Answering Diamond's Question

Jared Diamond (seen via Muck and Mystery (seen via FuturePundit)):

Why were Easter Islanders so foolish as to cut down all their trees, when the consequences would have been so obvious to them? This is a key question that nags everyone who wonders about self-inflicted environmental damage. I have often asked myself, "What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?" Like modern loggers, did he shout "Jobs, not trees!"? Or: "Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we'll find a substitute for wood"? Or: "We need more research, your proposed ban on logging is premature"?

The man who cut down the last tree on Easter Island was probably doing it in revenge for the incident in which the other side cut down the next-to-last tree on Easter island.

It probably would have had no effect in a more established settlement, but new settlements at the edge of their respective civilizations (Easter Islanders, Greenland Vikings, Haitians, and Anasazi) tend to be vulnerable. The only ecologically-related collapse I can think of in an established core civilization is the collapse of Mayan civilization … and that had more to do with a takeover by jungles instead of deserts.