Friday, March 28, 1997

A Tale of Two Islands

How the rise and fall of the culture of Easter Island compares to the ongoing industrialization and resulting environmental degradation of the island of Puerto Rico

The Easter Island Moai

Ever since I first heard of Easter Island I have been very fascinated by it. I was very young then, just a little hotel brat of eight or nine running around the grounds of the El San Juan Hotel. The pool area of the El San Juan Hotel was then decorated with large wooden carvings of strangely shaped heads. These were not shaped like the Moai of Easter Island, but they came close enough for me to identify them as being of the same "spiritual" origin as those I later saw in the pictures of Easter Island.

The idea that those strange wooden heads actually existed for real somewhere else in the world, that they were made of solid rock and had meaning to their makers other than being a decorator's idea of what a tourist would find amusing filled me with awe. Little did I suspect then that from those innocent emotions would be born a fascination that would so dominate my views of the world at large, at least from an ecological point of view, and serve as THE example of mankind's apparent indifference towards the fragility of our environment.

In the year of 1722, on Easter Sunday to be precise, Captain Roggeveen discovered and named "Easter Island". The thing that most impressed him was how barren the island seemed. On any of its peaks, you could see the entire island without obstruction. Not a single tree existed on the whole fifty square miles of land. And the only thing standing were the hundreds of Moai, which dotted the landscape as silent witnesses of what will probably someday be recognized as the world's most tragic example of total environmental collapse.

Easter Island as seen from space

Rapa Nui: A Brief Conjectural History

The story of Rapa Nui, (the native name of Easter Island), has been a source of mystery and wonder ever since it's discovery in 1722. Many archeological attempts to extract the secrets of this enigmatic island have borne as many questions, if not more, than they have answers.

Rapa Nui was discovered by a group of seafaring people some 1,600 years ago. An Island Paradise of about 50 square miles, rich in lush vegetation and blessed with mild and pleasing weather. Here the far-ranging people who searched the ocean for a new home came to settle, finding in the island's bountiful benevolence a seemingly unlimited source of food and comfort.

Rapa Nui, however, was just a tiny little island lost in the vastness of a huge ocean; the most remote inhabited location in the entire Earth. It is no wonder that the Rapa Nuians soon forgot that they came from elsewhere, and began to believe that they were the only inhabitants of the Earth.

Archeological studies seem to indicate that the Rapa Nuians settled into two main groups or tribes; one was dedicated mostly to the industry of agriculture, making the food of the land available to the general population, while the other pursued the harvest of the ocean as a source of food. At first the Rapa Nuians enjoyed a life of leisure and luxury. Their numbers being relatively small, they had more food and space than they needed. Naturally, as is the case with all of nature's creatures whenever such bountiful conditions exist, their numbers increased. It was perhaps out of gratitude for the obvious favor of their gods that the Rapa Nuians first began to carve the large stone images known as "Moai" to honor their benevolent deities.

With the increase in population came an increased demand for food and space. At first, Rapa Nui provided easily for this increased demand, but as time went by it became increasingly difficult for the farming and fishing communities to provide enough food for their growing numbers. The giant palm trees that once covered the entire island were cut down in ever increasing quantities to be carved into fishing vessels to supplement the fleet, as well as to clear more land for agriculture and to expand the villages.

Of course, as is the case with all people that suddenly face difficult times, the Rapa Nuians turned to their gods, believing themselves as beign punished for some tresspass they were too mundane to fathom, they sought to please their gods and regain their lost favor--by building greater Moai.

The bigger and more massive Moai required more of the large palm trees, (the same palm trees needed to make seaworthy fishing vessels), to be cut down and used as rollers to transport them from their stone quarries to their assigned locations. Ropes to hold and pull the huge Moai were woven from several species of local plants, and many food products, such as the local variety of sweet potatoes, provided the lubrication for the massive log rollers.

Used as they were to their land of plenty, it never occured to the Rapa Nuians that the resources they were consuming to erect their massive god-worshipping industry were limited, and required replenishing even as they were used. Perhaps they believed that if they pleased the gods these would correct whatever damage they have caused in some future rapture of benevolence.

Of course, the accelerated ravishment of their environment did little to improve matters. But the Rapa Nuians had already invested too much of their effort and resources. Apparently the idea that they could have been wrong in this policy was too shameful to consider; the Rapa Nuians HAD to believe that their efforts were not impressive enough to gain the favor of their gods. They did not dare consider the alternative; that they had been seduced by a false policy, that they were stupid and perhaps even insane to pursue it. It was much more acceptable for them to believe that what was needed was for them to somehow show even greater commitment and sacrifice. They had to build bigger Moai.

