How a tiny Pacific island went from tropical paradise to facing oblivion [View all]

[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.