In A.D. 1200, a small group of Polynesians - it might have been a single family - made their way to Easter Island, settled in and began to farm. When they arrived, the place was covered with trees - as many as 16 million of them, some towering 100 feet high.
These settlers were farmers, practicing slash-and-burn agriculture, so they burned down woods, opened spaces, and began to multiply. Pretty soon the island had too many people, too few trees, and then, in only a few generations, no trees at all. That's the story we all know, the Collapse story. The new one is very different.
(via Geekosystem)
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