So, you've probably heard the story.
The island of Rapa Nui (which we inaccurately call Easter Island) had a large population, but they cut down all the trees, introduced rats, spent all their time building giant heads and ended up with massive famine.
Wrong.
It turns out Rapa Nui never had that many people (no doubt the white people thought more people were needed to walk the statues than were) and that when white colonists got there, the population was, in fact, increasing. The island was well-managed land with productive gardens and they had drought-resilient water sources.
We just assume they wrecked the environment because we're so good at it.
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