Interesting read about Easter Island

An interesting mention is Charles L. Redman’s Human Impact on Ancient Environments In the first chapter he explains the basics behind Easter Island which I’ll try not to screw up here: The Inhabitants were Polynesians (pacific ship fairing people) who literally found heaven on earth. There were no land mammals so they fished like they had always done but eventually deforested the entire island. Over time they lost their ship building materials and then later their whole identity as a seafares(this happened over hundreds of years). Once they couldn’t build boats they started eating the birds which is unfortunate because Easter Island was thought to be one of the largest breeding grounds for birds in the pacific. There were 30 species at the time and only 1 remains now. When the Europeans showed up they couldn’t figure out how the island was essentially sterile and how giant stone statues were erected.