The Easter Island Teabaggers
At some point, on Easter Island, sustainability must have become an issue. It had to be obvious that they couldn’t go on cutting down the trees faster than new trees were growing, and that the trees were important to making sure everyone had food, water, and shelter.
Do you suppose there were Easter Island “conservatives” who said; “All this talk of sustainability is ridiculous! The Big Giant Head will provide for us! Let us build more monuments to the Big Giant Head!!!” Were there equivalents to James Inhofe, Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck?
What do you suppose ever happened to them? When the catastrophe became inevitable as well as obvious, did they stay in power? Or was there some back and forth as various attempts were made (too late!) to undo the damage?
- Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Time to start making huge stone heads (Includes Jared Diamond video Why Societies Collapse.
- Blog Around The Clock: Michael Specter on The Daily Show, talking about his book, Denialism.
Yes, there almost certainly were. They cut down all the trees so they could move statues around. Only foolishness of the sort you’re describing can explain such a thing.
One common reaction I note to a deteriorating situation is that if the people affected were just better Christians, Muslims, whatever the Easter Islanders were, then everything would be wonderful. You see it in the Middle East, in “conservative” discourse (I put it in quotes, because there are a great many people who are conservatives who aren’t this stupid), and pretty much anywhere that theocrats or mystics have too much power.
Those statues, they mighty cute.
I’m sure at some point there someone made the argument:
“Shit, we ARE running out of trees after all! I know, we need help from the Big Giant Head. If we make more statues, we’ll be provided with the trees we most sorely need. … To the axes!”
It’s really sad how history just keeps repeating. The excuse over a couple hundred years ago was a lack of information. Nowadays we dont have much of one.
I think I would enjoy Jared Diamond’s book more than his talk. The subject of the discussion is interesting but either my attention span has weakened or he needs to get a little excited or move his voice around or sumptin.