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Easter Island

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

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Easter Island

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  1. Easter Island Could This Happen to the Whole Planet?

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Ecology before Islanders arrived • Island was forested • teeming with land birds • productive breeding site for seabirds in the Polynesia region.

  5. Culture

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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

  9. 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.

  10. 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

  11. Could this be our Future? • Easter Island's treeless landscape is perhaps the most crucial piece of evidence • theory of ecocide Is our planet committing ecocide?

  12. 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?

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