Industry News

Rapanui Launch New T Shirt For World Population Day

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 July, 2010 : - - Eco Surfwear Brand Rapanui has launched a new t shirt to raise awareness of global population increase. The brand’s new Malthus shirt has been launched in time for world over population day this Sunday the 11th July and is inspired by the story of Easter Island and Thomas Malthus.

On the 11th July 1989 the earth recorded 5 billion day – the estimated day on which the earth’s population reached 5 billion – public interested was sparked and now every 11th July the world turns its attention to population growth. Our population is now estimated to be over 6.8 billion at the time of writing and rising at a rate of around one person per second.

Rapanui co founder and director of sustainability Mart Drake-Knight explains the inspiration behind Rapanui and the new Malthus T shirt:
 
“Population is a bit of a tabboo subject. Unfortunately though, it is one that we will have to open up about sooner rather than later and re-recognise the reality - no matter how intelligent we are, we will never be more than a species of life and will always be regulated by our resources. The story of Easter Island, or Rapanui as the natives call it, is a great metaphor for sustainability. A remote island in the Pacific, the Rapanui people thrived on the rich rainforests, abundant food and fertile soil - flourishing enough to develop perhaps one of earths most richest cultures. Yet despite sustaining their lifestyle for thousands of years, in a few generations their island was reduced to a barren, treeless landscape barely able to support the 111 impoverished Rapanui that were discovered by  Jacob Roggeveen.

The Rapanui have tought us one of the most valuable lessons in all sustainability: They highlighted the fact that if populations exceed the carrying capacity of an ecosystem, the ecosystem will collapse. Cut down trees at a rate faster than the rate of tree growth, and there will be no trees. This pattern has been compared to the life of yeast in Beer, the life of deer left without predators on a grassy island, and the pattern is the same - its called malthusean collapse. Left alone without predators with an abundance of resources, the species population grows exponentially until the resource is depleted. If the ecosystem has no boundaries, the population will move on and find new resources. If not, they will die.
 
The Rapanui, on their remote pacific island, had nowhere to go. And one day humans will see their own planet as a remote island in the sea of space. Comparing the population growth to that of yeast destined for a Malthusean collapse, we may wonder one day why we didnt see the signs. But Rapanui, or Easter Island, tought this lesson hundreds of years ago. The question is - when it sinks in, will it be too late?

Check out our population-inspired Malthus Organic Tee with a population / tetris twist...

For more information on sustainability at Rapanui check their information on eco fashion

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Rob Drake Knight / Rapanui

Industry - Surfersvillage