From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Sun Oct 26 2003 - 17:08:57 MST
Been archiving old diskettes to CD ROM recently and found this from 1990:
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To: libernet@dartvax.dartmouth.edu
Subject: Easter Island/Overpopulation
Lines: 38
Date: Mon, 19-Feb-90 14:56:26 PST
Message-Id: <9002191456.1.136@cup.portal.com>
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Keith Lynch asked me to post a reference to Easter Island. The best
I can do without a trip to the library is a quote from David Brin (of
SF fame) from an article in Analog, May '83. (reprinted in the same
_Analog--Essays on Science_ that reprinted my article on memetics.)
"Polynesia may, indeed, be representative of interstellar settlement,
but not in a pleasant sense.
. . . . .
The most severe example is the island of Rapa Nui, also called Isla
de Pasqua, or Easter Island. Isolated thousands of miles from its
nearest neighbors, it was as much like an interstellar colony as any
place in human history when it was settled around 800 AD. . . . .
The Pasquans utterly destroyed the virgin ecosystem of Rapa Nui in
a few generations, ravaging the forest until only banana trees were
left. When no wood remained for houses or boats, they had to abandon
the sea and its resources, along with all possibility of escape or
trade. What remained was native rock--which they carved into
hauntingly desolate images--and warfare.
When Europeans arrived, the natives of Rapa Nui had just about
destroyed themselves."
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I had completely forgotten about posting on the subject of Easter
Island--which has of recent become a major interest of mine because it
provides a first class example of privation induced war.
Keith Henson
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