10.2190/B2P9-59AQ-W7EP-WGW1 B2P959AQW7EPWGW1 2 "Their" Environmental Problems and Our Own: The United States and the Palau Islands 279 290 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 B2P959AQW7EPWGW1.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=B2P959AQW7EPWGW1 4 Joshua Epstein New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Stony Brook, New York The present article is the last in a series on Palau. The Palau Islands are part of the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific. The series examines Palauan attempts to exercise more control over, and protection of, their social and natural resources in the face of complex threats. The first article introduced Palau. The second article concentrated on Palauan strategies and an interaction mode, designed to deal with extent and long-term threats to the island environment. The focus was on the years 1975 to 1981. The present article explicates the maturation of the environment/development dilemma that has faced Palau, and draws parallels between the Palauan problems, and the nuclear and environmental threats that challenge us all. J. Epstein, Indigenous Attempts to Protect the Environment: A Pacific Island Case, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 17</i>:2, p. 139, 1987-88. L. K. Caldwell, <i>International Environmental Policy</i>, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, p. 277, 1984. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, <i>The State of the Environment 1985</i>, OECD Publications Office, Paris, p. 30, 1985. K. A. Dahlberg, M. S. Soroos, A. R. Feraru, J. E. Harf, and B. T. Trout, <i>Environment and the Global Arena</i>, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, p. 29, 1985. National Research Council, <i>Acid Deposition, Long-Term Trends</i>, National Academy Press, Washington, D. C., p. 1, 1986. A. Cohen and S. Lee (eds.), <i>Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Humanity</i>, Rowman and Allanheld, Totowa, NJ, p. 97, 1986. J. Epstein, Political Attempts to Defend the Environment: A Pacific Island Case, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 17</i>:3, p. 200, 1987-88. C. Sagan, Nuclear War and Climatic Catastrophy, in <i>Foreign Affairs, 62</i>, p. 259, Winter 1983/1984.