Chaco's message", "Chapter 5: The Maya Collapses", " Mysteries of lost cities", " The Maya environment", " Maya agriculture", " Maya history", " Copan", " Complexities of collapses", " Wars and droughts", " Collapse in the southern lowlands", " The Maya message", "Chapter 6: The Viking Prelude and Fugues", " Experiments in the Atlantic", " The Viking explosion", " Autocatalysis", " Viking agriculture", " Iron", " Viking chiefs", " Viking religion", " Orkneys, Shetlands, Faeroes", " Iceland's environment", " Iceland's history", " Iceland in context", " Vinland", "Chapter 7: Norse Greenland's Flowering", " Europe's outpost", " Greenland's climate today", " Climate in the past", " Native plants and animals", " Norse settlement", " Farming", " Hunting and fishing", " An integrated economy", " Society", " Trade with Europe", " Self-image", "Chapter 8: Norse Greenland's End", " Introduction to the end", " Deforestation", " Soil and turf damage", " The Inuit's predecessors", " Inuit subsistence", " Inuit/Norse relations", " The end", " Ultimate causes of the end", "Chapter 9: Opposite Paths to Success", " Bottom up, top down", " New Guinea highlands", " Tikopia", " Tokugawa problems", " Tokugawa solutions", " Why Japan succeeded", " Other successes", "Part Three: Modern Societies", "Chapter 10: Malthus in Africa: Rwanda's Genocide", " A dilemma", " Events in Rwanda", " More than ethnic hatred", " Buildup in Kanama", " Explosion in Kanama", " Why it happened", "Chapter 11: One Island, Two Peoples, Two Histories: The Dominican Republic and Haiti", " Differences", " Histories", " Causes of divergence", " Dominican environmental impacts", " Balaguer", " The Dominican environment today", " The future", "Chapter 12: China, Lurching Giant", " China's significance", " Background", " Air, water, soil", " Habitat, species, megaprojects", " Consequences", " Connections", " The future", "Chapter 13: 'Mining' Australia", " Australia's significance", " Soils", " Water", " Distance", " Early history", " Imported values", " Trade and immigration", " Land degradation", " Other environmental problems", " Signs of hope and change", "Part Four: Practical Lessons", "Chapter 14: Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions?", " Road map for success", " Failure to anticipate", " Failure to perceive", " Rational bad behavior", " Disastrous values", " Other irrational failures", " Unsuccessful solutions", " Signs of hope", "Chapter 15: Big Businesses and the Environment: Different Conditions, Different Outcomes", " Resource extraction", " Two oil fields", " Oil company motives", " Hardrock mining operations", " Mining company motives", " Differences among mining companies", " The logging industry", " Forest Stewardship Council", " The seafood industry", " Businesses and the public", "Chapter 16: The World as a Polder: What Does It All Mean to Us Today?", " Introduction", " The most serious problems", " If we don't solve them ...", " Life in Los Angeles", " One-liner objections", " The past and the present", " Reasons for hope", "Acknowledgments", "Further Readings", "Index", "Illustration Credits".

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