This blog was originally posted on my personal website back in June..

Wild ducks visiting...

“My Bees, My Trees:”
•         An ‘Environmental’ Perspective:

Part 1: 15 – 21 June, 2008

What is this world coming to? Changing weather – prolonged droughts; more flooding and bushfires; decreased rainfall and changing weather patterns; greater temperature extremes; higher and receding snowlines; melting icecaps  - they are all here and happening now …
I don’t know how some people can be in so much denial about what is happening to our world today; but sometimes I can see where they are coming from – in certain aspects…  These are mostly that type of person who places economic returns before the health of the environment; their own profits ahead of social costs and benefits; they often cry “jobs First” without ever having any respect for the individuals welfare or wellbeing; and they rarely show little – if any - regard to the effects of their delusional beliefs and selfish actions.

“Climate Change”:
The weather has been changing, and for the worse – summers becoming hotter, drier, longer – droughts are on the increase. Over 2/3 of NSW is currently drought declared – an increase of 15% over a couple of months ago – some regions down here have been so dry for more than a decade now.    Bushfires are becoming more common, and more severe in some places.    The polar icecaps are melting at an increasing rate, and icebergs breaking off earlier and more frequently.   The snowline has been creeping higher each year – and the ski seasons are becoming more variable and inconsistent.     Storms, cyclones, hurricanes, and more severe winter weather – all are becoming more prevalent as conditions continue to degenerate…
As the climate continues to change more and more dramatically over the coming decades, we will be - inevitably  - seeing some of the biggest shifts in both where people live and how they work and survive. More extreme weather patterns, increasing droughts and changeable rain systems will mean moving agricultural enterprises to where suitable conditions are – this will probably see a shift up north in Australia, and south in parts of North America and Russia. Much more extreme weather patterns will also bring even more of what we have already seen already in the last couple of decades – more storms, floods, cyclones, tornadoes, hurricanes, bushfires, blizzards, beach erosion – and this will add more demand on emergency services; and also one of the biggest losses in personal wealth as thousands maybe millions..) of acres of seaside towns and beachfront houses, are inevitably swamped by rising tides, greater storm surges and encroaching seas..
While people refuse to change or modify their ways; and big business puts more effort into lobbying against change, than they do into actually cleaning up their acts – so it seems it is now only a matter of when, and not if, we will be experiencing all these negative and costly changes. Beach houses, low lying areas, seaside suburbs, homes built upon sand instead of rock – these are all to be avoided in the next couple of decades. And be prepared to witness one of the largest mass migrations seen in the past few hundred years, as the oceans creep and encroach on the coastlines.

Pollution:
With so much attention being paid to climate change these days, and so much energy being sidetracked into the debate over whether CO2 is the major greenhouse gas or simply an indicator, this seems to often distract attention away from many other major sources of pollution – while in reality these haven’t disappeared, but simply so often been sidelined…
Industrial runoffs; air pollution, acid rain and smog; oil spills and fires; water pollution; asbestos and lead building up in local dumps and soils, with the continuing risks to both residents’ and workers’ health; overuse and misuse of fertilisers and pesticides; both radioactive wastes and direct irradiation; drugs, hormone and antibiotics flowing through our natural systems; sewerage, animal manures and other organic pollutants; noise, chemical and radioactive pollutants in peoples homes and workplaces – and so it goes on..
Poisoning our very home our planet, seems to be an acceptable cost to the “Economic Rationalist” mindset, that is so ingrained in nearly every major political party and corporate boardroom on Earth. On both sides we see special interest groups taking narrow-view perspectives on problems that beset us:  the environmental groups that only focus on one aspect – whether that might be reducing CO2, fighting nuclear power, or replacing internal combustion engines – and at the same time ignore both other problems and alternatives to their own pet projects, meaning they “give no regard to the bigger picture”. And the big business concerns who lobby against change, campaign utilysing propaganda that Goebel would have been proud to lay claim to, and promote useless and false solutions – like the fallacy of “Clean Coal”; whilst hopping in bed with “jobs at all costs” big-union bosses, and two timing politicians who often give scant regard to the costs on either society or the wider environment.

Land Clearing/Deforestation/Desertification:
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”
(Old Chee saying…)
Traditional Owners and Managers of the land often had quite a different philosophy of living in and on and with the earth – quite a world away from the avaricious and greed-driven goals of those modern investors who want to invade, take and use whatever they covert – with money their only god, and maximising their profits as the only measure of their ultimate success…
The massive and unprecedented amounts of land clearing and degradation that has been going on in large parts of Brazil, Africa, Australia and South East Asia bode ill for the health of this planet..
The rainforests are often referred to as ‘the lungs of the planet’, and with good reason, as – along with the huge amounts of phytoplankton in our oceans – they are the primary source of the oxygen that all life depends on.

