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Soil
One of the greatest disasters of the past several hundred years has been the destruction of precious topsoils. For our readers who have limited agricultural background or knowledge, we hope you understand that the creation of topsoil takes decades if not centuries. With the depletion of topsoils, crop yields decline, and then more marginal soil is forced into production. The vicious cycle continues until socio-environmental collapse. Again, Jared Diamond has provided an accessible work on the subject and has shown the connection between agricultural decline and ultimately a rapid social collapse.