1 / 15

Easter Island

Easter Island. A story of Interdependence. Easter Island. What does everybody know about Easter Island?. Background. Easter island is one of the most remote areas on earth It is around 1200 miles from the nearest island and 2300 miles from South America The island is around 65 miles 2.

jemma
Download Presentation

Easter Island

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Easter Island A story of Interdependence

  2. Easter Island • What does everybody know about Easter Island?

  3. Background • Easter island is one of the most remote areas on earth • It is around 1200 miles from the nearest island and 2300 miles from South America • The island is around 65 miles2

  4. Background • Legends and evidence say Easter Island was originally populated by Polynesians who arrived on the island around 1200 A.D. • Evidence shows that there were between 10 and 20 thousand settlers • There is evidence that the culture was sophisticated

  5. Background • The evidence from the island is that there was conifers, sandalwood, palm trees and a variety of plants • The island was a closed ecosystem that was sustainable

  6. Beginning • The next historical account was that on Easter Sunday 1722 three Dutch ships came across an uncharted island • The island was described as barren, scorched and withered • A small number of Polynesians were on the island

  7. Beginning • What happened between 1200 A.D. and 1722 A.D.? • What caused lush forests to go to barren grass?

  8. What happened? • The trees had been cut down • This eroded the soils, leaving little support for plants • The soil had washed away • This destroyed much of the water supply for the island

  9. What happened? • Easter Island became a harsher and harsher environment • The amount of resources to survive were dwindling • This created unrest in the social structure

  10. What happened? • When resources became scarce, it became harder to survive • The gap between the working class and the ruling class became larger • This created unrest

  11. Results • Eventually the lower class revolted • Around 1600 the entire religious and upper class was killed • Still the situation became worse • Disease ran through the island killing many natives

  12. Results • When the island was “discovered” by the Dutch there were only a few thousand Polynesians • Since then, very little has naturally changed on Easter Island

  13. Results • Scientists and Easter Island leaders have been trying to reforest the island • However it will be a long process because there is little sustainable soil and much runoff

  14. Parallels?

  15. Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hO-vCPuuQQ

More Related