# Quote — Jared Diamond, Collapse

> If the Easter Islanders couldn't solve their milder local problems in the past, how can the modern world hope to solve its big global problems? People who get depressed at such thoughts often then ask me, “Jared, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the world’s future?” I answer, “I am a cautious optimist.” By that, I mean that, on the one hand, I acknowledge the seriousness of the problems facing us. If we don’t make a determined effort to solve them, and if we don’t succeed at that effort, the world as a whole within the next few decades will face a declining standard of living, or perhaps something worse. That’s the reason why I decided to devote most of my career efforts at this stage of my life to convincing people that our problems have to be taken seriously and won’t go away otherwise. On the other hand, we shall be able to solve our problems – if we choose to do so.

- Author: [Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md)
- Book: [Collapse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse.md)
- Page: 521
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed_(2005)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/if-the-easter

## More from this book

> My hope in writing this book has been that enough people will choose to profit from that opportunity to make a difference.

p. 525 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/my-hope-in-writing.md)

> Remember that impact is the product of two factors: population multiplied times impact per person.

p. 524 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/remember-that-impact.md)

> What are the choices that we must make if we are now to succeed, and not to fail? [...] Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial to tipping their outcomes towards success or failure: long-term planning, and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection, we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives. One of those choices has depended on the courage to practice long-term thinking, and to make bold, courageous, anticipatory decisions at a time when problems have become perceptible but before they have reached crisis proportions. [...] The other crucial choice illuminated by the past involves the courage to make painful decisions about values. Which of the values that formerly served a society well can continue to be maintained under new changed circumstances? Which of these treasured values must instead be jettisoned and replaced with different approaches?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/collapse/what-are-the.md)