The True Story of Easter Island Reveals How Deforestation Led to Collapse
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The document summarizes the history of Easter Island and the downfall of its civilization. It describes how the island was originally lush with forests and resources when people first arrived. As the population grew, they cut down more trees to build and move statues, not realizing that the forests provided important ecological functions like retaining soil and attracting rain. Eventually, all the trees were cut down, causing the soil to erode and crops to fail. The civilization then collapsed as resources became scarce and the people were unable to leave the island without boats. The story serves as a warning about how civilizations can destroy their environment and cause their own downfall by ignoring ecological impacts.
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The True Story of Easter Island Reveals How Deforestation Led to Collapse
- 1. The True Story of Easter Island 一个有关复活节岛的真实故事
- 2. Easter Island 复活节岛 When the mystery was solved, what they found was almost like a miniature version of the way that environment and society work together in the whole world 当谜底被揭晓时，他们发现复活节岛是整个环境和世界的的缩小版本。
- 3. In the Beginning 起初 Many years ago, the island was a lush jungle, covered with many kinds of trees and plants. 很久很久以前，岛上曾经树林密布，有到处都有各种各样的树木和植物
- 4. Arrival of the Island People 人类登陆小岛 The island people arrived in boats from far away, and found a beautiful paradise. They set up houses and villages. They planted crops. 一群玻里尼西亚人乘船从很远的地方来到这个小岛，他们很高兴能找到这个美丽的天堂乐园一样的居住地。于是，他们决定在这里定居，建造房屋和村庄，并且开始种植农作物。
- 5. Ideal Conditions 理想的条件 1: The island had lots of rain 过去岛上雨水丰沛
- 6. Ideal Conditions 理想的条件 2: The soil was very good 土壤肥沃
- 7. Ideal Conditions 理想的条件 Their life was rich and easy. They raised families and soon filled the whole island with people. 那时候，他们的生活是快乐的、丰富多彩的。很快他们开始组建了家庭，开始繁衍生息。 The islanders cleared away some of the trees in order to build homes and grow food. 复活节岛人当时砍伐了一片森林来建造房子和种植庄稼
- 8. An Environmental Footprint on Easter Island 人类在复活节岛上造成了环境足迹
- 9. Building the Statues 建造雕像 They thought that having the statues would bring them prosperity. 他们以为建造这些石像能给他们带来福气和幸福。
- 10. Carving the Statues 雕刻雕像 They carved them from the rock. 他们从岩石上雕刻石像
- 11. Moving the Statues 搬运雕像 To move the statues, they cut down trees, and rolled the statues on the logs . 然后将石像运到想要安置的地方。他们砍下了很多树木当作运输石像的辊子
- 12. Since there was a lot of food and resources, the population grew rapidly. 因为当时岛屿上有很丰富的天然食物和资源，所以人口增长非常快。
- 13. The Turning Point 转折点
- 14. What Do Trees Do? 树木有什么作用呢？
- 15. Trees have hundreds of kilometers of roots that hold the tree to the ground and keep the soil in place. 树木有着几百个长长的根，是这些根使树木能生长在地上并坚固土壤。 The forest soil is important because it contains lots of nutrients that the trees need. 森林里的土壤很重要，因为这些土壤里包含着很多树木生长所需的营养 What Do Trees Do? 树木有什么作用呢？
- 16. This humid air attracts rain. This is why it rains a lot in the forest and never rains in the desert. 这种潮湿的空气会吸引雨水。这也就是为什么森林里总是下雨，而在沙漠里却从不下雨的原因 Trees attract rain Soil in the forests holds a lot of water, and the shade from the trees keep the forests cool, so the air in the forests is humid. 森林中的土壤保持着很多的水分，树木形成的阴影使得森林很凉快。因此，森林的空气始终保持湿润 What Do Trees Do? 树木有什么作用呢？
- 17. What Do Trees Do? 树木有什么作用呢？
- 18. What Do Trees Do? 树木有什么作用呢？
- 19. The Turning Point 转折点 The rain stopped coming so often. 雨水开始变得越来越稀少
- 20. The Turning Point 转折点 The rivers started to get smaller. 河流变得越来越干涸
- 21. The Turning Point 转折点 The crops stopped growing as well as before 农作物停止了生长
