The document summarizes the story of Easter Island and draws parallels to modern society and environmental issues. It describes how the early Polynesian settlers lived sustainably with abundant resources like palm trees and seafood. As the population grew, they depleted the forest to move statues and build canoes. Without trees, their resources and agriculture declined, leading to warfare, cannibalism, and population collapse. Now Easter Island is barren, as is a warning about overexploiting resources and the risks of isolating ourselves like the islanders did. The document urges learning from their example as modern society also relies on a fragile global system.

1. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Why Bother?
Marcus Tay Gua Hock
a cus ay Guan oc
Roots & Shoots
Eco office Project Coordinator

2. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
There is No Problem
Some people don’t believe in the
environmental problems that humans are
inflicting on the planet are serious
enough.

3. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
There is No Problem
We don’t think that there is an urgency to
change our current lifestyle.

4. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
2 Reasons Why There is No
Crisis
• Great Civilization with amazing advances

5. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
2 Reasons Why There is No
Crisis
• 1 person small
• 1 Earth
full of resources

6. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter
as e
Island
Story

7. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in 1772
• On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722,
• Dutch sea captain named Jacob Roggeveen
landed
l d d

8. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in 1772
• 900 statues, the heaviest weighting up to 80
tons, about 6 metres tall

9. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in 1772
• Barren island , no trees

10. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
How Did the Statues Come
About?
carved in a dragged up over the
volcanic quarry lift of the quarry
All accomplished by human
muscles power alone!!!
i d ti ll
raised up vertically il
Dragged 13 miles
D d
onto platforms down to the coast

11. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
How Did the Statues Come
About?
Only a great civilization could have
done that with the technology of
gy
that period.

12. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in 1772
Yet, islanders were toppling the statues
they erected with great effort.
Why?

13. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter island in AD 800
Polynesians coming
from the south east
asia, sometime around
AD800

14. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in AD800
• Tropical forest – largest palm tree
species, 6 species of land birds,
37 species sea birds – l
i bi d largest
t
collection in the pacific ocean
booby albatross Palm trees

15. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island in AD800
• They made canoes from the trees
and went out to hunt porpoise and
tuna.
• It was an island full of resources
and population co ld ha e
pop lation could have
reached 10000 at its peak

16. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Back to 1772
• Barren island with no trees,
• No land birds left, only 1 sea bird species left
• Population of 2000
• Toppling statues
What Happened?
Wh H d?

17. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心

18. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
What Happened?
• As population grew, trees were chopped down
for logs to make rollers to move the statues,
to make the canoes, for firewood etc.
canoes etc
They ran out of trees!

19. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
No Trees?
No trees meant…
• No new statues
• No canoes to go out there to
hunt porpoise
h nt po poise and tuna
t na
• No firewood, burn agricultural
waste
• No cover for soil
• Agriculture yields decreased
g y

20. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
What Shall We Eat?
• NO canoes –NO seafood
• NO land birds, 1 sea bird
HUMANS?

21. Then… 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Cannibalism.

22. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter
Island
Today
T d

23. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island and Us Today
• Great Civilization
Easter – statues
Us – man on moon
moon,
internet

24. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Island and Us Today
• Full of resources
Easter – tropical forest – largest palm tress
species.
Us – the Entire Earth

25. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Another Similarity: Isolation
• Easter island
– 2000 miles west of Chile
– 1600 miles east of the nearest pacific island

26. Easter Island---A Lonely Island
y

27. Only living planet in the
solar system , 4.3 light
years from the nearest
star.
The Earth---A Lonely Planet
Earth A

28. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Earth
Easter Island

29. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Easter Islanders rose and fell by themselves.
What about us?

30. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Save the Earth
• “ My personal stand is this: As
environmentalists, we are not
trying to salvage the earth per se.
We are merely buying time so that
scientists and researchers can find
alternative forms of resources. …
All they need is time. That’s
That s
where the environmentalists come
in.”
Darren Shiau

31. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
JARED DIAMOND
Professor,
Professor Geography
and Physiology,
Department of
Geography, UCLA
The above content was from “Collapse”
by Jared Di
b J d Diamondd

32. 上海根与芽青少年活动中心
Other Debates
• Rats coming with Polynesians ate the seeds of
the palm trees.
• E
Europeans who come later – spread di
h l t d diseases
and capture slaves