The video by Brut America is all about the country Nauru which ate itself.

What is meant by
“eating itself” is that the country quickly used up all of its natural resources - falling from a
country with one of the highest standards of living into an island with arid, industrial landscapes,
with barely any flora and fauna. Nauru was able to enjoy a high standard of living thanks to the
lucrative phosphate deposits found in the island. Unfortunately, their overreliance and
overexploitation of these natural resources led to their downfall. Once the phosphate deposits
ran out, the economy collapsed. It came to the point where so much of the land had been
destroyed, the government could not even rely on tourism for funds.

Ecology is concerned with the relationship between living organisms and their physical
environment. Nauru can be used as an example to highlight this vital connection between the
biotic and abiotic factors of an ecosystem. The destruction of the land due to intensive mining of
phosphate deposits eventually led to the death of 40% of marine life. This goes to show that
removing one component of an ecosystem can have serious consequences on the rest of the
inhabitants and even the surrounding environment.

It can be argued that any country can experience detrimental effects to its economy if it were to
mismanage its natural resources. There are however some countries that heavily rely on natural
resources to which it makes up a good chunk of their revenue. Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia
are the top 3 countries that are most dependent on oil to fuel their economic growth. According
to 2012 World Bank data, oil makes up roughly half of these countries’ GDPs. It might not be far
off to assume the same will happen to Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia as is Nauru if ever their
oil resources dry up. On top of that, the destruction of the environment is already a rampant
problem in our present time. The way our world currently consumes earth’s natural resources is
not enough to last for a few generations. We only have a finite amount of resources and we only
have one earth. Watching the video on Nauru and reflecting on the type of lifestyle our modern
society has, I have gained a newfound appreciation and value of the environment and the
resources it provides to the living organisms that live in it.

Reference:
Hutt, R. (2016). Which economies are most reliant on oil? World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/which-economies-are-most-reliant-on-oil/