Collapse expert Luke Kemp says studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today. Worryingly, the signs are worsening.
Great civilisations are not murdered. Instead, they take their own lives. So concluded the historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus A Study of History. It was an exploration of the rise and fall of 28 different civilisations.
He was right in some respects: civilisations are often responsible for their own decline. However, their self-destruction is usually assisted.
Luke Kemp
