Superorganism by Dr. Peter Corning

Eco-suicide is far easier to do and more predictable than we had once thought.  Indeed, our entire history as a species provides a cautionary tale.  The archeological record is littered with examples of ancient human societies that have vanished – many of them as victims of ecological disasters – from the very first city, Ur, to the Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Old Kingdom Egypt, the Hittites, Minoans, Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, Olmecs, Teotihuacan, the Anasazi, the Carthaginians, the Khmer Empire, and others.