- 22. The Turning Point 转折点 They saw less prosperity. So they thought they needed more statues. 岛上的居民感觉到生活不再那么幸福，他们觉得是因为雕像造得太少。
- 23. They raced to cut down the trees to build more statues to get more prosperity. And that’s when they cut down the last tree. 他们砍伐树木的速度越来越快，最终，他们砍下了最后一棵树。
- 24. The Collapse of Easter Island 复活节岛最终崩溃了
- 25. The Collapse of Easter Island 复活节岛最终崩溃了 The crops died and resources became scarce. 农作物都干死了，所有的资源都很匮乏
- 26. And with no boats no one could leave! 由于岛上没有树木来造船，没有一个人可以离开复活节岛！！！
- 27. The Collapse of Easter Island 复活节岛最终崩溃了 With nothing left, the island people threw down each other’s statues, till there was nothing left. 岛上什么都没有了的时候，岛上的居民开始把彼此的石像推倒，岛上没有一尊石像是直立的
- 28. Two Islands 两个岛屿 Easter Island 复活节岛 Our Island 我们的岛屿 - 地球
- 29. What was wrong with their thinking? 他们当时的想法有什么不对吗？
- 30. Where our prosperity comes from? 我们的幸福生活从哪里来呢？
- 31. Conclusions 总结 Easter Island gives us an example of what can happen if we ignore the size of our own environmental footprint 复活节岛告诉我们，破坏环境会造成怎样严重的后果 The real source of our prosperity is not in the things we make or buy. It comes from the systems in the environment that support our lives. 我们的幸福不是由我们制作或购买的产品带来的。它来自大自然。
- 32. 加入我们的新鲜博客 QQ 1257888793 在 www.greennovate.cn 网站上的环保资源里 学习更多环保知识 QQ 登录 ，加我们为好友，随时交流你的环保新动态。
Editor's Notes
- 复活节岛的故事 有人言： “如果我们不从历史中汲取教训，我们将注定要重蹈覆辙。 ”我们都希望不再犯前人已犯过的错误（不二过），所以今天就让我与大家分享一个历史上的真实故事，而这个故事就发生在地球的另一面，一个叫做复活节的小岛上。首先我想问大家一个问题，有谁知道复活节岛吗？ 一提起复活节岛，大家会想到什么？为什么这么一个小岛会吸引那么多人的注意呢？ There’s a saying that goes like this: “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” None of us wants to be doomed, so let me just share a little piece of history with you, and I will let you decide if we can learn something from it. I am going to tell you a story that starts a long, long time ago in a place far, far away - almost the exact opposite side of the world, in fact. I am going to tell you the story of a tiny, tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called Easter Island. And this story is 100% true. Has anyone heard of Easter Island? Does anyone know why this island is so famous?
- 复活节岛四面环海， 离任何一片陆地都至少有 3500 公里之遥， 3500 公里是什么概念？（可以提问：长江有多长？ 6400 公里，大半个长江），所以，复活岛是最与世隔绝的一个岛屿。事实上，这个岛屿是太平洋中的火山喷发而形成的，整个岛屿只有 4 个上海浦东机场那么大。 这个岛有一个秘团，它一直困惑了科学家数百年的时间，直到最近，这个谜团才得以揭开。同学们你们有兴趣来一起揭密吗？好！那么首先就让我们来看看在 1000 多年前这个小岛是一个怎么样的情况。 As you can see (use pointer), Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, all by itself, 3500 kilometers away from anywhere. It came out of a volcano in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the whole island is tiny – about 4 times the size of Pudong Airport in Shanghai. This island had a mystery about it that perplexed scientists for centuries, and only recently has the mystery been solved. But when we finally discovered what happened there, what happened on Easter Island was like a miniature version of what is happening in our world today. Let’s see what the island looked like 1,000 years ago.
- 一千多年前，整个岛屿森林密布，栖息着种类繁多的动植物。但是那时岛上并没有人类居住。 A little over a thousand years ago, there were no people living in the island. The whole island was covered in dense rainforest, with lots of animals and many different species of trees and plants.
- 就在一千年前的某一天，一群正在寻找居住地的玻里尼西亚人，乘着船来到这个了这个复活节岛。大家听说过波利尼西亚人吗？ （解释一下） 当他们登上小岛时，他们高兴极了，为什么？因为他们惊喜地发现这个岛简直就是天堂，自然资源异常丰富，想要什么就有什么。因此他们决定留下来。 But about a thousand years ago, Polynesians who were looking for a new place to live stumbled across the island in their boats. And when they arrived, what they found was a beautiful paradise, rich in natural resources, so of course they decided to stay.
