Historical Perspective on Deforestation... and Chopsticks
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 09.25.06
While old-style broadcast journalism is mostly a one-way street, the new media is more of a conversation, and that's one of the things that make it great. That's why we're happy to see that our friends at Mental Floss have decided to bounce off our old post about chopsticks (it's a classic) and use it as a launching pad for this great post about the history of deforestation, from 6000 BC to the 2004 Nobel Prize. Check it out, you might learn a few things. ::D’forest for d’trees
There has been quite a bit of further research into Easter Island deforestation, and the "humans cut down all the trees to move Moais" hypothesis appears to be losing out to the "Polynesian Rat ate all the palm seeds" theory.
American Scientist has a good article on the latest research.
While humans were the ultimate cause of the deforestation, it was probably inadvertent - they brought the wrong rat.