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Easter Island has long been held up as a symbol of howecological disaster can strike a society that does not protect its environment. However,recent evidence suggests that the theories about theisland's eco-history could be wrong.

The first European explorers to arrive on the desolate,treeless island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean wereamazed to find several thousand healthy inhabitantsliving there quite happily. Although there is no doubt thatEaster Island had once been a lush tropical island, itstransformation to a barren, windswept landscape issomething that has baffled scientists for nearly 300 years.