Perhaps a dispute between the two tribes, probably originating from one faction's disbelief over the other faction's excuse for not producing enough food, eventually degenerated into a derogatory exchange over who had the most impressive statues. It is not hard to imagine, cornered by a clever argument from an antagonist, how one islander may have tried to divert attention from his own low yield, by blaming the other faction for not building Moai large enough to properly please the gods. We can only speculate how profoundly offensive such a remark could have been to a culture that was long lost and forgotten by the time we found them. But it is apparent that the Rapa Nuians felt deeply enough about the stone statues, for whatever reason, to indulge in a policy that would certainly cause their own destruction.

The Rapa Nuians, increasingly desperate from hunger and need, and not daring to believe that their god-pleasing policies could have been wrong, became so obsessed with regaining the favor of the gods, that even their food became more important as lubrication, than as sustenance. Plants, trees and fruits were of more value to them as ropes, rollers and lubrticants, to support their runaway Moai-producing industry.

As a people, the Rapa Nuians were quite literally driven insane by their own industry.

The Rapa Nuians had lost all rational conception of what they were doing to their island and to themselves. Even as their population starved, they refused to recognize the real cause of their missery, and did not dare abandon their thoughtless policies, which had already cost them so much, and admit that they were wrong.

An ugly sin, is it not, this arrogant Pride?
Eventually of course, all the trees were gone. The existing fishing ships deteriorated from over-use and under-maintenance and could not be replaced. With most of the population involved in the erection of the gigantic Moai, very few were left who knew how to farm the land, and very little was left that could be farmed. Already insane from their obsession with their gods, it wasn't long before their hunger drove them to the lowest form of human decadence...

...the Rapa Nuians turned to each other for food.

And so it was, that from a population of a few thousand, the people of Rapa Nui achieved the heights of perhaps tens of thousands only to degenerate and decompose under the burden of their own unchecked progress, driven mad by the demands of their own industry, into a scattered band of savages only a few hundred in number, and barely even coherent as a culture. Nothing but an empty shell of the wondrous and beautiful people they once were.

This poignant tale of what happened in Rapa Nui is one that haunts me with diabolical persistence. Not only because the events that transpired over a thousand years of history in that little island lost in the remote reaches of the south pacific are horrifying in themselves, but because I can recognize parallels in the current history and development of events in the world at large, and more to the point, in Puerto Rico specifically.

Puerto Rico, like Rapa Nui, is a small island of limited resources. Like Rapa Nui, Puerto Rico is bountiful and benevolent to it's people and blesses them with the most excellent foods, both from land and sea, and pleasant weather all year-round.

Like Rapa Nui, Puerto Rico's natural benevolence has provided it's people with all that they needed and more. Naturally, as is the case with all of nature's creatures whenever such bountiful conditions exist, their numbers increased. The greater population required more space and more food, as is natural. Now cities and urbanization sprawl across hundreds of square miles of Puerto Rico's precious land, land that was once used for agriculture and food production. Most of Puerto Rico's food is now imported from abroad, and the argument could be made that Puerto Rican's haven't been self-sufficient, as far as food production is concerned, for quite some time.

To be fair, Puerto Rico has undergone a dramatic change as far as industrialization is concerned, and from that point of view it can be argued that Puerto Rico is indeed self-sufficient still, by virtue of the economics of the national products it exports in exchange for the food it receives. But every day the dwindling agricultural community grows smaller, and a time may not be too long in coming when Puerto Rico becomes completely dependent on imported food for it's sustenance.

In order to keep the great gods of industrial financing happy, Puerto Rico invests much of it's resources in the development of greater and greater displays of it's business prowess. The construction of vast industrial complexes and sky-scrapping office buildings is an ongoing prerogative that strains the ageing infrastructure and supersedes all other considerations, including environmental concerns.

The general policy that is practiced if not admitted is that any promise can be made to comply with the regulations for environmental protection in order to acquire the necessary permits to begin any industrial project. Once these permits are obtained, all promises made regarding the environment are conveniently forgotten. Cost of development and keeping with scheduled completion dates takes precedence. I cite as example the recent authorization granted to the Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewer Authority by the Environmental Protection Agency to use the waters of the river Mameyes in the El Yunque Rain Forest, a national preserve and I might add, the only Tropical Rain Forest in the United States National Parks System. The permit was granted only after The Aqueducts and Sewer Authority promised to extract only a certain amount of water and no more. Not even six months have passed since, and already, as I understand from the local news, the EPA has cited the ASA for violating that promise and extracting as much water as they please from the river Mameyes.

A short while after that, I understand that the ASA is dumping untreated sewage into the river Mameyes. Something that is only permited during a state of emergency, which the governor has conveniently declared and which continues to be in effect, indefinitely.