- 同学们，我们想想，事实上，复活节岛成为一个生存的天堂，有两个条件是必不可少的： 1 充沛的雨水，它们不断地补充河流的水源，使农作物得到充足的灌溉 Two things made the island an ideal place to live. First: the island received lots of rain, which filled the rivers and watered the plants.
- 2 肥沃的土壤，这种土壤非常适宜种粮食。就在他们来到岛上的时候，岛上已经有很多自然生长的食物（同学们，你们喜欢吃什么呀？ -- 仅限于小学生）；还有成林的树木，可用于建房和生火；甚至河流里的水是可以直接饮用的水（现在苏州河的水你们敢不敢直接喝呀？）。 The island also had very fertile soil, so it was very easy to plant and grow crops. In fact, there was already a lot of food growing naturally. There were lots of trees that could be used for building houses and fires, and the rivers were full of clean water for drinking.
- 因为自然条件实在是太优越了，人们决定在这里定居下来。岛上的居民开始组建家庭，种植农作物 , 慢慢地，岛上的人口越来越多。人一多起来就必须砍伐一些森林，为什么？造房子，种粮食，生火。 With such great conditions, it was very easy to live there. The Easter Island people soon raised families, built villages and grew crops. Gradually, they started to fill the island with people. Of course to do this, they had to clear some of the forests to make space for houses and farms. At first, only a small amount.
- 为了满足自己的需求，岛上的居民砍了树木，于是，他们在岛上留下了第一道环境足迹，这道足迹是非常非常小的。你可能会问：“究竟什么是环境足迹呢？”有人知道吗？ 正如我们在雪白的墙上踢上一脚就会留下脏脏的脚印，当我们以某种方式破坏我们身边的环境时，我们也就在环境中留下了我们的环境足迹。简而言之，环境足迹就是我们对环境的负面的影响。 复活节岛的居民此时只是砍伐小量的树木来建造房屋和种植庄稼等，所以，我们看到开始时，复活节岛的居民只在岛上留下一个小型的环境足迹。 And by clearing some of the forests, they created their first environmental footprint on the island. You might be asking yourself, “what is an environmental footprint?” Does anyone know? An environmental footprint is our effect on the environment. In the same way that when we walk, we leave a footprint on the ground, when we do things that change our environment, we leave a footprint on our environment. An environmental footprint can be very big or very small. Because they were only clearing some of the trees for houses and crops, in the beginning, the Easter Islanders had only a small environmental footprint.
- 在岛上幸福地生活了一段时间后，复活节岛居民开始建造雕像，为什么要建造雕像？而这也是复活节岛留给世人的一个无法解开的谜团。直到现在都没有人知道为什么当时岛上的居民决定这样做，科学家们猜想这与宗教有关。不管怎样，复活节岛上的人开始建造大量的雕像，渐渐地，他们甚至盲目地相信下是这些雕像给他们带来了繁荣。他们认为生活中的成功、快乐、富有都与这些雕像有关 , 雕像等于繁荣。 After living and prospering on the island for some time, the Easter Islanders started to build statues. Nobody quite knows now who it was that first came up with the idea or why he decided to do it, but the idea became very popular. Because the islanders were prosperous when they were building statues, they eventually came to believe that they were prosperous BECAUSE they were building statues. They associated their success, happiness, and wealth with these statues: Statues = Prosperity.
