Where is there concern for bio-diversity? Is it enough in our governments?
What have our extremes of climate been telling us? Think of our fires. Check NASA’s fire map!
Consider the question on the cover of ‘Encounter 2020’, the Flinders University raises. issue.
‘The only constant in life is change. But is it in the right direction?’
Regeneration is the direction if we choose wisely.
Found in SENT – Internode.on.net Mailbox.
or
Amazon fires increase by 84% in one year – space agency …
www.bbc.com › news › world-latin-america-49415973
The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. It is also home to about three million species of
Logging is ripping apart the Solomon Islands. One man is …
www.nationalgeographic.com › science › 2020/01 › de…
And in Australia! 850 coal seam gas wells for the Pilliga Forest in NSW …
And that is not all, of course. Logging in old growth forest in the Tarkine in Tasmania and protesters. fighting to protect it from the Liberal government and the logging companies, are treated as criminals. It’s not just Liberal. The Labor State government of Victoria has allowed loggers into the areas burnt in bushfires. When the great trees, burnt or otherwise, are gone so are the real carbon sinks. So are the hopes of life for all of us. We are part of the animal kingdom. When we destroy forests, we are – slowly – destroying ourselves. That was the warning in 2016. Now the NSW Liberal government, despite the impact of the fires, is letting Santos go ahead. And this Coalition government is offering our money to help it to happen.
Professor Corey J A Bradshaw is a Matthew Flinders Fellow in Global Ecology in the College of Science and Engineering. [See his extensive credentials on page 16.]
He describes the catastrophes. Our massive contribution to mammal extinctions in Australia. The way we approach water management!! Almost 70% of the Earth’s land surface has been altered by humans. What can we do? That is the question as voters we need to consider. It will be no good moaning afterwards if we allow worse to happen. Democracies have to deal with who wins – and why they are allowed to win. Who we hand the power to! And for how long!!
Professor Bradshaw describes what we’ve done and gives answers. ‘We can demand a more responsible government and tougher legislation to protect our native plants and animals.
We can insist on development that does not require additional deforestation and we can restore great tracks of previously stripped land. [All the clearing under Howard and since!]
We can implement a broad network of clean energy technologies to transition our emissions-heavy economy toward one with a low footprint and we can invest in smarter low water agriculture. [ See the post for June 2020 ‘Complexity and Stability’.]
On a community level, during pandemic restrictions, we have been forced to re-think how and where we work, how our food is grown and distributed, and how cities can support this transition – all aspects that can reduce the impact of climate change.’
As I report Professor Bradshaw’s presentation of what we can do, I remember a Year II Drama teacher, Gay Maynard, at Marion High School studying a theme with her English students – ‘Stepping Lightly on the Earth’. That was in the late 1980s. The Humanities were ‘doing their bit’ thirty years ago! The evidence was in teachers in schools knew it. They were making the connections we need. [Those students are voters in their forties now. ]
In Australia now, this Coalition government is going to increase the cost of Humanities degrees by 113% and decrease the cost of degrees in science, maths and IT. They are going to exacerbate the divide, focusing on STEM! And this Coalition has a gas-focused, fossil- fuelled committee, chosen by the Prime Minister, to look to our future. Besides this fearsome direction, we have loggers and miners, being supported by governments – Federal and State. All this, while this global corona virus offers time and a chance for us to re-think. Multi-nationals and foreign companies and commercial media moghuls do not have to live with the results of their actions. Cultures destroyed. Fragile environments destroyed. Regeneration made almost impossible. Still. they and their shareholders made money.
Sciences and Humanities 
Erica — THANK YOU for your strong words supporting our environment!
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I heartily endorse JoAnne’s thank you, Erica, for bringing together so powerfully these examples of the devastation STILL being unleashed on our struggling environment. If only more people in power would read and act on it…
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Dear Robyn, You and JoAnne and Sharon Holmes help to keep me going. The changes I have made to the ‘Challenging the Divide’ statement have had an effect. I did get the odd one from France, Sweden before. I am getting three or four from USA, two from China, one this time from the Philippines. And because I suggested that they go to a post I got 9 re Regeneration or Degeneration. UP to 30 over all and today, some one in the UK went along and found my reference to Warwick University. I just keep plugging away. What the children are facing is too terrible. Imagine a pipeline for gas from west to east across the Australian continent for gas!!!!. Some one went to ‘Where is the third ‘f’? I wish I knew how to make this blog more effective. I want it to change votes!!!
Thank you. Keep well.
Affectionately Erica
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