The River Mameyes was the only remaining untapped and untainted river left in the entire island of Puerto Rico.
Ever since hurricane Hugo, it has been considered wise by all Puerto Ricans to use bottled water for their own consumption, and it is common practice in households where bottled water cannot be afforded to boil the water provided by ASA before using it for drinking.

Puerto Ricans no longer trust the quality of their drinking water.
The recent occurrences of prolonged periods of drought may be just the whim of an angry god, or it could be that the unchecked deforestation of the island, caused by it's runaway industrialization and urbanization projects has rendered the island incapable of retaining as much moisture as it used to extract from the prevailing winds of the Atlantic Ocean. Naturally, crops are affected, and food production is decreased.

Puerto Rico is currently constructing a huge "super-aqueduct" that will alleviate the water supply problems to it's mayor metropolitan centers. The construction of this aqueduct requires that miles of the special and uniquely porous rock which covers much of the northern part of the island and which is part of the natural water table filtration and replenishment system be destroyed.

It is a pretty good guess that if the water table is adversely affected by this project, the dwindling agricultural sector will suffer even greater loses. This sort of damage to the environment, by it's nature, cannot be reversed. The porous rock understructure of the northern coast is a unique and valuable natural resource to the island of Puerto Rico, it is responsible for the creation of the greatest underground river and cavern complex in this hemisphere. Some of it was already destroyed to build the great highways that connect the mayor towns of the north coast, and it may be argued that this too has contributed to the island's recent aridity.

I am not saying that the super-aqueduct should not be built, but surely Puerto Ricans should be willing to spare the expense required to do it right. Building in such a way as to cause minimal or no damage to our natural resources is an option, albeit a time-consuming and expensive one. I suggest that this is better than sealing our fate with cheap, quick fixes that cannot be undone, only to prove to our great financial gods that we are "up to the challenge", and "worthy of their favor."

The Rapa Nuians could have survived their industry if only they had replanted the resources they consumed and advanced at a more sedate pace, taking care not to consume more of their resources than what they were able to replace.

Even as I write this, the general Puerto Rican population is indifferent to the very real signs of environmental collapse that surrounds them. It is almost as if we believed that by pleasing the great financial gods with our ever greater "Moai" of industry, whatever damage we have caused in the process will be corrected by some future rapture of financial and technological benevolence.

To illustrate this point, I bring to your attention the declining populations of several tree frog species known locally as the Coquí. This little creature is so dear and special to the heart and soul of every Puerto Rican that they are almost reduced to swooning, crooning adoration when they speak of it. It's image is used to represent Puerto Rico and all things Puerto Rican, its songs are featured in many local melodies, plays and poems. It is ubiquitous in Puerto Rican culture and identity. Yet not one but three of the sixteen local species have vanished completely due to destruction of their habitat by rampant urbanization. In spite of persistent attempts by environmentalists and student groups to locate a single living specimen, they haven't been seen or heard in years and it is quite possible they are already extinct.

Yet Puerto Ricans by and large are happily ignorant of this very disturbing fact.
Everywhere you go Puerto Ricans arrogantly boast their proud kinship with the Coquí, even as the little creatures are squashed under the steel-tipped boots of industrial development.

Three other species of Coquí are becoming very rare as we breathe! The other ten species of Puerto Rican Coquí are in danger of suffering the same fate.

A day doesn't go by that while driving through the streets and highways of Puerto Rico I don't see someone throwing garbage, drive-through fast-food dispensers and packaging, used diapers, beer bottles and soft drink cans from their car windows.

Who among us has not witnessed this?
It is obvious by this behavior that the Puerto Ricans, much like the Rapa Nuians have lost all conception of what they are doing to their island and to themselves.

Our mindless and irresponsible industrialization effort is no different than the Rapa Nuian's obsession with building greater Moai at any cost. Our indifference to the environment is no different than the kind of insanity that made food and life more important as a source of raw materials than as a basic requirement for survival.

No god, of industry or otherwise, will come to the rescue once we have passed the environmental point of no return. The great gods of financing will take their profits and leave us to our fate. And we will bare the shame of our disgrace to our ultimate destruction.

And even the Coquí will not be around to sing one final tribute to Puerto Rico.
If we as Puerto Ricans do not become more rational and responsible in our development policies, and do the right thing to preserve and maintain the wonderful paradise that The Powers of Providence have blessed us with, we will murder the island of Puerto Rico just like the Rapa Nuians murdered Rapa Nui.

We ourselves will perish as a culture and as a race, in the greatest example of collective disgrace experienced by humanity since the fall of the people of Rapa Nui.

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Posted by Steven Douglas Huddleston  at 8:02 PM Edited on: Friday, April 25, 2008 8:23 PM Categories: Puerto Rico