Environment & Energy

XemaSab

(60,212 posts) Tue Dec 10, 2013, 11:33 AM Dec 2013

What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario

(Blah blah Jared Diamond blah)

OK, that's the story we all know, the Collapse story. The new one is very different.

It comes from two anthropologists, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo, from the University of Hawaii. They say, "Rather than a case of abject failure," what happened to the people on Easter Island "is an unlikely story of success." Success? How could anyone call what happened on Easter Island a "success?"

Well, I've taken a look at their book, The Statues That Walked, and oddly enough they've got a case, although I'll say in advance what they call "success" strikes me as just as scary — maybe scarier.

Here's their argument: Professors Hunt and Lipo say fossil hunters and paleobotanists have found no hard evidence that the first Polynesian settlers set fire to the forest to clear land — what's called "large scale prehistoric farming." The trees did die, no question. But instead of fire, Hunt and Lipo blame rats.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/12/09/249728994/what-happened-on-easter-island-a-new-even-scarier-scenario

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario (Original Post) XemaSab Dec 2013 OP

That was quite a story. BlueToTheBone Dec 2013 #1

Fascinating.... dixiegrrrrl Dec 2013 #2

Given the time frame; I'd guess the little ice age. Blanks Dec 2013 #3

I ran across this idea pscot Dec 2013 #4

BlueToTheBone

(3,747 posts)

1. That was quite a story.

Reply to XemaSab (Original post)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 11:42 AM

Dec 2013

It sounds very plausible. We are lazy and like to go with the flow, which sounds as if it will be a toilet flush. And we'll just adjust.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)

2. Fascinating....

Reply to XemaSab (Original post)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 11:54 AM

Dec 2013

glad you posted this, thanks!

[font style=color:#FF0000;]Maybe the universe in NOT expanding
maybe we are just shrinking[/font]

Blanks

(4,835 posts)

3. Given the time frame; I'd guess the little ice age.

Reply to XemaSab (Original post)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 01:13 PM

Dec 2013

Sure rats could have done it, but when you look at other parts of the world (Greenland for instance) and they had a thriving community and in a very short period of time the climate changed dramatically and they literally froze to death.

Now, obviously Easter Island is in a different climate zone, but just a couple of degree variation can disrupt your farm operation - so I'm not really buying the 'rat theory'.

I like climate change as the problem. There's an interesting documentary named 'Guns, Germs and Steel' that talks about how agriculture originated in the 'fertile crescent' and the settlers in that area migrated away when it was 'played out'. When you look at the difference between the way the Eurasian continent is shaped (more land mass the farther south you travel) versus the Americas (a bottleneck in Central America) if you take into account when the great civilizations in America just up and vanished - it looks like that was possibly due to climate change as well.

If people were migrating south because their usual hunting grounds were colder - they would have all ended up in the area of the American continents where it bottlenecked.

I realize that's not necessarily pertinent to Easter Island, but if you've ever grown a garden - last year was tough in this area due to late frosts and the year before due to drought. It wouldn't have taken much to disrupt an agriculture based society before we had world wide trade. That's what I think happened on Easter island.

If they were hungry enough, they'd have eaten the rats. I don't buy the rat theory.

pscot

(21,024 posts)

4. I ran across this idea

Reply to XemaSab (Original post)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 01:26 PM

Dec 2013

a while back, in a book by Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress. The book was a transcript of a series of Massey lectures Wright gave about 10 years ago. His theory was that the trees were cut to provide rollers and levers needed to transport and erect the statues. Once the trees were cut, the rats prevented new growth. I don't know if the idea originated with him. As depressing as all this is, it doesn't account for a situation in which half the planet is unlivable because it's just too damned hot.

Reply to this discussion