tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:/xml/Easter Island1 2008-12-16T10:13:18Z tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/2697 2008-02-25T14:30:39Z 2008-12-16T10:13:18Z Today the saga that is Easter Island's past is well known. The tragic circumstances that led to the downfall of its early civilization through starvation and war are of epic proportions. Many scientists agree that the real life scenario born from this isolated island serves as a warning, about the interrelatedness between scarcity of natural resources and conflict, for all mankind. However, current natural resource practices suggest that this lesson has fallen on deaf ears. Rhett Butler tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/803 2006-03-13T15:19:39Z 2008-12-29T06:42:39Z New evidence suggests that colonization of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) took place later than originally believed. The research is published in this week's issue of the journal Science. A later settlement supports the premise that human impact on the environment played a key role in the downfall of Easter Island society Rhett Butler tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/650 2005-12-06T15:19:39Z 2008-12-29T06:42:24Z Rats and Dutch traders may be responsible for the mysterious demise of Easter Island according to research presented last week during an American Anthropological Association meeting by a University of Hawaii anthropologist. Rhett Butler tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/314 2005-09-01T15:19:39Z 2008-12-29T06:42:09Z The history of Easter Island, its statues and its peoples, has long been shrouded in mystery. Some have suggested that aliens marooned on earth planted the statues as signals to their fellow aliens to rescue them. Others have said that the statues were constructed by a great race of guilders that were stranded on the island and built them before being rescued. Still others are convinced that an ancient society with the capability of flight constructed them along with the Nazca lines in Peru. However new evidence based on pollen analysis supports a much simpler theory, that the Easter Island inhabitants destroyed their own society through deforestation. Rhett Butler tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/198 2005-07-13T15:19:39Z 2008-12-29T06:42:05Z Polynesians, history's greatest seafarers who settled islands across a vast area of ocean from Madagascar to Easter Island, originated in Taiwan, according to a new genetic study published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. Rhett Butler