Friday 11 March 2005

Sydney - Australian scientists have found that deforestation along the Amazon River in South America was reducing rainfall and causing climate change in the region.....

Reuters click here to go to the original

n our home town of Melbourne, Boxing Day has a special meaning. Thousands of cricket fans, like us, savour the opportunity to watch Australia’s finest do battle with old rivals such as England, the West Indies or India.

But for us, it is now a day to remember for an entirely different reason.

On Boxing Day 2004, we witnessed the tsunami destroying a village, with lives, buildings and futures swept away. The shock we felt was tempered only by the fact that we escaped physically unharmed.

My wife, Sian, and our children Sam, 12, Rosie, 10, and Matilda, 6, had begun our long-planned and anticipated Sri Lankan holiday several days earlier at Unawatuna near Galle on the south-west coast. On the fateful morning, I was keen for us to travel to the nearby coastal hamlet of Mirissa. I had organised a driver and was waiting for Sian to get ready before we went to breakfast. She had just returned from a run along Unawatuna beach. We were staying at the Sea View hotel where we had an upstairs apartment for the kids and a ground floor flat for us. Our flat was in a garden setting about 50 metres from the beach.

Into the Future; The Neglect of the Long Term in Australian Politics by Ian Marsh and David Yencken
This monograph of 89 pages concisely outlines the issues and problems with the present political system with particular emphasis on the long term strategic analysis and planning that is so essential if society is to become sustainable. It is essential reading for those working to influence political outcomes.

The point is made that whilst it is not possible to predict the future, it is nevertheless essential that long term strategic problems are addressed. For example within the sphere of interest of Doctors for the Environment Australia, the authors state “The long term implications of current economic and social practices for climate change, water availability and use, loss of biodiversity and land degradation are deep seated concerns of environmental scientists and environmentalists. These and many other people are expressing concern about the future of Australia and the lack of attention to strategic monitoring and analysis”. An examination of the unresolved strategic problem of salinity is illustrative. We have known of the problem and its threats for over a century. Yet are we coping with it? The Land and Water Audit found that salinity was out of control everywhere. To allow this to happen “There must be failures of research and technical analysis; failures of public education and involvement; failures of recognition, debate and engagement in parliament, the government and bureaucracy - all leading to an unwillingness of governments to act”. In considering such issues the book analyses the reasons for the se failures, determines the necessary conditions for sustained debate about the issues and then suggests what we can do to improve our capacity for strategic review and action.

The conference was organised by Giz Watson, MLC (Greens WA) and Jane Bremner, Alliance for a Cleaner Environment WA, a community advocacy group.

The aim was to bring together concerned community members, NGOs lobbying for changes to environmental health policy, professionals involved in issues including health and risk assessment, and the Health Department of WA (HDWA). The focus was on providing community members with the opportunity to voice concerns about the current decision-making processes and to provide input for a future environmental health plan. It was acknowledged that community members often have valuable local knowledge to contribute to the assessment of a risk or hazard but are often excluded from environmental health processes. This can lead to a distrust of industry and government agencies that try to reassure communities about risk. The speakers generally discussed broad issues but also some of the concerns specific to WA, which centred around the Bellevue fire (the worst chemical disaster in WA) and the Alcoa Wagerup refinery (community members and employees of Alcoa).

The Biology of Civilisation. Understanding Human Culture as a Force in Nature
by Stephen Boyden, UNSW Press 2004

I read Stephen Boyden’s book whilst in the Alto Ticino, the Italian speaking region of Switzerland, the sunny south facing slopes of the Alps. I finished the book on a summer morning when I walked high in the meadows and realised I might be experiencing Western civilisation’s most sustainable system, one that was unchanged over many centuries and was still economically viable. Stephen’s conclusion came into my mind

“Successful cultural reform leading to ecological sustainability and equity and peace among the peoples of the Earth will not come about unless and until the dominant culture comes to embrace, at its heart a basic understanding of, and reverence for, nature and the processes of life. This bio-understanding would lead to a new world view and a seminal shift in the priorities of the dominant culture, so that the health and wellbeing of living systems would assume top position in the hierarchy of priorities.”

Humanity has difficulty responding to threats that will impact beyond a lifetime. Our individual psychological mechanisms of denial of major threats and the ideology that prevents collective action have been reviewed (1). Despite these impediments many in the community have recognised the threat. Environmental and other non-government organisations and professional associations are now scratching at the edges of the carbon mountain. The inertia resides with government and its confederates.

The Kyoto protocol recommends a minuscule step towards the huge reduction in greenhouse emissions necessary to mitigate global warming in any meaningful way. Yet after six years the protocol has not been implemented. During this period the scientific basis for the certainty and potential severity of warming has been greatly strengthened (2). There is already more than sufficient evidence for decisive action but there is an increasing gulf between scientific knowledge, and a political understanding and willingness to implement the appropriate solutions