Sunday, April 11, 2010

Easter Island : A Case Study in the Response to Resource Depletion

from The Oil Drum. 
This transportation was an extraordinary feat [erecting huge statues] and could only be performed using vast numbers of wooden rollers, sledges and levers, not to mention the incredible number of man hours per statue. The capacity of the island to provide a relatively easy living (what we would call the EROEI) so as to free up so many workers for seemingly non-productive activity must have been considerable.
But over the centuries, this non-productive use of the forests, combined with increased need for timber due to population growth, would have gradually resulted in progressive deforestation, loss of habitat for a variety of edible plants, birds and animals, loss of protection from sun and wind, loss of fire wood and erosion of soil.
The parallels with today's world dominated by the capitalist system, which produces profits for a few while generating so many unnecessary toys and luxuries, is the obvious, and important point of this article.