The Environmental Change and the Collapse of Easter Island

The environmental change and the collapse of Easter Island Ruud Coumans In this paper, we will search for an explanation of the mystical collapse of society on Easter Island, during the 18th century. We’ll use the second chapter for the book â€Å"Collapse. How Society Choose to Fail or Succeed† by Jared Diamond. First we will summarize some of the evidence supporting the explanatory framework of the author to give an outline of the situation. Then we will state the research question. After that we will talk about the underlying process where we will discuss the actions of the assumptions of the actors goals, the theory of the action implied and the initial conditions. We will finish with a conclusion. In his first chapter proposed the†¦show more content†¦With climate change he does not mean global warming, but the fact that climate may vary between months or years. The problem is that in the time of the Easter Island most people only lived long enough to witness one climate, and not for example a time of plenty and a time of little rain. The inhabitants of the island therefore had no firsthand memory of a previous period of little or plenty rain. Therefore, every time they had to come up with a new strategy because they did not know an old strategy. Another problem with good and bad decades is that after a good period there is too much population to be supported, and after a bad time there are not enough people to deal with a climate change. There is not much known about the climate changes at Easter Island. But, we do know that the population changed a few times because of kidnapping and different epidemics. This means that although there may have not been a lot of clim ate change, there was a constant change in the number of people living on the island who may have not known how to deal with different circumstances. The third and fourth factor Diamond mentions are hostile neighbors and trade partners. But, because Easter Island was an island almost completely isolated from the rest of the world , these factors cannot have played an important role in the collapse of the island. Although in the book is mentioned that the Easter Islanders sometimes had visitors, these visits were notShow MoreRelatedEaster Island : A Case Study1483 Words   |  6 PagesName of Case Study: â€Å"Easter Island: A Case Study in Non-sustainability† (Foot p.11) Key environmental points: Easter Island is a remotely located island in the South Pacific. The island was first populated in circa A. D. 400 by a group of travelers from Polynesia. The island, shaped like a triangle, was positioned 2,000 km from the nearest inhabited land, and 3,200 km from the closest continental land mass (Foot p. 11). 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