This Changes Everything

“Confronting the Climate Denier Within” (Pages 161-170)

Klein gives a brief account of the history of the small nation island of Nauru. After gaining independence from Australia in the late ‘60s, Nauru had been held up as an ideal model for developing countries. It grew wealthy because of the pure phosphate of lime that the island had in abundance, a resource that was highly valuable as an exported fertilizer: “Nauru started developing at record speed, the catch was that it was simultaneously committing suicide” (163). For centuries it was treated as a “disposable country,” a resource to be mined by the West. The people of the island grew very wealthy for a time, and decadent materialistic lifestyles were common.

All the island’s wealth depended on the finite supply of phosphate. The interior was mined exhaustively, making it infertile and uninhabitable. The government had plans to build a more sustainable economy, but terrible investments meant that its wealth was squandered. In the ‘90s, it became a money-laundering haven. Now with an enormous national debt, it faces both ecological and financial bankruptcy. To add to Nauru’s woes, it is also hugely vulnerable to a climate crisis it didn’t create due to drought and rising ocean levels.