Societies that destroy themselves

Do you believe that humankind has the potential to completely exhaust all of the resources on the planet?  It appears that we now do.  

In fact, resource depletion may be the number-one killer of civilizations.  The big difference now is that we are doing it on a planetary scale.  The next time, we won't be able to move to the next valley or cross a land-bridge to another continent.

This page will contain a listing of the societies which consumed themselves into oblivion, in the hopes that somehow this will raise the awareness of what we are doing to the planet.  Please add to the list, below.

• Easter Island:  This is the poster child for unsustainable societies.  Trapped on a tiny island thousands of miles from the nearest land, they still cut down every single tree and allowed nearly all the topsoil to erode, before dissolving into cannibalism.  In only about 300 years, they turned their 64 square miles from a palm-filled jewel to a wasteland.  
• Classic Maya:  The great Mayan cities all collapsed suddenly around 900 a.d., 500 years before Columbus was born.  The bulk of evidence points to overpopulation and resource depletion as the major factors.  Secondary factors were lack of fresh water and the resulting diseases, building on prime farm land, war and extravagant public works, all of which strain resources.  Researchers are even finding evidence of urban sprawl in Mayan cities.

Add your favorite collapsed civilization to the list.  Size of box does not limit comments.

Response from the Sustainable Enterprises Community

• "Olmecs (Jaredites), Mulikites, Nephites. The Book of Mormon contains the record of these major Meso-American civilizations and an urgent, recurring, and plain warning to current America. Sometimes the consequences of ignorance and stupidity are more serious even in the long term than what many choose to call sin. Large industrial cities don't really make sense to anyone at any time, it seems to me, yet we keep doing them. (Makes one wonder who is in charge of such wholesale insanity.)  I've thought for a long time that a sustainable society is only possible with all practicing a sustainable lifestyle that consists of a diet of home grown vegetables and fruits, a minimal dependence on wasteful animal foods, and lives of voluntary simplicity. If everyone valued a lifestyle in which the three main tasks were learning, sharing, and growing a garden many of our current worlds challenges would go away like the frost in the mornings sun."