Paradise for Sale is popular PDF and ePub book, written by Carl N. McDaniel in 2000-01-28, it is a fantastic choice for those who relish reading online the Nature genre. Let's immerse ourselves in this engaging Nature book by exploring the summary and details provided below. Remember, Paradise for Sale can be Read Online from any device for your convenience.
Paradise for Sale Book PDF Summary
The grim history of Nauru Island, a small speck in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Hawaii and Australia, represents a larger story of environmental degradation and economic dysfunction. For more than 2,000 years traditional Nauruans, isolated from the rest of the world, lived in social and ecological stability. But in 1900 the discovery of phosphate, an absolute requirement for agriculture, catapulted Nauru into the world market. Colonial imperialists who occupied Nauru and mined it for its lucrative phosphate resources devastated the island, which forever changed its native people. In 1968 Nauruans regained rule of their island and immediately faced a conundrum: to pursue a sustainable future that would protect their truly valuable natural resources—the biological and physical integrity of their island—or to mine and sell the remaining forty-year supply of phosphate and in the process make most of their home useless. They did the latter. In a captivating and moving style, the authors describe how the island became one of the richest nations in the world and how its citizens acquired all the ills of modern life: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension. At the same time, Nauru became 80 percent mined-out ruins that contain severely impoverished biological communities of little value in supporting human habitation. This sad tale highlights the dire consequences of a free-market economy, a system in direct conflict with sustaining the environment. In presenting evidence for the current mass extinction, the authors argue that we cannot expect to preserve biodiversity or support sustainable habitation, because our economic operating principles are incompatible with these activities.
Detail Book of Paradise for Sale PDF
- Author : Carl N. McDaniel
- Release : 28 January 2000
- Publisher : Univ of California Press
- ISBN : 9780520924451
- Genre : Nature
- Total Page : 243 pages
- Language : English
- PDF File Size : 19,6 Mb
If you're still pondering over how to secure a PDF or EPUB version of the book Paradise for Sale by Carl N. McDaniel, don't worry! All you have to do is click the 'Get Book' buttons below to kick off your Download or Read Online journey. Just a friendly reminder: we don't upload or host the files ourselves.