Fossil Fuels:
Oil, coal and natural gases are a finite resource – one day they will run out, and certainly won’t be replaced in the near future…
In the meantime they will continue to be among the major producers of air, water and thermal pollution; a big contributor to land degradation; and one of the largest sources of “greenhouse gasses”..
One of the strangest attempts at whitewashing mans’ contributions to climate change has been the efforts of oil and mining company propagandists to blame it all on ‘natural cycles’ – mainly solar activity, ice ages and so on – unfortunately, those natural cycles simply don’t support these notions, as they refuse to line up in the required patterns. Not that seems to ever slow those charlatans down – they continue to bring forward their previously unknown, often unqualified and always contrary “renown experts” to attack and contradict the very evidence we see before our eyes.

Water Supplies: Security, Quality, and Reliability –
Over the next decade we may very well see water supply – its source, reliability, sustainability, quality and security – taking over from both energy/fuel supplies and food shortages as the pre-eminent environmental and economic issue. Water is at the very core of life on this planet – as with fresh air, it is one of the essential and irreplaceable necessities for our very existence. Even though over 75% of the planet is covered with water, only about 6% of this is fresh and available; and of that over half is contained in only two countries – Canada and Russia…
There are several countries in the Middle East, Europe, S.E. Asia and Central America that don’t have their own water supplies, but rely on water flowing down from their neighbours. Countries like Israel and a couple of its neighbours are some of the most vulnerable in this regard. In the Americas and Europe there are already some places where their essential water supply has found its way into the control of private business concerns – this is a very dangerous development in our world today, and one that could quite likely spread further, before there is any improvement in this situation..
Australia is the driest inhabited continent, with the second lowest rainfall after Antarctica. There is usually enough rainfall over the continent to support a population of up to 32 million or so – but unfortunately, due to poor planning in the past, a lot of that simply flows out to sea whenever it storms. Some people will look at Oz and think to themselves – “Ah, big open spaces !!” – but that view ignores one basic and insurmountable fact. 75% of Australia is ‘arid’ or ‘semi-arid’ land, and of the remainder less than ¼ of that (about 6%) is good agricultural land.
Like a lot of indigenous native peoples around the world – Native Americans, Brazilian rainforest dwellers, African bushmen, Pacific Islanders – the Australian Aborigines had for thousands of years lived within and as part of their local environment. While Googling for some “traditional wisdom” that I could add to this treatise, I found these little gems –

Australian Aboriginal Lore and Wisdom:
(The following excerpt is from Grieves, Vicki: ‘Aboriginal Philosophy’ - )
“    For the Awabakal, the supreme being who created their world is Biame, part human and part kangaroo or wallaby. In a rock cave on Bulgar Creek near Singleton Biame is depicted in a drawing approximately eight feet high as if his legs and arms are lying on the ground. The perpendicular lines drawn under the arms, three on right and four on the left, represent the seven tribes of the region for whom this supreme being had great significance: Worimi, Awabakal, Wonarua, Gamillaroi, Darkinjung, Gringai.” (Matthews 1893; Heath 1998).

Totemism
The sites which mark the resting place or activity of the supreme beings have become special or sacred places. These are the places of the spirits of creation, where their spirit lives on, totem sites, with meaning described by the stories for that place, and the place from which the spirit of the new born child comes. Through the totemic site an Aboriginal person comes to have identity, an understanding of his/her relationship with the natural world and other human beings. Those people connected to it have sacred obligation to its upkeep, such as repainting the figures, and performing appropriate ceremonies. The stencilled hand prints of the custodians on the Biame cave wall are often freshened to this day; the area outside the cave a bora ring for ceremonies. (Matthews 1893; Heath 1998)
This concept has connected Aboriginal people inextricably to the land and all of creation and into a set of obligations and cultural practices that ensured the conservation of the natural world. All Aboriginal people are related to the species and to the landscape as kin, through the process of being born from a totemic site, as are the species to whom one is related.
Through totemism , everything - humans, animals, land, weather (sun, wind, rain), moon, sky, stars - belongs to a conceptual, spiritual and social whole. Thus it is that Aboriginal societies across Australia have a culture that accords metaphysical primacy to place rather than time. Thus, while Europeans ignore the Aboriginal notion of being in the world, of connectedness to place, kin, community, all species and the natural world, they have insisted on the perspective of time and history. “
[ Singleton is in the middle of the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales – about 40 kilometres northwest of here. My own little bit of Aboriginal ancestry – through my father’s father’s father (i.e. my great-granddaddy!) - would most likely be with one or some of those tribal groups mentioned above.. The tribes in this region weren’t anywhere nearly as nomadic as many of the inland and northern tribes; tended to be more territorial home-bodies, and often traded, partied and interbred with their neighbours..].

Food Supply:
Today food supply and food shortages are currently the number two international problems for politicians, humanitarians, farmers and environmentalists – after energy, and ahead of water (above..).
Up until the last couple of years, the number of hungry people in the world has been gradually dropping, but then it has turned up again – last year it has been estimated that there wee 300 million more starving people than 2 years ago – an increase to 1.3 billion hungry mouths..
When there were a billion hungry souls, it was often claimed that there was enough food in the world, but that it was often a problem of distribution rather than supply. Since then the problems have been added to and compounded by a few extra factors – climate change, continuing droughts, loss of viable and productive farmland [to such things as ‘suburban sprawl’, pollution, land degradation, soil salinity..], competing land uses [e.g. ethanol, opium, coffee, strawberries – taking over from production of staples and basics for the local markets..], and poor government policies and decision making in the past.

