Easter Island

Could This Happen to the Whole Planet?

Island Geography• Located in the Pacific Ocean –27 degrees south of the

equator –2200 miles off the coast of

Chile• Sixty-three square miles • 3 extinct volcanoes

Island Inhabitants Arrived• Easter Island are of Polynesian

stock –(DNA extracts from skeletons

have confirmed this)–Most inhabitants from the

Marquesas or Society islands, • Arrived as early as 318 AD

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Ecology before Islanders arrived

• Island was forested• teeming with land birds• productive breeding site for seabirds in the Polynesia region.

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Culture

Culture• Most famous features

are enormous stone statues called moai– 288 of which once

stood• Estimated that 50 to

150 people were needed to drag them across the countryside– sleds and rollers made

from the island's trees.

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What Happened?• The resource needs of

the growing population had outpace the island's capacity to renew itself ecologically. – 1400s the forests had

been entirely cut– rich ground cover eroded

away– springs had dried up– vast flocks of birds

disappeared.

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– no logs to build canoes for fishing

– depleted bird and wildlife food sources

– declining crop yields because of the erosion of good soil

– nutritional intake of the people plummeted

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Culture Collapse• First famine then

cannibalism• Island could not feed the

chiefs, bureaucrats & priests – triggered a cultural

collapse.• 1700-population dropped

between 1/4 and 1/10th its former number

• Many statues were toppled during “clan wars” of the 1600 and 1700’s.

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• The social and cultural collapse continued following the arrival of the Europeans.

• European slavers – raped and murdered

the islanders, – introduced small pox

and other diseases– brutally removed the

natives to mainland South America

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Could this be our Future?

• Easter Island's treeless landscape is perhaps the most crucial piece of evidence – theory of ecocideIs our planet

committing ecocide?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfbQA-Krx9Q&feature=related

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• Could the same thing that happened to Easter Island happen to the whole planet Earth?

• Are we committing ecocide?

• What are your thoughts and concerns?

• What are 3 more questions you have about Easter island?