Take a Lesson from History

All civilizations run on energy. On Easter Island, in centuries past, energy came in the form of trees. Nothing happened on Easter Island without trees: no fires for cooking, no materials for building houses, no canoes for fishing, and no wooden poles for raising the enigmatic giant stone statues which stand to this day with their backs toward the sea.

But as the population of Easter Island grew, its need for trees outstripped the ability of the island to grow them. The civilization of Easter Island collapsed when someone, finally, cut down the last tree.

The Easter Islanders were unable to develop new sources of energy, which spelled ruin for their entire culture.

Without trees, they were trapped. No trees meant no civilization, and no means of escape. Some surely escaped, or tried to, in whatever dugout canoes were available. But the vast majority of them were stuck on that island, for what they surely knew was an impending an unpleasant end.

Northwest Progressive Institute