ANOTHER “SCIENTIFIC” MYTH, BUSTED: The Mysterious ‘Ecocide’ Collapse of Easter Island Never Really Happened. “The myth of this so-called Rapa Nui ‘ecocide’ – held up for decades as a cautionary tale about overexploitation of natural resources – should be firmly relegated to the bin of outdated theories, scientists now say. This finding is just the latest in a mounting body of evidence that the Pacific Islander population’s decline had nothing to do with their way of living.”

It now seems likely that they were casualties of open borders: “In fact, the collapse so soon after European contact in the 1700s probably had more to do with the slave trade, enforced migration, and introduced pathogens.” I don’t see people being as eager to hold that up as a warning.