Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature

Rating:
Summary: A book to read, study and recommend to others
Review: I recommend we all read and even study Paradise for Sale. The authors link the global market economy to the exploitation of the earth's natural resources including biological ecosystems, and raise the question of the planet's sustainability for human habitation. This picture is viewed through a lens on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru and its history from paradise to compromised present and future. The "shadows" of Nauru are evidenced across the planet. Hope is spotlighted. Underlying the fragility of and hope for human life on this planet is the examination of the stories or mythologies that support both the destruction and hope. This book is full of stories and clear examples and quite readable.

Rating:
Summary: This book is crap
Review: If you want to learn anything about Nauru, don't bother. If you have a significant emotional investment in the idea that the earth is doomed and western culture is raping the planet, then this is the book for you. Just be sure to read it by candlelight so you aren't guilty of intellectual dishonesty (no animal fat or paraffin candles allowed, either).

But then intellectual dishonesty is at the very core of this book. The Nauran people, who you would think play the central role in this undeniable environmental tragedy, are mere scenery. The authors never bother to provide anything other than shallow reporting of their culture, history or current situation. The fact that the authors are lamenting on their behalf is presumably adequate. Similarly, as pointed out in another review, the authors wrote most of the book without bothering to visit, then spent thousands of dollars to ride on a gas-guzzling, ozone-destroying jet to add some credibility to their preconceived notions. And the whole analogy of Nauru (small isolated island with limited resources and diversity) as Earth (large, diverse lots of resources) is simplistic, but really relevant? The authors never really bother with relevance, because hey, simplistic analogies speak for themselves. In any case, the authors don't seem to have any serious credentials (other than burning sincerity and concern, which is often all you need in some circles), so it is hard to give much credence to what they say about science or anything else.

But what I found most offensive was the authors' condescending western liberal intellectual "gee aren't the natives cute and oh-so-wise" view of certain non-western cultures that they annoint as being "in tune" with their environments. They give a number of examples, but the one that sticks in my mind is the Ladhki (sp.?) people, who supposedly live in harmony with their harsh mountain environment. The authors concede that this culture has a high infant mortality rate, but that individuals who make it past the age of five generally enjoy a long healthy life. Well, that's just fine isn't it? As long as it's someone else's babies who are dying. . . But then that is the real problem, isn't it; too many people. If they would just stop reproducing (or living, at least since premature death is the unspoken aspect of "living in harmony with the environment) and aspiring to the same quality of life that the authors enjoy (well, they probably feel suitably guilty about it), everything would be fine.

Make no mistakes; turning a tropical island into a lunar wasteland is a terrible thing, and the people who have to live there probably wish things were different. But this is so blindingly obvious that a whole book on the subject would be (and is) ridiculous.

Rating:
Summary: Paradise is the world, and it has already beed sold.
Review: Nauru's "surrogate globe" status is more than applicable when analysed in conjunction with the forces of conventional economic globalisation. Furthermore, "Limits to Growth" did not predict living in caves in the near future, actually. "Paradise for Sale" certainly discusses proper causes and effects, and accordingly predicts not living in caves, but not living at all. Despite grimness, which is somewhat alleviated at the end of the book, McDaniel and Gowdy raise points about our market and consumption practices that must be constantly put before a complacent reading public. It is no longer a question of "are we destroying the planet and therefore ourselves?" but rather a question of "when will the planet die, and will I be there to experience the pain?" "Paradise for Sale" does not have an uplifting message. It is not the new bible falsely promising salvation and bliss at the end of the age. The book shows proof of global catastrophe and gives no hope to the apathetic. Through the example of Nauru and other islands, the authors give a choice to the populace. (1) to follow the path of globalisation and conventional economics to its proper end (i.e. Death and destruction and complete and utter misery) or (2) immediately start upon a conscious and active journey toward sustainability that will, in time, result in a livable and pleasant world. The example of the island of Tikopia has potential for application to the globe as a whole. The island was destroyed through one of the common forms of Polynesian settlement patterns, but its people gradually and consciously rebuilt the ecosystem and instituted sustainable habitation patterns. Tikopia encouragingly went from a prime example of destruction to an equally prime example of ingenious sustainability. Thus, McDaniel and Gowdy show two futures for the world, namely those numbered above. In recommendation, I have a bit of advice. Pay no attention to the negative reviews posted here. They are invariably written by people who need to solve a bit of their own inner turmoil before they interact with the rest of humanity. "Paradise for Sale" I recommend wholeheartedly, for all groups. It should be translated into as many languages as possible. It is the latest addition to the growing arsenal of positive and true environmental literature. After Paradise, I recommend that you also read John Gowdy's selection of anthropological essays which he compiled in the highly informative "Limited Wants, Unlimited Means(1997)."

