How a tiny Pacific island went from tropical paradise to facing oblivion

[BlueToTheBone]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1189180--how-a-tiny-pacific-island-went-from-tropical-paradise-to-facing-oblivion

This could well be our fate. The thread about the tar sands is a stunning comparison for our future based on their past and present.




snip
Not very long ago, Nauru’s hotels were empty just about all of the time, owing to the nearly complete collapse of the island’s economy during the decade just past, when a stubborn combination of myopia, misfortune, indolence and greed produced a truly vertiginous descent.

But not an unexpected one. The factors threatening Naura had been building toward a terrible climax for more than a century.

What follows is the chronicle of a death long foretold, if recently delayed, as well as a cautionary tale for all 7 billion residents of the planet Earth.

In the still-unfolding tale of Nauru’s anticipated ruin, it may well be possible to discern the future that awaits the planet as a whole, this fragile orb of finite resources and seemingly infinite appetites, spinning through the vast emptiness of space.

Let it be noted, however, that if oblivion is to be our common fate, then Nauru seems destined to get there first.

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[Tanelorn]

2. this is where Australia's opposition party wants to send"illegal" boat people.

[BlueToTheBone]

3. There are bastards everywhere!

This story reminds me of a drive I took through Oregon in the late 70's or early 80s. We were almost pushed off the road by logging trucks who considered the hiways their personal throughfares to the mills. Truck after truck filled with giant logs made me realize that they were hollowing out the forests from the inside and by the time people realized what was happening, they would have all the trees. Now the state is a tree farm with the oldest tree around being maybe 30 years.

[pscot]

4. They leave a fringe along the roadside

so the tourists don't notice the mess they've made.

[BlueToTheBone]

5. exactly. I thnk they call it a

Beauty Strip.

[Tanelorn]

6. This happens in Australia also

'Wait a minute wasn't there a forest there once'.

Drive on nothing to see here. Literally