Paradise threatened : a look at Seychelles in the anthropocene era

Abstract

In his 2016 book Overheating, Thomas Hylland Eriksen discusses the problematics of high-speed change in a world that is fast becoming too intense, too full, too fast, and most importantly, too unequally dominated by humans. In our recent past, change and modernity have been seen as synonymous with progress; but progress, Eriksen warns, has turned out to be a double-edged sword. Stemming from Eriksen’s discussion of overcrowding, high-speed mobility, and the consequential energy and waste management issues, this paper narrows down on the complexities of progress in the small island state of Seychelles. It discusses the impact of the Anthropocene era on the archipelago and its own contribution to that impact, through a review of literature and existing data on indicators of human activity such as tourism, energy, waste, consumerism, and pollution. Since Seychelles has often been synonymized with Paradise, which suggests that its inhabitants are ‘happy islanders’, could this country’s own high-speed ‘progress’ be impacting on the quality of life in Seychelles?