The Tragedy of the Commons (Easter Island)

From reading the passage in the book about Easter Island, and how the Easter Islanders depleted their natural resources shows a scary and truthful fact. The fact is that this could just as easily and suddenly happen to us, without proper regulations, and the finding of alternate resources, that are not overly expansive. I believe this will happen eventually, there is no stopping unless there is a material unknown to man that can replace all our resources found on Earth, which is nearly impossible. But i also believe it won't happen soon as long as regulations are put in place that restrict the use and the quantity of resources taken from the Earth, especially our intermediate resources and our non renewable resources. But other from these regulations we need to take even greater steps in research in finding ways to utilize our renewable resources in larger and cheaper ways. This can be done just by making cheaper solar panels, and Wind farms that the general public can use it in mass. This may not happen immediately or quickly but it NEEDS to happen within the next few decades or sooner or we all might be in a new "dark age". So yes i believe that we can learn from the Eastern Islanders, but I also believe that we have gone down a path and it is impossible to go back. At the end of this path is the end of all or most fossil fuels, and without fossil fuels and with a massive population of soon to be seven billion, chaos will reign. That is unless we can harness renewable resources and regulate our intermediate resources (water, soil, and wood) there will be nothing left.