- 在这张图片上，你可以看到在复活节岛上的一座最大的雕像。大家可以看到，雕像非常巨大 —— 它们都是从一些火山岩石雕刻出来的。这里有二个问题，一，为什么是火山岩？因为火山岩比较软，容易雕刻。而且别忘了，复活节岛是火山喷发所形成的岛屿。但是火山岩只能在岛屿的一侧找得到。但雕像却坐落在岛屿的所有角落。 现在又来了第二个问题，这么巨大的雕像时，他们怎么能够移动如此庞大的雕像？我们知道，埃及金字塔是由数千名奴隶帮助那些法老建造的，但是复活节岛上的居民并没有这么多的人力，那你们认为他们是如何移动这些巨大的雕像的呢？（让学生们猜） In this picture, you can see one of the largest statues carved on Easter Island. So these statues were absolutely enormous - and they were carved from volcanic rock because it is soft and easy to carve into. However, this volcano was only located on one small part of the island, but the statues were found all over the island. When you look at that huge statue, it makes you wonder, “How could they move such huge statues across the entire island?” We know that, for example, the Egyptians had thousands of slaves to help them build the pyramids in Egypt, but the Easter Islanders lacked both slaves and man power. So how do you think they moved the statues? (Ask students to guess)
- 考古学家研究了这个问题，并发现岛上的居民曾经尝试过许多不同的方式来移动雕像，但最终他们发现，只有把树木当做运输雕像的轮子才能移动雕像。于是复活节岛居民砍下了大片树林 , 将这些木材垫在雕像下方来滚动雕像。 我们从这张照片可以看到他们正尝试移动一个最小的雕像。推动一个大雕像将需要几百人和许多树木。随着树木被雕像难以置信的重量慢慢粉碎，他们需要更多的树木来替代。因此，移动雕像需要砍伐大量树木。 Archeologists studied the problem, and they actually tried many different ways of moving the statues. They found that the only way to move the statues was to roll them on logs. The Easter Islanders would cut down trees and lay them on the ground and roll the statues on the logs. This picture shows them experimenting with one of the smallest statues. To move the bigger statues would require hundreds of people and many trees to be cut down to roll the statues. As the trees were slowly crushed under the incredible weight of the statues, they would replace them with more trees. So moving statues required that a large number of trees be cut down.
- 由于岛上丰富的食物和资源，人口增长得很快。 前面有讲到，随着人口增长，他们需要砍伐更多的森林来种植食物和建造房子，当然他们也需要建造了更多的雕像 , 雕像 = 繁荣嘛，而这也就意味着更多的树木要被砍伐下来用于移动这些雕像。数据显示，在复活节岛的人口高峰期，人口曾经达到了两万人。 Since there was a lot of food and resources on the island, the population grew rapidly. As the population grew, they needed to cut more and more trees to grow more food and build more homes. And of course, the more the population grow, the more they needed to build statues and cut down trees to move them. At Easter Island’s peak, the population reached 20,000.
- 这时我们开始看到了转折点。最初，森林里只有一小部分树木被砍伐下来，但是当人们想要建造越来越多的石像，森林里的树木开始变得越来越稀少，直到消失 , 他们的环境足迹也越来越大。复活节岛很小，几乎每个人都看到了树林的消失，但是没有人意识到问题的严重。 And now, we begin to see the turning point. In the beginning, only a small part of the forests needed to be cut down, but as the built more and more statues, the forests started to disappear. Easter Island is small, so everyone could see that the forests were getting small, but this didn’t seem like a problem.
- 那么就让我们来看看为什么这是一个大问题。首先，树有什么作用？为什么树木如此重要，如果我们把树木都砍伐掉到底会发生什么呢？ < 不需要等待答案 > Now, why would this be a problem? What do trees do anyway? Why are they so important, and why is it so dangerous to cut them all down? <don’t wait for an answer>
- 树木生长着几百个长长的根，正是这些根使得树木得以生长，牢牢地抓住土壤。 而土壤也很重要，因为这些土壤里包含着树木生长所需的各种营养 Trees have hundreds of kilometers of roots that hold the tree to the ground and keep the soil in place. The forest soil is important because it contains lots of nutrients that the trees need.
- 森林中的土壤里保持着很多的水分，树木形成的阴影使得森林非常凉快，并且，森林上方空气始终保持湿润。 这种潮湿的空气会吸引雨水。这也就是为什么热带雨林总是在下雨，而在沙漠里却从不下雨的原因，想想热带雨林。 Soil in the forests holds a lot of water, and the shade from the trees keep the forests cool, so the air in the forests is humid. This humid air attracts rain. This is why it rains a lot in the forest and never rains in the desert.
- 这些所有的东西加在一起就形成一个循环： 雨水灌溉树木 树木的根部保持水土 土壤给树木提供营养 树木吸引雨水 So when you put all of these things together, it forms a cycle: Rain waters the tree roots Tree roots hold the soil Soil supplies nutrients to the tree Trees attract rain
- 那么当树木都被砍伐掉之后会出现什么样的情况？ 当树木被砍伐下来时，根就死掉了 于是就没有任何东西固定土壤 雨水一来就将土壤冲刷走造成水土流失 没有树木和土壤，空气湿度就会下降，雨水也不复存在了 But what happens when the trees are removed? When a tree is cut down, the roots die When the roots die, there is nothing to hold the soil The rain washes away the soil With no trees and soil, the air loses humidity, so the rain stops
- 现在你会想像到岛上将会发生什么。从复活节岛上人们的的角度来看，他们只看到 雨水开始变得越来越稀少 So now you understand what really happened on Easter Island. But the people of the island couldn’t see that. From their perspective, they only saw: The rain stopped coming so often.
