ABSTRACT
Case study Easter Island, which lies on a dusty speck of rock some 2000 miles off the west coast of South America, is one of the most isolated inhabited places on Earth. The first European to discover it was Admiral Roggeveen, who landed there in 1722. He discovered a primitive society of about 3000 destitute individuals living in caves and reed huts. Instead of a lush tropical paradise, Roggeveen found a nearly treeless island virtually devoid of vegetation. But even more perplexing were the 600 mysterious stone statues, averaging 20 feet in height, which lay sprawled across the landscape. The statues were a testament to the island’s once thriving and relatively advanced society in which human ingenuity had enabled the inhabitants to prosper for centuries. By the time of Roggeveen’s arrival, it was clear that the once harmonious relationship between the islanders and their natural environment had collapsed.
