Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #847585 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 239 pages

About the Author
Carl N. McDaniel is Professor of Biology and Director of Undergraduate Environmental Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. John M. Gowdy is Professor of Economics and Director of the Ph.D. program in Ecological Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is editor of Limited Wants, Limited Means (1997).

Customer Reviews

History of Nauru from an environmental perspective
As a history of Nauru from an environmental perspective, Paradise for Sale is a great resource. As an environmental microcosm of our planet, well, history is not necessarily an predictor of our future, even if it is often an indicator. You will have to come to your own conclusions.

The basic premise is that if humanity does not change its current consumptive habits, we will effectively starve ourselves into extinction by depleting our limited resources. Many of the points made are excellent, and it is an insightful view of how Nauru invited its own destruction by selling its fossil commodities to the highest bidder, realizing short-term gains at great cost to its population.

Unfortunately, the book is too preachy for its own good. McDaniel believes in his point of view so arrogantly, he required Paradise for Sale as part of the curriculum for Biology 101 at his school, Rensselaer in Troy, NY. McDaniel used the history of Nauru as a microcosm for the Earth, and a predictor of our future demise if we continue to consume at our current rates. He is not necessarily wrong, just a bit too self-righteous for this reviewer's taste.

Nice guy, though.

"Paradise for Sale" got the job done for me.
I came upon Carl McDaniel's "Paradise for Sale" because I had to write a paper on phosphate mining on Nauru for my Environmental Science class. His book covered many of the aspects I needed for my paper including a good history lesson on phosphate, the island itself as well as the history of phosphate mining on Nauru. The only downfall of the book was the "we're doomed" vibe I got while finishing pretty much every chapter.

A look at "Paradise for Sale"
This book wasn't too bad. It has a good point, but the author does a lot of extrapolating and does not give a really good solution to the problem of resource overuse. Also, the author insults much of modern industrial society, but when he descibes his trip to Nauru, he mentions that he wants ice cream at one point and describes the food served there (beef, chicken, jello, and more) as good. Notice that these good foods and the availability of them are products of Western industrial society. Perhaps he is just another professor type who thinks he is above the common man because of his Ph.D and that people will not see the hypocrisy in his ideas and actions.