The islanders of Easter Island cut down all the trees of the place for many reasons. The principal one was to make boats to fish. Another reason was to help carve the statues named “Moai,” maybe making ladders and scaffolding for this activity. But it was an awful idea because cutting down the trees without replanting them has affected flora and fauna. The population became without shadow, food, and the water was compromised.
What the islanders did with their home would be enough tragedy, but things always can be worse. Then in 1800, slave traders from Peru kidnapped thousands of islanders. When the Peruvian Government discovered the crime, he ordered the restitution of all the kidnapped to Easter Island. The measure was not the most suitable for the island because some seized came back with diseases as smallpox. The consequence of this was the death of many islanders because they did not have medicines, doctors, and antibodies to these illnesses. The same occurred with tuberculose that came from whalers. It is worth noting, the nearest place to Easter Island was Pitcairn Island, which is 2075 km away. In other words, Easter Island depended on itself. Instead of taking care of the natural resources to assure the survival of human beings and other species, the natives spent all the resources indiscriminately. They were easy victims of themselves and foreign people.
Apart from cutting down the trees, the islanders made other mistakes. They hunted and ate a considerable number of the birds and other terrestrial species that lived on the island. So they went hungry because the animals became extinct on the island. The distance between Easter Island and its neighbor island was almost prohibitive to the migration of animals and fauna recovery.
English and Spanish ships visited the island, but the socio-environmental disaster here described had already occurred when they came. Starve, wars between tribes or clans, imprudence, and recklessness, lack of care for the site have reduced the population of Easter Island and finished with their plentiful food and natural resources.
Easter Island is the best example of what we cannot do with our home, the Earth.
Texto escrito baseado em HARRISON, Stephen. Easter Island. In Intermediate English Comprehension, 2013, Book 2, Kindle Edition. p. 31-32.
Imagem da capa: Moai. Disponível em: <div>Icons made by <a href=”https://www.freepik.com” title=”Freepik”>Freepik</a> from <a href=”https://www.flaticon.com/” title=”Flaticon”>www.flaticon.com</a></div>. Acesso em 07 jan. 2022.