Environmental Economics

Article Review # 99492

English > Analysis
Environmental Studies > Economics and Policy
Environmental Studies > Environmental Problems

An analysis of the concepts raised by Jared Diamond in his article, "Easter's End."

1,561 words () | 3 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Jared Diamond's article relating the decline and fall of the Easter Island Polynesians, "Easter's End." The paper examines Diamond's use of the Easter Island example as a moral illustration for contemporary society and what will happen if it persists in its unmitigated consumptive habits. It discusses the points that Diamond makes and the lessons that he attempts to teach his readers.

Table of Contents:
Abstract
Overview
Point and Hypothesis
Hypothesis and Theory
Evidence
Validity of Assumptions
Policy Recommendations
Conclusions

From the Paper:

"This is a different perspective then. Where Diamond is accusatory of the state and its economic model as being implicitly responsible for the environmental destruction of Easter Island, other researchers view the state and the political apparatus as an integral part of the solution. That is, where human kind and human nature deserve at least as much of the responsibility for the environmental destruction as the economic model. The primary recommendation is that economic policies founded in the principles of sustainable development should aligned with the political apparatus which governs the broader society."

Sample of Sources Used:

Diamond, J. (1995). Another Way of Knowing (online). Retrieved September 27, 2006 from: http://www.awok.org/easters_end
MAki, U. (Ed.). (2002). Fact and Fiction in Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Prudham, W. S. (2002). Regional Science, Political Economy and the Environment. Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 25(2), 171+.