“Bad” Farming Practices – there are many so called “farmers” out there who simply aren’t deserving of that title – those who are no more than farm ‘owners’, the lazy farm manager who doesn’t analyse but simply does more of might have worked before (overuse of fertilisers, pesticides and drugs is a good example of this type of behaviour..), those who simply stick to old inappropriate and damaging practices because “that’s the way their dad and granddads did it”…
Simply checking the layout of the land; analysing the soil; knowing where your water supplies come from and go to; keeping steep, boggy or sensitive areas under native vegetation; making sure there is adequate tree cover over your property – all of these things, so basic and simple, and not costly – will add to productivity, protect biodiversity, and maintain sustainability..
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”. There were improved and alternative [and often low-cost..] techniques and technologies available when I was studying agriculture 30 years ago – rotational and “cellular” grazing, pasture improvements, low-till and no-dig cropping, organic farming and gardening techniques, “Keyline” irrigation and drainage systems, low impact machinery and watering systems – there really aren’t any good excuses for farmers not to utilise better systems when they are so readily available.

“Agribusiness” concerns – too many times these days we see the so called “rights” of giant corporations being applied to impose, and extend the subsequent use and abuse of, such often undesirable inputs as genetically modified crops (‘GMOs’), acid-based fertilisers, highly-toxic pesticides, and hormone and antibiotic loaded meat…
Allowing the financial interests of any business to override the health imperatives of both society and the environment is never a good thing – and allowing these money based factors to take precedence over all else, is definitely a very bad idea – yet all too common these days..
When the emphasis shifts back onto the rights, the health and the welfare of the local communities, the small and family farmers, and society in general – and the overall health, safety and sustainability of our natural environments and the world in general – then we shall see some justice and righteousness for al life; over and above the greed-based profit motives and laissez faire attitudes of big business concerns.

“Propaganda”
And so it begins…
Lies, damn lies… and the constant flood of anti-environmental propaganda that is constantly bombarding us, day in and day out, most often from the big troika for such nonsense, but also often from those pathetic little lobbyists, lickspits and foot-soldiers who are ever so ready to accept the bones thrown to them…
“Big Business” – the money that supports these propaganda wars has to start somewhere, and so we have the ‘money men’ – as they say on the TV shows:  “Follow the money trails” – the oil, mining, agribusiness, forestry, chemical and drug concerns mentioned in the various sections above, are inevitably where the money, the lobbyists and the bald-faced liars that keep it flowing, have originated from..

Politicians – so many major political parties are ‘in bed’ with both big business and big unions these days, that the interests and welfare of the very people who put them there seem to all too often be taking ‘a back seat’ these days..

“Big Unions” – as with both big business and big government above, there can be problems introduced by big and powerful unions at times, too – especially when some unions involved in oil, mining, forestry or energy generation decide to push a “jobs above all else” else agenda – and most notably when all else encompasses the health and welfare of both the local communities, and the wider environment in general.

“Denialists”: “Denial  ain’t  just  a  river  in  Egypt  !”
I always find it so strange that some individuals can continue to be so pig-headed in the face of overwhelming evidence that things are happening here and now… Are they so blinded by their own greed, dogmas and/or political beliefs that they happily choose to live their lives blind to what is happening around and about them?
Are they simply motivated by having their large shareholdings in the very oil, mining, forestry, fishing and agribusiness concerns that are causing so much of this mess?  What is it with these people, that their own avarice can blind them to the inevitable consequences of their continuing stupid and recalcitrant behaviours?
What is with these people that they can push their own ignorant and self deceptive lines onto the rest of us, day-in and day-out – that as long as they have food to be thankful for, there is no hunger in the world; as long as they have a roof over their own head, there is no such thing as homelessness; if they don’t see it for themselves, there is no such things as air pollution, global warming, soil salinity – surely that is simply another communist plot against private business; if there is any oil still left out there not tapped out yet – it should be theirs for the taking?
As has so often been said before – there is no injustice so great, as the inhumanity that mankind inflicts upon his/her fellow man – and in this context we can extend that to encompass the whole of our world…

More ‘Traditional’ and Indigenous Philosophies:
Though it has been changed and romanticised over the years, the famous ‘Treaty Speech of Chief Seattle’ still remains one of the most eloquent and best recognised environmentally focused eulogies of all time – bringing a focus onto those traditional connections and attitudes that so many of the worlds indigenous peoples have towards the world as they live in it – the very fact that they live with, in and as part of their local ‘lands’ – and not simply on it as so many modern societies do, with their attempts to fight, conquer and over-develop mother nature :

“To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget. The Red Man could never comprehend or remember it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors - the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people. Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting ground to visit, guide, console, and comfort them. Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun. However, your proposition seems fair and I think that my people will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them. Then we will dwell apart in peace, for the words of the Great White Chief seem to be the words of nature speaking to my people out of dense darkness.
Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these sombre solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.”
(The ‘Smith’ Translation of a part of the Chief Seattle Treaty Speech: 1854.)