The Mysterious 'Ecocide' Collapse of Easter Island Never Really Happenedhttps://www.sciencealert.com/the-mysterious-ecocide-collapse-of-easter-island-never-really-happenedThe people of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, were not the instruments of their own demise, according to new research.
In a comprehensive new study, researchers found that the population of monument-carvers could not possibly have been big enough to collapse under the demands placed on their environment, as has previously been suggested.
The myth of this so-called Rapa Nui "ecocide" – held up for decades as a cautionary tale about overexploitation of natural resources – should be firmly relegated to the bin of outdated theories, scientists now say.
This finding is just the latest in a mounting body of evidence that the Pacific Islander population's decline had nothing to do with their way of living.
In fact, the collapse so soon after European contact in the 1700s probably had more to do with the slave trade, enforced migration, and introduced pathogens.
This ultra-sacred Enviro-myth has been slowly collapsing under the findings of actual research for several years. Enviros really should hold a funeral and a wake for it, but they're probably still swimming in the proverbial Egyptian River.
