Collapse Ch. 2 Jared Diamond

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Collapse Ch. 2Jared Diamond

• Nick Gownaris
• Mathew Glosser
• Stacey Hale
• Byron Harrison
• Zac Frey

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Easter Island
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Easter Island Geographic Background
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Easter Island Cultural Background
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Introduction to Diamonds 5-pt. Criteria
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Point 1 Human Influence (Resource Depletion)
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Points 2, 3, 4 (Climate Change, Domestic
Conflict, Trade)
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Point 5 (Social Response )
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Social Paradigms (Courtesy of Darien Ripple)

• The way our paradigm ought to shift (below)
• One must remember that a strong economy and
  society are virtually useless without a strong
  environment

Environmental
Social
Economic

• Easter Island/Modern day Industrialized nations
  view of society (above)
• Today we view the economy as the primary focus of
  our resources
• It can also be argued that Easter actually placed
  society first (religion and culture), before the
  economy and environment

Economic
Social
Environmental
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Parallels between Easter Island and today

• Why Easter Island?
• Easter Island displays the most direct depiction
  of cause (environmental destruction) and effect
  (societal collapse)
• Natural Resources- Timber vs. Oil
• Timber was used as if it was an infinite resource
  on Easter Island
• Similarly, oil and other finite resources are
  consumed as if they are eternally abundant around
  the globe today
• With populist mantras such as, Drill, baby
  drill!, some politicians tell us we can drill
  our way out of our energy problems- Perhaps such
  rhetoric was prevalent on Easter Island in its
  final days
• Ego Building
• Diamond suggests that Moai grew increasingly
  large in size due to competition between rival
  tribes to own the largest Moai
• In modern times, some homes, skyscrapers,
  commercial centers, etc. have become
  unnecessarily large
• Some cities want to have the tallest skyscraper,
  some billionaires want to have the biggest
  mansion, some companies want to build the biggest
  super store etc.
• In the United States, you often hear Bigger is
  better as size has become correlated with status
• Religious Fundamentalism and the Environment
• The Moai were part of the religious tradition of
  Easter Islanders
• Upholding this religious tradition became more
  important than dealing with the reality of
  depleting resources to some religious elite
  (Perhaps they believed as long as they were
  upholding these traditions, their gods would take
  care of them)

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• And God said, Let us make man in our image,
  after our likeness, and let them have dominion
  over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
  the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
  earth, and over every creeping thing that
  creepeth upon the earth Genesis 126 (King James
  Bible)
• When taken literally, does this passage from the
  Bible instruct man to treat the Earth as if it is
  a mere possession that man should take full
  advantage of?
• Does this attitude encourage readers to treat the
  earth as a means rather than an end in itself? Is
  this morally acceptable?
• Why do many followers of the religions of laissez
  faire capitalism and Judeo-Christian
  fundamentalism continue to downplay the
  environmental problems that our world faces today
  (e.g. denying global warming) Is it because they
  cant reconcile the solutions with their dogma?