Diamond or cubic zirconia?

Our friend Steve Hayward frequently writes about environmental issues when he’s not working on the second volume of his invaluable Age of Reagan. I infer that Steve has been plowing his way through Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed while wearing his environmentalist’s hat. In a post over at No Left Turns, Steve has spotted a passage in Diamond’s book that curiously echoes the fabricated statement Bill Moyers put into the mouth of James Watt: “Jared Diamond, fabulist?”