Collapse Assignment 1

I think the idea of a society collapsing is very interesting. Reading the packet on Easter Island seemed strange, knowings theres a place that was once populated that is now empty, while remnants of their society still remains. It seems like something from a movie. It was also amazing how the author described the giant stone sculptures and construction, which the people had to do without the help of any large lifting tools. They were able to survive off of their land, and in turn had many tools to farm with, as well as canoes. However, their forms of farming would be considered damaging by modern farmers.
I noticed some parallels between Easter Island and our own culture. When the author was describing different aspects of Easter Island, it seemed as if the people of Easter Island were descendants of many different places, much like how America is just like a giant melting pot of different cultures.
The reason for Easter Islands demise was because of the extreme deforestation that began to occur. They had to use much of the forrest in order to help build their massive statues, however that led to a wiping out of their forrests, which in turn resulted in a loss of their raw materials and natural resources. The Easter Islanders managed to entirely wipe themselves out by cutting down all of their trees and didn't seems to comprehend the disastrous effects that might have.
This is much like our society, whereas we tend to push our natural resources towards the brink, trying to use as much of it as we can, without considering the consequences. We always assume that someone else or the "wizards" (businessmen and scientists) will solve all of the problems and we won't have to worry. This also just proves that we are on our way to a collapse because the Eastern Islanders managed to completely wipe themselves out with their home-made tools, so there is no doubt that our society full of giant machine-powered things and technologically run society, will follow in the same fate.