- 河流变得越来越干涸 The rivers started to get smaller.
- 农作物停止了生长 他们看见自己的幸福与繁荣慢慢地消失时，你猜猜当时他们是怎么反应的？ The crops stopped growing as well as before. So they saw less prosperity, so what do you think they did?
- 他们认为他们需要更多的雕像。 They thought they needed more statues.
- 岛上的每个人都认为雕像 = 繁荣，雕像能给自己带来幸运，于是他们不断地造新的雕像，岛上的树木也越来越少。他们砍伐树木的速度越来越快，最终，他们砍下了最后一棵树。（停顿）。复活节岛是非常小的，你站在复活节岛的最高点就可以俯瞰整个复活节岛了。所以，可以肯定的是，当他们砍倒最后一棵树时，他们知道之后岛上就再也没有树木了。 Each person on the island wanted prosperity for himself. Since there were only a few trees left to move the statues, they raced to cut down the trees to build more statues to get more prosperity. And that’s when they cut down the very last tree. <Pause>. Now, Easter Island is very small, and when you stand on the highest part of the island you can actually see the entire island. So when they cut down the last tree, they knew that they were cutting down the last tree. And as we know, that was a very big mistake.
- 岛上一棵树都没有了，雨水变的越来越少，直到泉水和河流干涸了。复活节岛离完全崩溃不远了。 As there were no more trees left, the rains came less and less frequently, until the springs and rivers dried up. And this began to lead to the collapse of Easter Island.
- 农作物都死掉了，所有的资源都很匮乏 The crops died and resources became scarce.
- 最后，在复活节岛，他们只剩下： 很少的食物 很少可饮用的水 在冬天没有木材来取火保暖 没有木材建房 最糟糕的是，没有木材来造船，因此，没有人可以离开！ In the end, on Easter Island, they were left with: - Very little food to eat - Very little water to drink - No wood to build fires to keep them warm in Easter Island’s cold winters - No wood to build houses - And worst of all, no wood to build boats, so no one could leave!
- 为了剩下的粮食和资源，人们开始争夺最后的资源。他们开始变得恐惧、困惑、愤怒和无助。他们盲目地认为他们可以通过推到别人的雕像从别人身上得到好运。然而当他们推翻了雕像之后，他们真的是一无所有了。 最终，他们的文明在争夺资源的战争中崩溃，并且他们互相伤害直到连自己都无法保护。由于他们的身体很弱，没有任何抵抗能力，后来他们中的很多人都被秘鲁人当作奴隶带离了复活节岛。 他们的文明就这样结束了。正如人们在争夺最后的资源中，由于饥饿和战争死亡，人口急剧下降，从高峰期的约 20000 人到 300 年前，荷兰探险家发现他们时，只有几百名幸存者。 With nothing left, the people fought wars over the last of the food and resources. They were scared, confused, angry, and helpless. To get the last remaining prosperity for themselves, they thought they could take it away from the others by throwing down their statues. So they toppled the statues till there really was nothing left. In the end, their civilization broke down in wars over the last of the resources, and they killed each other off to the point where they couldn’t defend themselves. In fact, they became so weak that many of the survivors were taken as slaves by Peruvians from the mainland. And that was the end of their civilization. As people died from hunger and wars over the last of the resources, the population declined from its peak of around 20,000 people to the few hundred survivors that the Dutch explorers found about 300 years ago.
