Collapse Assifment 1, Easter Island Collapse

Regarding this article, Jared Diamond said:
"In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead?"

This article is based on the extinction of Rapa Nui's civilisation. It is written in a way that would facilitate our way of connecting this civilization to our own. Our current actions as a society are causing great damage to the environment. I think that most people do know that we are self destructing by continuing mass production of things we do not need. However, most people do not accept it. Being aware that we are driving ourselves to the end is not nearly comfortable. As civilized human beings we want to continue demonstrating how rich and improved we are and leave that legacy for future generations. But the question is will there be future generations that would inherit our cultural values or beliefs? I think this is one of the least things we wonder when we produce. Is it the ambition that blinds us, or simply ignorance?

Because of this actions and way of thinking we can easily connect ourselves to the Rapa Nui's civilisation. According to Jared, this culture's development was actually suicide. It was clear that their island was Rich in flora and fauna, therefore there was no logical reason of why the people from Easter Island had to experience starvation. We could easily state that they made a huge mistake for wiping out their forest and leading themselves to extinction because of that. It was more important to follow their beliefs and stand out as a civilization. I do not understand the need do destroy what it is given. I could also relate this to religion; God provides the man with everything he needs to live, and as a symbol of appreciation the man goes an destroys what God gave him to build something the man likes, could be either a statue or a church. This idea is passed on to future generations along with threats. "If you do not do it, you will be punished."
Previous generations felt the need to be afraid of something bigger than them. This way they would have no other choice but to keep on seeking approval as human beings by constantly improving their life styles, when they were actually wanted to simply take advantage of their surroundings. How did this civilization develop these ideas to begin with? I think it was due to the colonists' influence on the islanders. As Jared Suggested, during that time natives experienced suffering for not being as developed as the colonists.There is no reason to believe that its civilisation could not have adapted and survived (in a modified form) to an environment devoid of large timber. What they could not endure, however, and what most of them did not survive, was something altogether different: the systematic destruction of their society, their people and their culture. Diamond has chosen to close his eyes to the real culprits of Rapa Nui's real collapse and annihilation.

Regarding Rapa Nui's civilisation, I do think that this is the reason of why they unconsciously chose to terminate their own kind. It was important for them to improve or become better. While living with this idea, they created their own independent world that only involved their daily needs and comfort. They eventually forgot about taking care of their home. They just wanted to protect their values and it was inevitable not to do so as a human being. As a consequence the island could no longer feed the heads of each clan. They were: chiefs, bureaucrats and priests who kept the complex society running. Because of this chaos triggered a social and cultural collapse. By 1700 the population dropped to between one-quarter and one-tenth of its former number, and many of the statues were toppled during supposed “clan wars” of the 1600 and 1700’s.

Focusing in Diamond Jared's book, 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive', Questions such as, Why did this exceptional civilisation crumble? or What drove its population to extinction? are asked in order to symbolize a much more important matter. Our current civilization. However, -The biggest problem faced by researchers who have attempted to answer these questions is the fact that the information written down by European discoverers and early visitors is extremely limited in content and reliability- In reality no one truly knows exactly what happened to the Rapa Nui's civilisation, for the simple fact that we were not there to witness it. We have no other choice but to rely on old records and the current Easter Island to figure out what happened. There are more theories explaining this self-destruction. One of the is the following:

The real truth regarding the tremendous social devastation which occurred on Easter Island is that it was a direct consequence of the inhumane behavior of many of the first European visitors, particularly the slavers who raped and murdered the islanders, introduced small pox and other diseases, and brutally removed the natives to mainland South America.

These theories are very similar to the ones we are experiencing today. Our culture was influenced by another culture in the past, and as a civilization we are easily influenced by what is "better". As a consequence we try to improve ourselves mainly by the use of technology, which is the main factor that has been damaging our planet. It has been experienced before and at this rate it will be experienced once again. We do not want to learn from our history's mistakes, we just want to modify them. Also, Despite hundreds of books and thousands of papers on the 'mysteries' of Easter Island, this genocide which wiped out Rapa Nui's civilisation has been largely ignored. As a matter of fact, nobody to date has written a detailed history of these traumatic events. Before this was mentioned in Life Doesn't Have to be Meaningless class I was not aware that this civilization even existed. This supports my idea that human kind is not interested in knowing about our self-destruction nor do something about it. As human beings we are rather afraid of our end but by not doing something about it, we are highly contradicting ourselves. Do we want to die, or do we not want to die? Based on our current actions I would say we have chosen to die. The world will keep on rotating but the human kind will banish because of this "foolish" choice. As the Moai Statues remained but their creators didn't, It is the same as what will happen to us. Our actions and mistakes, our legacy in this world, will remain undoubted. There is far too much proof that human beings habituated this planet and caused severed damage to it. And this is because similarly to the Rapa Nui's civilisation we consumed everything we needed. The Easter Island's treeless landscape is perhaps the most crucial piece of physical evidence on which Diamond has based his theory of ecocide. Diamond's whole edifice of ecological self-destruction basically rests on Easter Island's deforestation. According to this premise, the extinction of the native palm tree triggered a series of environmental and social catastrophes that culminated in Easter Island's culture crash. As palms were cut down to clear land for agriculture, to plant gardens, to construct big canoes, to obtain firewood for cooking and to transport and erect the giant cult statues, a cascade of environmental and societal knock-on disasters ensued.

I believe that our current civilization and the Rapa Nui's civilisation share the same destiny, for the simple fact that we are both human beings. The whole world has concluded the same idea of how to live and survive at least culturally speaking. Those who study, analyze and recognize this information of the Eater Island are those who might be willing to make a change. Will it be enough? Everyone has their reason to continue on living and leave a legacy behind. We do not want to experience an end, but we are not avoiding it. Our reasons might not be enough to "unblind" ourselves. My future depends on other people and other people's future depend on me. By doing something, that might harm or help the planet will affect the lives of millions of people.
We are so focused on our own world that we do not realize that buying that one car or wasting two more litters of water is contributing to the destruction of this world. We are not an insignificant as we think we are.

Because of his writings, Diamond Jared is reasonably hopeful about the future of humanity. Nevertheless, he does not hesitate to foretell environmental calamity and societal breakdown in the most unhinged imagery: "By the time my young sons reach retirement age, half the world's species will be extinct, the air radioactive, and the seas polluted with oil ... There is no doubt that those who survive the collapse will also write nostalgically about our own era just like Jared.

-As Rainbird (2003) aptly concludes: "Whatever may have happened in the past on Easter Island, whatever they did to their island themselves, it totally pales into insignificance compared to the impact that was going to come through Western contact."-