Lipo and Hunt do not claim to have all the answers. Instead, they aim to make other researchers think more critically about the history of Easter Island. The story of ecocide may usefully confirm our darkest fears about humanity but, as Diamond points out in Collapse, for every society that self-destructs there is another that does the right thing. It is far from clear that the Easter Islanders made their situation much worse for themselves, but only more evidence will resolve the issue.