Name: _____________________________ Period:_______ Due: _________

Discussion Questions Jared Diamond. Easter Islands End. Discover magazine,

August 1995. 16(8): 62-69.

1. The article describes the former abundance of trees and forests on Easter Island.
Describe several factors that contributed to the extinction of trees on the island.
The birds that carried the seeds died out and the trees were being cut to build canoes
and to use as tools to erect the statues. The trees were burnt for warmth. Animals ate
the seeds as well.

2. Imagine that you arrived on the island before the tree populations were extinct, but
after the tree populations had started to decline. Suggest a management plan that
could have helped the Easter Islanders save the tree populations from extinction.
Farm the Trees and manage them in a system. For example there are 56 trees, use 20
and then farm 10 for seeds but keep 20 alone.

3. What have scientists concluded about the levels of plant and animal biodiversity on
Easter Island in the past? Describe how scientific evidence supports these
conclusions.
That there isn't much at all left on the island. The island Roggeveen saw was a
grassland without a single tree or bush over ten feet high. Modern botanists have
identified only 47 species of higher plants native to Easter, most of them grasses,
sedges, and ferns.

4. How do current levels of plant and animal biodiversity on Easter Island compare
with past biodiversity levels?
There was a lot more biodiversity and a healthy lively habitat, but the easter islanders
managed to deplete what little resources and diversity they had, so today the island has
nothing compared to its past

5. Can todays levels of biodiversity on Easter Island be explained in terms of

complexity and disturbance? Explain your answer.
Yes, today's levels of biodiversity cant be explained in complexity but instead in
disturbance. Due to Easter Island's old inhabitants, their disturbance on what used to
be fertile is now barren, leaving not a lot of complexity to be see.

6. Diamond likens the demise of the civilization on Easter Island with the
overpopulation and resource destruction on the entire planet. Do you feel that this
comparison is justified? Why or why not?
I feel this comparison is spot on. Because what happened to easter island is happening
to Earth in a slow and devastating rate.

7. What are the parallels? What are the differences?

The parallels are that earth and easter island are both being abused by hunger, greed,
and the random need to decorate our environments. This depletes resources, the
difference is that Is going to take a lot longer to be barren than easter island because
of the higher complexity of biodiversity and organisms that evolve and adapt rather
than die off.

8. If we choose to heed Diamonds warning, what can we do to prevent a population

crash of the entire human population?
By looking to our past and historical events, heeding the warnings, as examples and
trying to take care of our habitat for food's sake.

9. What assumptions does the author make when presenting the information? Is there
other historical data that should be considered before making such claims?
The author makes similarities of Easter Islanders to other countries going down the
path of destruction. There are no historical sources from actual islanders or those who
have actually witnessed any of this.

10. Write one thoughtful question that you have about the article. Good questions will
try to deepen your understanding of concepts, or will try to relate the content of the
article to other ideas.
Could the people of easter island have prevented this disaster and what caused them
to not see the end of their people if they continued their actions? Where they
educated enough to see the consequences of their actions far enough in the future to
be able to prevent this from happening?