Thursday, March 09, 2006

So Much For That Collapse

LiveScience has the scoop on a non-Jered Diamond version of the end of Easter Island, something that JD at Peak Oil Debunked got to earlier in the day. Apparently, Easter Island didn't so much collapse as never get there: the population wasn't all that big to begin with, so by the time Europeans arrived, there wasn't much to decline.
"The collapse was really a function of European disease being introduced," Lipo said. "The story that's been told about these populations going crazy and creating their own demise may just be simply an artifact of [Christian] missionaries telling stories."
You can be sure Diamond will continue to get lots of speaking engagements and book advances, though...