1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbon here. For more than eight hundred years, a 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: series of mesmerizing statues have towered over Rapa Nui, a 4 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,120 Speaker 1: remote island just fifteen miles that's twenty four kilometers wide 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 1: in the southeast Pacific Ocean. These forty foot or twelve 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,120 Speaker 1: meter tall statues, known as the moai, have survived nearly 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: a millennium, but the effects of climate change now threatened 8 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: to topple the island's mysterious ancient history. The nearly one 9 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: thousand moai, erected between the tenth and sixteenth centuries on 10 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:38,680 Speaker 1: Rapa Nui, also named Easter Island by an eighteenth century 11 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: Dutch explorer, are being battered by rising sea levels, high 12 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: energy waves, and increased erosion. Ancient human remains are buried 13 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: beneath many of the works, which appear as giant faces 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: gazing over land and sea. We spoke with Adam Marken, 15 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: Deputy director of Climate and Energy at the Union of 16 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: Concerned Scientists. He said some of the moai have been 17 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: knocked over in the past, including by tsunamis, and they 18 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: have been restored, so not every site is in pristine condition. 19 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: The difference now is that the danger is even greater 20 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: the rate of change is faster than ever. The volcanic 21 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: island of Rapa Nui, now part of Chile, is the 22 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: most isolated inhabited land mass in the world, located some 23 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: two thousand, two hundred miles that's three thousand, five hundred 24 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: kilometers from Chile's mainland and some two thousand, five hundred 25 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,120 Speaker 1: miles or four thousand kilometers east of Tahiti. Part of 26 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,960 Speaker 1: the vulnerability of Rapa Nui lies in the fact that 27 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: it is an island, and many of the moai and 28 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: the ahu or platforms on which they stand are perched 29 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: around its edges. As Markham points out, all of the 30 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: world's islands have been made vulnerable to erosion with rising 31 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: ocean levels. Some climate models predict that increased melting of 32 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: the world's ice sheets could cause oceans to rise by 33 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: five to six feet that's one point five to one 34 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: point eight meters by the year twenty one hundred. Higher 35 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: sea levels means shores face flooding and inundation by crashing waves. 36 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: On Rapa Nui, signs of damage from the incoming waves 37 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: is already apparent. On the island southern coast. Blocks of 38 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: a ten foot that's three meter high stone wall at 39 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:12,080 Speaker 1: historical site or Orango Temhina toppled over last year. Beaches 40 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:13,920 Speaker 1: that used to be covered in pink sand have been 41 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: eroded by waves, leaving behind rocks, and nearby burial sites 42 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: have been left exposed and vulnerable to erosion themselves. Conservationists 43 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: are testing a newly built sea wall at one part 44 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: of the island to see if it can offer protection, 45 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: but it's not certain that walls can hold off the 46 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: ocean's onslaught. Further inland, a site called Orango, which encircles 47 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: a volcanic crater, also stands vulnerable two storms and erosion. 48 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: Hieroglyphics at the crater site tell the tale of an 49 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: annual relay race, and now landslides and erosion triggered by 50 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: storms threatened these stone carved images. As Markham points out, 51 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,799 Speaker 1: the increasing frequency of intense storms is another hallmark of 52 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: climate change. He said, as you get more and more 53 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: of these events, damage builds upon past damage. Moving the 54 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: hieroglyphics and some of the most vulnerable noi into protected 55 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: enclosures might help ensure their survival, but Relocating the statues 56 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: could not only harm the works, it would disregard the 57 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: role at many of the sites as burial markers for 58 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: remains of the islanders ancestors. The recognition of Rapa Nui 59 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,519 Speaker 1: National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site acknowledges the 60 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: importance of the statutes preservation where they now stand. Markham said, 61 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: it's the same problem that anyone would have when thinking 62 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: about moving generations of history buried within a cemetery. A 63 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: lot of very hard choices will have to be made, 64 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 1: but I would doubt that much moving of artifacts will 65 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,839 Speaker 1: take place on Easter Island. This isn't the first time 66 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: the island has faced ecological destruction. Some have pointed to 67 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: Easter Island's history as a cautionary environmental tale. Pollen grains 68 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: found the island settlements suggested it was covered in a 69 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: palm forest when it was first settled around twelve hundred CE. 70 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: By the time a Dutch settler came upon the island's 71 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: shores and the seventeen hundreds, he described the land as 72 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: being of singular poverty and barrenness. What had happened to 73 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: the islands trees? One ecoside theory popularized by US biologist 74 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: Jared Diamond in his two thousand five book Collapse, How 75 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 1: Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, suggests that the islands 76 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: human population may have overexploited the land by cutting down 77 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: most of its forests. The depletion of forests would have 78 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,799 Speaker 1: left soil vulnerable to erosion, making it difficult to plant crops. 79 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,720 Speaker 1: That account, however, is still up for debate. Subsequent research 80 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: has suggested that other factors, including the introduction of the 81 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,719 Speaker 1: Polynesian rat and shifts and climate, could have contributed to 82 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: the islands deforestation. Markham said there's a lot of ongoing 83 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 1: argument about the island's history and what were the driving 84 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: factors of its deforestation, but in general, there are hundreds 85 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 1: of other places around the world where we can demonstrate 86 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: that overusing resources and not caring for the landscape can 87 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: lead to huge problems. Today, the island is mostly covered 88 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,200 Speaker 1: in meadow and is home to a year round population 89 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: of about five thousand, seven hundred people. The island's economy 90 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: is totally dependent on tourism, and last year it was 91 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 1: visited by some one hundred thousand people who spent more 92 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: than seventy million dollars at local businesses. Economics are one 93 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: part of what's at stake should the islands artifacts be 94 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:11,160 Speaker 1: destroyed by climate change. Perhaps even more profound is the 95 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: vulnerability of a historic legacy that's vital not only to 96 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: the people of Easter Island, but also to the world. 97 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: Markham said Easter Island matters to local people who live there, 98 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: but is also a place of global heritage. The island 99 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: carries an ability to connect with people's sense that it's 100 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:34,400 Speaker 1: important for all of humankind. Today's episode was written by 101 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,600 Speaker 1: Amanda Onion and produced by Tyler Clang, with kind engineering 102 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,280 Speaker 1: assistance by Ramsay Yacht. For more on this and lots 103 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: of other environmental topics, visit our home planet, how stuff 104 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:55,479 Speaker 1: Works dot com.