For years people around the world, swayed mostly by Jared Diamond's book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, have thought Easter Island---2,300 miles west of the coast of Chile---suffered a population crash because its people used up its resources (chiefly palm trees) faster than they could be renewed. I haven't known what to think, but, though I knew of its inaccuracies on some other subjects, I assumed Diamond's story was likely. Now my friend Dennis Avery has educated me. The … [Read more...]