- 这就是复活节岛的悲剧。我们为什么要告诉大家这个故事呢？我们可以从这个故事中学习到什么呢？ 让我们看看我们现在的社会与复活节岛有什么样相似的地方。我们来比较一下吧，有两个岛屿：复活节岛和我们的地球。就如复活节岛在浩瀚的太平洋上只是一个小点一样，地球在浩瀚飘渺的宇宙中也是一个小小的点；复活节岛上的居民在其生态系统崩溃之后没有任何地方可去，我们在地球被完全破坏之后也一样在劫难逃——我们只有一个地球。 但是除了这些地理特性之外，我们还看到了很多社会层次的相似点： 稳定增长的人口数量 逐渐变得先进的技术 逐渐被毁坏的自然环境和自然资源 就像复活节岛用尽了他们岛上的自然资源一样，我们的资源也在面临着同样的被严重开采的问题 但是，在我们与复活节岛居民之间有一个很重要不同点：就是在当时复活节岛上的居民并不明白他们所做的事在严重损坏他们的自然环境；他们并不了解他们的自然资源在逐渐离他们而去。而我们现在是知道的，问题在于，我们要真正做些什么来把趋势扭转过来以生活在更加可持续的生活方式里，让我们的后代，我们后代的后代都能够继续享受我们现在还很美丽的地球。 And that is the story of Easter Island. It is a very sad and frightening story. But why did I tell you this story? What can we learn from this story? Let’s take a look at some of the parallels between today’s modern society and that of Easter Island As you see, we have two islands here: Easter Island, and Earth. Just as Easter Island is a small point in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, Earth is a little point in the middle of the vast Universe. And just as the Easter Islanders had nowhere else to go, we have nowhere else to go. We can’t go live on Mars. We can’t go live on the Moon. We only have one place to live. But more than these geographical characteristics, we see many more societal similarities: We see: A steadily growing population Steadily advancing technology A steadily declining natural environment And just as the Easter Islanders ran out of their resources, we are facing the exact same problem with our resources But, there is one very big, very important difference between us and the Easter Islanders: Whereas the Easter Islanders did not understand the consequences of degrading their natural environment, and they did not understand that they were running out of natural resources, we do understand. It is not a question of whether or not this problem exists – but a question of what we are going to do to reverse the trend and start living in a more sustainable way, so that our children and our children’s children can continue to prosper and enjoy the same Earth that we enjoy today.
- 为了回答这个问题，让我们认真想一想，复活节岛的居民究竟做错了什么。他们放了什么错呢？他们为什么没有停止砍伐树木？ 他们盲目地认为他们的繁荣来自雕像。 但究竟什么才是给他们带来繁荣的真正原因呢？是岛屿理想的自然条件。充足的降雨和良好的土壤，岛上的树木带来了雨水和保持土壤。对于他们来说，他们只把树木当做用于建设住房和雕像的资源 . 他们不明白树木还为他们提供无价的服务 —— 产生和保持土壤，吸引雨水，维持岛屿土壤中的水份和保持岛上的淡水。 In order to answer this question, let’s take a closer look at what went wrong on Easter Island. If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. So what can we learn from this story? Well, let’s look at the Easter Islander’s mistake. What was wrong in their thinking? Why didn’t they stop cutting down the trees? They thought their prosperity came from the statues. For them, they saw the trees only as a resource to be used for building houses and statues. But what really caused their prosperity? It was the conditions of the island that were perfect for living - the regular rainfall, good soil, and the trees that brought the rain and preserved the soil. They did not understand the services what the trees were providing for them – creating and holding the soil, attracting the rain, keeping the water in the soil to maintain the island’s freshwater.
- 复活节岛居民认为，他们的繁荣来自建设雕像。我们不建立雕像，但我们认为我们的繁荣是我们生产的汽车、电子产品、住房和城市。同样道理，我们都忘记了我们的繁荣首先来自于我们生活环境中的一切自然资源。 复活节岛居民的系统消耗了所有资源。他们雕刻雕像，砍伐树木来运送雕像到全岛各地。 我们也有我们自己不同的系统。如果我们要避免重复复活节岛人的错误，我们需要看看我们的体系，看看我们是否能够找到办法，使之变得更好。 The Easter Islanders believed that their prosperity came from building statues. We don’t build statues, but instead we have our cars, electronics, and houses. And we think that making, buying, and selling these things leads to our prosperity. But we forget that our prosperity really comes first from the living things in our environment that maintain the conditions necessary for life. The Easter Islanders had a system that consumed all of their resources. They carved the statues, cut down the trees and dragged that statues across the island on the trees. We also have our own system, which is different but equally destructive. If we want to avoid repeating the Easter Island people’s mistake, we need to look at our system and see if we can find ways to make it better.
- 复活节岛给了我们一个例子，如果我们不顾一切地扩大我们自己的环境足迹将会怎样？ 我们的繁荣不是由我们制作或购买的东西带来的。它是来自自然系统，来自于大自然。 我们可以通过减少使用，重复使用等手段来减小我们的足迹 - 从今天开始！ Easter Island gives us an example of what can happen if we ignore the size of our own environmental footprint The real source of our prosperity is not in the things we make or buy. It comes from the systems in the environment that support our lives. We can make our footprint smaller by reducing the things we take and throw away – START TODAY! 。