What were those who cut down the last trees thinking about?

When I studied the wild nature of Oceania, I heard the stories of local people. On many islands, before the arrival of Europeans, people cut down entire forests for fuel, construction, boats, the transportation of sacred statues, and the expansion of agriculture. When the large trees disappeared, boats disappeared with them, fishing in the open sea disappeared, birds vanished, soils began to collapse, harvests declined, and peoples simply died — from hunger, in wars, and in conflicts over the last remaining resources.

And no one thought about the disaster ahead when they were cutting down the last trees. They simply raised their axes and destroyed themselves. Imagine an island, and you are standing beside the last tree: to cut it down or not? And people made their decision — to cut it down.

But there are also rare examples where people proved wise enough not to destroy everything. Tikopia, for example: society survived there because it limited destructive practices, regulated population size, changed its economy, and consciously protected the island ecosystem. This means that a choice always existed, but many societies chose death.

Modern society, our civilization, apparently is also choosing death. Because right now we are destroying what remains — only now on the scale of the entire planet.