The birds clearly couldn't wait that long - they would have been extinct. We will leave a valuable legacy. That the birds are now being preserved by proceeds form the phosphate mine is perhaps a perfect example OCS cyclical natural law, as the phosphate was originally formed from bird dropping guano accumulated over centuries. Proceed from those ancient bird droppings are now being used as an investment in the future of the bird's ancestors. The third member of the unlikely trio that combined to save the natural habitat of the birds is Lillian Oh - formerly Union Secretary and now Shire President.
Environmental rehabilitation is seen as good for the long term future of the island.
Lillian Oh came to the island to help with union business after the Federal government closed the mine. It took just over three years for the workers to revive the mine. Even the operators of Christmas Island's new casino recognise that in the gambling off-season their beds need to be occupied by keen tourists wishing to see not roulette wheel and playing cards, but booby birds and 3 million crabs. There is a common good recognised by the hard-nosed business man, the bird lover and the unionist. Nauru has been described as a small island in the middle of a blue ocean whose birds have flown away.