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“The human population probably reached a maximum of about 3,000, perhaps a bit higher, around 1350 AD and remained fairly stable until the arrival of Europeans,” Hunt writes. “The environmental limitations of Rapa Nui would have kept the population from growing much larger [as previously thought]. By the time Roggeveen arrived in 1722, most of the island’s trees were gone, but deforestation did not trigger societal collapse, as Diamond and others have argued.” If Hunt’s findings hold up, Easter Island isn’t a microcosm of the planet, but it may still be a more prosaic warning about invasive species.
Unfortunately there are plenty of ax-grinders out there, such as “slithering reptile” at Not PC, who are happy to use Hunt’s findings just as Diamond used the reports he drew on: as confirmation of stuff they already believed.
I have one foot firmly in each camp–I’ve criticized Diamond for selecting just-so stories from the historical record and disregarding the parts that don’t fit his thesis. So my strongest sympathies lie with neither. We need more people like Terry Hunt. I don’t just mean scientists; I mean people who can take seriously evidence that doesn’t fit their pre-ordained worldviews. Hunt’s conclusion:
