Civilisation crash

From polyscience.org an interesting feature on the collapse of the Easter Island population. Read the interview with Dr William Basener here

There are several well-known examples of societies that have experienced a collapse. Several of these are described in Jared Diamond’s recent book “Collapse.” In each case there are a number of theories for the cause of the collapse. For example, take the Maya Civilization. At their peak, the population was as dense as modern day Los Angeles, and they built the magnificent buildings, but their population very suddenly dropped to a small fraction of their peak.

Q: Can your work be applied to modern civilizations? Perhaps for the use of oil?
A: We believe so. We are collaborating with some economists on applications to the present. Long-term sustainability is a well-studied topic, although much of the work is still being done

!SR