The "extraction-economy trap" comment reminded me of Jared Diamond's book Collapse. It has a chapter titled "Mining Australia", which starts like this:
> Mining in the literal sense -- i.e. the mining of coal, iron, and so on -- is a key to Australia's economy today, providing the largest share of its export earnings. In a metaphorical sense, however, mining is also key to Australia's environmental history and to its current predicament. That's because the essence of mining is to exploit resources that do not renew with time, and hence to deplete those resources. Since gold in the ground doesn't breed more gold and one thus has no need to take account of gold renewal rates, miners extract gold from a gold lode as rapidly as is economically feasible, until the lode is exhausted. Mining minerals may thus be contrasted with exploiting renewable resources -- such as forests, fish, and topsoil -- that do regenerate themselves by biological reproduction or by soil formation. Renewable resources can be exploited indefinitely, provided that one removes them at a rate less than the rate at which they regenerate. If however one exploits forests, fish, or topsoil at rates exceeding their renewal rates, they too will eventually be depleted to extinction, like the gold in a gold mine.
> Australia has been and still is "mining" its renewable resources as if they were mined minerals. That is, they are being overexploited at rates faster than their renewal rates, with the result that they are declining. At present rates, Australia's forests and fisheries will disappear long before its coal and iron reserves, which is ironic in view of the fact that the former are renewable but the latter aren't.
> While many other countries today besides Australia are mining their environments, Australia is an especially suitable choice for this final case study of past and present societies, for several reasons. It is a First World country, unlike Rwanda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and China, but like the countries in which most of the likely readers of this book live. Among First World countries, its population and economy are much smaller and less complex than those of the U.S., Europe, or Japan, so that the Australian situation is more easily grasped.
(i've typed this out manually from my copy of the book, any stupid typos are my fault, etc)
> Mining in the literal sense -- i.e. the mining of coal, iron, and so on -- is a key to Australia's economy today, providing the largest share of its export earnings. In a metaphorical sense, however, mining is also key to Australia's environmental history and to its current predicament. That's because the essence of mining is to exploit resources that do not renew with time, and hence to deplete those resources. Since gold in the ground doesn't breed more gold and one thus has no need to take account of gold renewal rates, miners extract gold from a gold lode as rapidly as is economically feasible, until the lode is exhausted. Mining minerals may thus be contrasted with exploiting renewable resources -- such as forests, fish, and topsoil -- that do regenerate themselves by biological reproduction or by soil formation. Renewable resources can be exploited indefinitely, provided that one removes them at a rate less than the rate at which they regenerate. If however one exploits forests, fish, or topsoil at rates exceeding their renewal rates, they too will eventually be depleted to extinction, like the gold in a gold mine.
> Australia has been and still is "mining" its renewable resources as if they were mined minerals. That is, they are being overexploited at rates faster than their renewal rates, with the result that they are declining. At present rates, Australia's forests and fisheries will disappear long before its coal and iron reserves, which is ironic in view of the fact that the former are renewable but the latter aren't.
> While many other countries today besides Australia are mining their environments, Australia is an especially suitable choice for this final case study of past and present societies, for several reasons. It is a First World country, unlike Rwanda, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and China, but like the countries in which most of the likely readers of this book live. Among First World countries, its population and economy are much smaller and less complex than those of the U.S., Europe, or Japan, so that the Australian situation is more easily grasped.
(i've typed this out manually from my copy of the book, any stupid typos are my fault, etc)