At the end of this great primer on Collapse at the TED conference, Diamond flatly explains how our current course of living is non-sustainable. Diamond explains that, “about a dozen ticking time bombs with fuses not longer than 50 years exist: water, soil, climate change, invasive species, population, toxics” all of which are scheduled to go off and cause the collapse of our civilization.

How will these problems work themselves out? Watch the video for a surprisingly optimistic answer: