A good summation, but misses the one question never asked in civilized history: What does the island need from humans that live on it?

How can the humans that live there make the island a sustainable place to be?

Talk of trade and gasoline and all the luxuries (fossil-fueled products and excess people) doesn't address the basic problem that anthropocentrism represents to any place.

Humans need to learn to be contributors rather than extractors (colonialists). Most of the things we see around us are unnecessary to the places we live (including this computer and these words).

The West is driven by selfish White Manifest Destiny under the purview of a supposedly omnipotent God. The East should know better.

Just because we (humans) can steal the future (debt, fossil fuels, etc), doesn't mean we should continue to do so.

Sri Lanka is probably the best place to prove that humans can be useful to any geographic location. Whether they can do so with intent and foresight is the experiment humanity has been lacking.