2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser

There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity.

Fighting pseudoscience isn't free.
We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with PayPal Logo.png!
Donations so far: $7608.77Goal: $10000

Nauru

From RationalWiki
Revision as of 13:59, 1 November 2019 by Spud (talk | contribs) (Sources needed.)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Warning icon orange.svg This page contains too many unsourced statements and needs to be improved.

Nauru could use some help. Please research the article's assertions. Whatever is credible should be sourced, and what is not should be removed.

Nauru is a nominally independent island in the Pacific Ocean that once enjoyed a very high standard of living owing to its minuscule population (today less than 15,000) and huge riches of phosphate (aka high-quality bird poop). These days the interior is entirely desolate as phosphate supplies have largely been exhausted, the government is highly unstable and practically bankrupt, and Australia calls most of the shots. The sovereign wealth fund evaporated through bad investments and embezzlement by corrupt officials. The population suffers some of the very highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world and does not have the facilities to deal with these issues. All residents live on the coast, which is also at risk due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.

The future is very much in doubt, and Nauru serves as a cautionary tale to other societies based on a mirage of endless prosperity.