We're Not Dependent on the Environment Like the Easter Islanders Are

There is a huge quantitative difference in the amount of knowledge that either civilization had. Our approach to knowledge is this culture of criticism, where we are continuously improving things. The easter islanders didn't have artificial fertilizer. They were completely subject to whatever the natural environment provided them with. This wasn't even happening in easter island, as we well come to see. So we are, yes, dependent upon the environment for some natural resources. However, our relationship to those natural resources is such that if they begin to reduce to the point where we begin to run out of a particular resource, we can create new ones. And you might well wonder, if we continue to tell this story of