Overwhelming the Earth
"Rapa Nui (Easter Island) was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by human beings. First reached by Polynesians 1,500 years ago, this small island 3,200 kilometers west of South America supported a sophisticated agricultural society by sixteenth century.
Easter Island has a semiarid climate, but it was ameliorated by a verdant forest that trapped and held water. Its 7,000 people raised crops and chickens, caught fish, and lived in small villages. The Easter islanders legacy can be seen in massive 8-meter-high obsidian statues that were hauled across the island using tree trunks as rollers.
By the time European settlers reached Easter Island in the seventeenth century, these stone statues, known as "ahu", were the only remnants of a once impressive civilization - one that had collapsed in just a few decades.
As reconstructed by archaeologists, the demise of this society was triggered by the decimation of its limited resource base. As the Easter Island human population expanded, more and more land cleared for crops, while the remaining trees were harvested for fuel and to move the "ahu" into place. The lack of wood made it impossible to build fishing boats or houses, reducing an important source of protein and forcing the people to move into caves. The loss of forests also led to soil erosion, further diminishing food supplies. As pressures grew, armed conflicts broke out among villages, slavery became common, and some even resorted to cannibalism to survive.
As an isolated territory that could nut turn elsewhere for sustenance once its own resources ran out, Easter Island presents a particularly stark picture of what can happen when a human economy expands in the face of limited resources.
For us, the key limits as we approach the twenty-first century are fresh water, forests, soils, pre-desertic lands, oceanic fisheries, biological diversity and the global atmosphere..."
(State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute)
Easter Island has a semiarid climate, but it was ameliorated by a verdant forest that trapped and held water. Its 7,000 people raised crops and chickens, caught fish, and lived in small villages. The Easter islanders legacy can be seen in massive 8-meter-high obsidian statues that were hauled across the island using tree trunks as rollers.
By the time European settlers reached Easter Island in the seventeenth century, these stone statues, known as "ahu", were the only remnants of a once impressive civilization - one that had collapsed in just a few decades.
As reconstructed by archaeologists, the demise of this society was triggered by the decimation of its limited resource base. As the Easter Island human population expanded, more and more land cleared for crops, while the remaining trees were harvested for fuel and to move the "ahu" into place. The lack of wood made it impossible to build fishing boats or houses, reducing an important source of protein and forcing the people to move into caves. The loss of forests also led to soil erosion, further diminishing food supplies. As pressures grew, armed conflicts broke out among villages, slavery became common, and some even resorted to cannibalism to survive.
As an isolated territory that could nut turn elsewhere for sustenance once its own resources ran out, Easter Island presents a particularly stark picture of what can happen when a human economy expands in the face of limited resources.
For us, the key limits as we approach the twenty-first century are fresh water, forests, soils, pre-desertic lands, oceanic fisheries, biological diversity and the global atmosphere..."
(State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute)