Easter Island Chapter 1 Summary

The first example of human manipulation of changes within the biosphere is through expansion. The rapid growth of the population has led to expansion in development; the need for more space is causing strain on other living organisms such as plants and animals. Human procurement of forest, grass, and wetlands has weighed on the animal population heavily. As a result of this domination, animals have lost areas they use to thrive in, causing migration and in more serious cases extinction. Animals are a prevalent source of protein for humans, and when a species is threatened by extinction, it not only disrupts the balance of the ecosystem, but it also disrupts the food chain. The more resources that are required to sustain human life, the bigger the need to migrate to surrounding areas in a short period of time (Haines).

Another big problem in polluting places and things is air pollution which can make air foggy, unbreathable, and toxic. According to “34 Facts about Pollution”, the text states breathing the air in Mumbai, India, for just one day is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes. One of the things that can cause air pollution is releasing factory fuels and fossil fuels into the air. We also cause it from burning certain things like plastic, chemicals, and other

There are many forms of public transportation such as: buses, trains, airplanes, trolleys, subways, and many more. Today these transits are not as widely used as they need to be in some areas, in my opinion. Of course they are the preferred method of travel inside urban areas; the American Public Transportation Association shows this data when they listed in 1999 the top thirty-five largest transit agencies. As seen, they are all major or larger metropolitan areas such as: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL (10/3, http://www.apta.com/stats/modesumm/35mbag.html). Rural areas need these wonderful services just as often too. People in these settings drive farther to reach their destinations so therefore they drive just as much as in major cities but have more driving time. So therefore air pollution needs to be taken care of everywhere, not just in metropolitan areas.

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

In the article by Jared Diamond, many interesting theories are discussed about Easter Island’s history and decline. Diamond makes connections to the environmental challenges we face today and he compares the catastrophe of Easter Island to our current over consumption of natural resources. While this article makes for an interesting read, much of it is offered from a single perspective and little counter evidence is offered. The author writes in a way that could engage a non-academic audience who may not be interested in counter evidence, or proper referencing. The article lacks credibility due to its narrow scope and conversational diction. At the root of this discussion however, is the notion that the Rapa Nui people were

There are two main types of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and ozone. Particulate matter is some tiny dust. For example, according to a beam of light at night there are countless dusts floating in the air. They are particle. Ozone is an invisible chemical gas in the air. When these gas touch with light will become smog. Factory and vehicles exhaust emissions have become the largest cause of PM and ozone pollution in the United States. If a plant wants to run, they need to burn fuel to provide power; however, a lot of particulate matter will float in the air when the factory burns fuel. When people drive cars can

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean sits a tiny, remote island. Easter Island takes up 64 square miles and is isolated from the rest of the world. What makes this island so interesting is not it’s size or location, but the large statues found on it. Commonly called Moai statues, they resemble men’s faces and weighed over 80 tons. They were sculpted after the tribal leaders that had died and they sat on platforms to look over the people that lived there to look over after them. These monstrous statues were carved out of a quarry on the island with rocks, which took years, and moved to a certain location. For centuries, this island and its inhabitants were a mystery. Who lived on the island? How did they die? Where did they come from? Why were these statues

The decreasing of trees caused species of fish, birds, and bears all to become endangered because their habitats or food were no longer suitable. The fish and birds were threatened because their environment was polluted and it reigned danger on their species. The cause of this was the factory that the onceler built to produce more thneeds. It was polluting the air with smog and making it difficult for birds to live and fly in the sky. Furthermore, the fish couldn’t survive because the factory was dumping its waste into their waters. Also, the Truffula trees supplied fruits for the bears to eat and with the tree population diminished the bears didn’t have any food. The onceler was not living sustainably and therefore his actions were hurting the environment around him. In comparison to this, the Polynesians on Easter Island were diminishing their food supply; although, they had lowered theirs by different means. The people on Easter Island, at the time, did not have the technology that the onceler had. This was why they couldn’t pollute the air or water around them like he had unknowingly done. Animals and organisms on their island did become endangered though just as the ones in The Lorax had. Rats had devoured seeds, native birds died out that used to pollinate the trees flowers and disperse their wild fruit, and other animals were eaten ravenously. As their food sources ran low the Polynesians’ turned on each other, the largest remaining meat source available on the island. These events display the effect of what can happen when only just one natural resource is deplenished. Due to the actions of both people in the stories and the causes of nature both environments were sent into