Rating:
Summary: A look at "Paradise for Sale"
Review: The story of Nauru may well be the story of the modern world writ small and fast! In `Paradise for Sale' Carl McDaniel and John Gowdy trace the history of Nauru, a tiny south-Pacific island, to explore how and why so-called `modern' humans come invariably to live beyond the means of nature and seem blinded to the warning signals of ecological collapse.

Nauru is a nearly circular islet virtually on the equator with a diameter of only six to seven kilometers. Prior to its `discovery' in 1798, the island's human population was only about a thousand totally self-reliant Micronesians. "In the absence of trade or other contact with the outside would, the people of Nauru developed a self-contained, durable society" (p. 14). They lived harmoniously within the bounds of nature, sustained comfortably by plentiful fish, coconuts, pandanus fruit, and a variety of other natural and cultivated crops.

In 20th Century terms, the island's greatest boon (and most fatal curse) has been its rich deposits of phosphate. Phosphate is a vital constituent of fertilizer and once Nauru's bounty was recognized in 1900, the island's fate was sealed. Industrialization was imposed from without. In just a century of mining, mainly to the benefit of one colonial authority after another, Nauru's once verdant interior, or `topside', today lies devastated. Over 80% of the island is a desert wasteland.

As they watched their homeland and ecosystem being systematically dissipated across the globe, the native people of Nauru were quickly transformed from proud self-sufficiency to hopeless dependence on the global economy. Today, 10,000 inhabitants of the island's narrow coastal strip live almost entirely on imported goods - even their water must now be brought in from distant `elsewheres'. While for the time being Nauruans remain economically afloat on the bare leavings of their colonial legacy, their phosphate wealth is running out and the island is deeply in ecological and fiscal debt. There is no return to paradise, so where do Nauruans go from here?

That's the question McDaniels and Gowdy are really posing to us all. In microcosm, Nauru's modern history is the history of the industrial world. In country after country, industrial humans, thoroughly alienated from nature, have destroyed much of their own natural bounties, exceeded their domestic carrying capacities, and come to rely on commerce to sustain themselves. In ecological terms, many modern states `occupy' through trade and exploitation of the global commons, an area several times larger than their home territories. Their economies stay afloat on high-end manufacturing and the `knowledge' industries, but the biophysical basis of life is eroding away at an accelerating pace.

This pattern is clearly neither sustainable nor extendible to all countries, yet we rush madly to cast the three-quarters of the yet-to-be-developed world from the same mold. Read this book for a thumbnail sketch of this fatal process and for the seemingly radical but obvious steps that must be taken to ensure a humanely viable future. "The story of how the world came to be the way it is calls for a reoriented worldview directed toward enduring habitations. To choose and then to walk the path to an enduring civilization will not be easy..." (p. 174). The question is, must it be catastrophe that forces us to take even the first tentative steps?

Rating:
Summary: Read this book. Tell your friends to read this book.
Review: The world is in the middle of a human-caused mass extinction of species. We are gobbling up the planet like there's no tomorrow, and that will be the case unless we stop now and totally re-evaluate our way of life. What can we do to avoid the inevitable global crisis that will follow the destruction of our natural resources? McDaniel and Gowdy draw upon the effects of limited resources on humans in isolated ecosystems in the Pacific islands to paint a bleek picture of the future of our global ecosystem. We do not dare ignore the message. If you care about the world of your children and grandchildren, read this book, and pass it on.

Rating:
Summary: A look at "Paradise for Sale"
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: This is an IMPORTANT book
Review: This is a book on the scale of "Silent Spring". Listen and heed it's message; this earth, our home, is in trouble. "Paradise for Sale" shows us, with fascinating and disturbing examples and in graphic detail, what can happen to the earth if we don't start changing our way of life. The good news is that it can be done but it has to start NOW! Read this book, it's important.

Rating:
Summary: Advice they wouldn't take themselves
Review: This is standard Chicken Little environmentalism, taking the example of Nauru, an island only five miles across, as a surrogate for the whole globe.

As Gowdy admits, he wrote the book before he ever visited Nauru, not the best kind of scholarship. A last-minute visit yielded an uninformative ``Coda,'' but to promote this book as being about Nauru, as U. of California Press has, is deceptive advertising.

The thesis: if we eat meat, use fossil fuels or multiply, the Earth is doomed. Where have we heard this before? Oh, yeah, the Club of Rome's ``Limits to Growth,'' which predicted we would all be living in caves by now.

The only thing that separates this eco-panic book from many others is the authors' grim approval of mass suicide, infanticide and famine as ways to keep humans in balance with nature.

Given that grimness, you might think they would have scratched their text on palm leaves using a rat's tooth, but they printed it in the regular way, on a high-speed electric press, using paper made of pine wood clear cut in Georgia.

And while they don't approve of Hawaii vacations, that didn't stop them from flying from New York to the South Pacific.

Ain't it funny how philosopher kings are ready to appoint themselves directors of how we behave, but they always manage to find exceptions for themselves?