Fallen Moai Offer Lessons About Easter Island’s Environmental Collapse

Easter Island is a remote island known for its giant stone statues, called moai.

Polynesian people settled there around the first millennium.

At first, the island had many trees and birds.

As the population grew, people competed more for resources.

One controversial theory says that cutting down trees to move the statues helped damage the environment.

Soil eroded, crops suffered, and many trees and birds disappeared.

Without enough wood, people may have struggled to build boats for fishing and seabird hunting.

Rats, hunting and fishing may have added to the damage.

Researchers disagree about exactly what happened, but the story is often used as a warning about environmental destruction.