Environmental Exploitation?

For so long many people believed that Easter Island was a story of environmental exploitation leading to these islanders collapse. The lack of trees had me believe that these Polynesians used all of the trees for building their civilization without replanting. Reading the article by Ponting I believed that the inhabitants were the cause of their own collapse. Using the trees to move these famous structures called Moai. In result there were no trees left on the island for boats, houses, and tools, leaving the island a desolated place.

However after reconsidering with more evidence I had found that these Islanders did not move these structures with trees, but that these structures were moved in a waddle motion. In the oral traditions they speak of the structures ‘walking,’ which aligns with the waddle theory. This was something I wrestled with when considering how they moved these structures. These structures weighed more than 10 tons and believing that these islanders were capable of wobbling these heavy stones seemed impossible to me. Watching the video of the Moai theories I found it inspiring to see 18 students moved a structure that weighed about the same as the structures on the island with ease.

The Islanders when first migrating to this island came with pigs, chickens, rats, and other domesticated animals. The Polynesian rat eats the palm seeds and devours the tree saplings. With their first arrival these rats began to thrive on the island eating the trees. This made it difficult for them to replant forests and contributed to this barren island and eventually its collapse.

It wasn’t recklessness that resulted in deforestation but an infestation in rats that were brought along with the Islanders. These rats destroyed the saplings and ate their seeds causing trees to die off and not grow back. These Islanders weren’t reckless, but they were resilient. Battling rat infestations, erosion and agricultural problems while moving hundreds of Moai statues. It is important to see that little evidence and a fixation on these mysteries caused us to wrongfully blame the Rapanui people for their own demise.