"Sleeping Into the Future" vs. "Maya Collapses"

In The Long Emergency by James Kunstler, there is a chapter, “Sleepwalking Into the Future”, which shares similarities and differences with another reading that I recently read. The reading that I feel compares and contrast to “Sleeping Into the Future” is “Maya Collapses” from Collapse by Jared Diamond. In comparison, Kunstler addressees the ideas of what he thinks will happen in a Long Emergency, or essentially the events leading into a collapse, while Diamond addresses the reality of those ideas. For example, Diamond argues that the climate changes in Maya contributed to Maya’s collapse. Whereas, Kunstler stated “ whether the cause of global warming is human activity…..this does not alter the fact that it is having a swift and tremendous impacts on civilizations and that it effects will contribute greatly to the Long Emergency,” (Kunstler, 9). Global warming impacts the society’s environment, which affects the people and causing a human struggle. In Maya, the land became limited due to global warming. It caused major cuts in their food supply that contributed to Maya’s collapse. Many of these types of similarities occurred within the two texts. It is apparent by looking at the ideas that people will experience severe losses, population hypergrowth, global warming, globalism, and trauma of a Long Emergency compares to Maya’s reality.

However, the two texts also differ from each other. Their major difference is that one is based on belief, rather than an actual event. Kunstler states “I will concern myself with what I believe is happening, what will happen..,” (Kunstler, 1). The realities of his beliefs are not in existence. Maya lived through the Long Emergency and collapsed.