Utility firms could tell us how our consumption compares with that of our neighbours (Image: Henrik Sorensen/Getty Images)
WHEN the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen visited Easter Island in 1722, he found a barren landscape inhabited by a society on the verge of environmental collapse. Yet only a few hundred years earlier, the island had been covered in lush forests with a thriving culture. Disaster struck – and it was entirely human-made. The islanders were competing for status by erecting huge stone statues, and so many trees had been needed to transport the monuments that by 1722 the island was almost…
