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What Really Happened to the Trees on Easter Island
Presented by:
Candace Gossen
Date: Feb 12, 2021
Time: 2:00-3:00 PM US Eastern Time / 19:00-20:00 UTC (in your local time)
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Hosted by: Stéphanie Cassilde
ABSTRACT
According to historical views by colonizing wayward voyagers, Easter
Island was a barren island, devoid of trees and full of giant statues
left behind from a cultural collapse. These myths have now been rejected
and the truth accepted that slavery diminished Easter Island’s 4,000
people to 111 in 1862. But an important question remains: Did the
islanders really cut down all of their trees? The only way to literally
dig into the past to uncover what plants, ecosystems, and climate
changes were occurring was to core the ancient crater lake of Rano Kao.
In this presentation, Candace will present the results of 15,000 years
of discovery with an answer to: What really happened to the trees?
_See the announcement for the seminar here. _
FUN FACT FROM CANDACE:
While doing this field research, I learned what it was like to work in a
quagmire and walk on water.
Questions about the seminar? Contact seminars@ronininstitute.org. See
the list of past seminars, as well as some recordings on the Ronin
Institute YouTube.