The text set that I read was all about Angel Island. The books included in this text set were: Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain (Freedman 2013), Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America (Shin-Mui Loh 2013), and The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island (Yep 2011). Through stories, images, and illustrations, all of the books explore the journey that Asian immigrants went through coming to America in the 1800s. The books show the struggles that the immigrants went through in their transition to America in search for opportunities and a new life.

Easter Island was once a haven for its inhabitants. It provided them with all of their needs, food, shelter, tools, and even the ability to create great works of art. They abused this Eden, and turned it into a disaster, with almost no natural resources. This could very well happen to us, because our earth is the same Eden that Easter Island once was.

Sixty-six square miles into the South East Pacific Ocean, Easter Island can be found. This island is mostly known for its mysterious 32 foot high, 82 ton stone statues that can be found in diverse locations upon the island. These statues known as Moai bring large amounts of tourists to the island, due to their mysterious reasoning. The question that most scientists are asking isn’t about these statues, but about the inhabitants of Easer Island. Where did they go? In the world of environmental science we explain the disappearance of the Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island with the Tragedy of the Commons, but how does the commons relate to Easter Island?

The humans living in that period were unable to supplement their previous diet, which was rich in protein, and their culture was devastated as a result; this then, is an example of progress (better hunting methods) that led to the failure of an entire culture as its problems were left unsolved. In his third chapter, Wright examines two particular civilizations that thrived but eventually declined due to resource depletion. What is interesting is the similarities that can be drawn from the examples of Easter Island and Sumer, like the widespread ignorance of the masses to actively prevent the abrasion of their land, the perpetual idleness of people to not do anything even when there was enough time to stop the tragic collapse, to current-day situations of people who even flat-out deny climate change and claim it to be part of the left-wing agenda. On Easter Island, it was over-logging that led to their collapse, since as their ecosystem withered away, logging became scarce, and wars broke out for those sparse resources. In Sumer similar environmental destruction occurred (i.e. overgrazing, land clearing), which should alarm the world population of today of what may become of the high levels

Thriving at the time, the islanders did not acknowledge the consequences their gluttonous habits had the potential of mustering, eventually overpopulating. Subsequently, the remaining resources were diminished rather quickly as the population began to struggle for the most basic of necessities, the situation so dire that cannibalism was a tangible option. Likewise, “The Lorax” displays the exact same form of shameless excess that ignites overpopulation as the Once-ler invites others to join him until said phenomena occurs. Unfortunately, the Once-ler does not realize the damage he has wrought until the final tree is chopped, a land once rich in flora entirely bare. Essentially, overpopulation bears the stigma for ruin as it creates an overabundance of need and craving, ultimately using resources at an alarmingly fast

Through urbanization, the most common view is the establishment of factories. Most of these factories are located in heavy industrial areas of the cities. It is easy to hypotheses that air quality has become worse in Shanghai since it started urbanization in the 1980s. However, there is not a proportional

“The Tragedy of the Commons” written by Garret Hardin explains how the human population is degrading the environment. When Hardin refers to commons he is talking about a resource that is owned by no one and used by a group of people. Some examples of commons include the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the oceans we fish. The tragedy is that people don’t look at the bigger picture; the over use of commons for our own personal benefit leads to the destruction or extinction of these commons. For example if one fisherman wants to fish the oceans as much as possible that’s fine, but now imagine if every fisherman wants to fish the oceans as much as they can, this is one example of a common being destroyed by the human population. The