Easter Island statue – a cartoon about hubris

A cartoon showing Easter Islanders erecting a statue

There is a theory that the community on Easter Island went into decline when the Easter Islanders, the Rapa Nui, cut down all of the trees on the island while putting all of their efforts into erecting their famous statues, or moai.
With no trees left, life became unsustainable.

The cartoon can be seen as an argument for rewilding, the system by which degraded ecosystems can be returned to functioning systems by the reintroduction (either deliberately or by benign neglect) of native species.
An illustration about the hubris of power. It brings to mind Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Original cartoon drawn: 2012

Cartoon reference number: a537