Some people grow old, I would also like to grow wise.
Archives for December 2010
Aboriginal self-determination: The Whiteman’s dream – Gary Johns
GARY Johns, a former colleague and friend of many years, has just had a book published by Connor Court entitled ‘Aboriginal self-determination: The Whiteman’s dream’. I haven’t got my copy yet, so can’t provide a review, but no doubt it will be hard hitting. Gary believes in integration, not self determination, for Australia’s aborigines. According to Gary:
“Aboriginal self-determination is a white man’s dream. Those who continue to lobby for the grand experiment of aboriginal self-determination, long after its costs have been revealed, should say sorry to those the policy has harmed – every woman bashed, every man drunk out of his mind, every child molested, everyone without a job. Aborigines, especially those in remote Australia, need an exit strategy from the dream. The exit strategy outlined in this book destroys the rallying cry for culture. Instead, it shows that the way to self-determination is through individual dignity.”
Order your copy here:
http://www.connorcourt.com/catalog1/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=155
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
ONE of the best Christmas presents I received this year is a film by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan entitled ‘The National Parks: America’s Best Idea’ – as twelve episodes contained in a case of five DVDs.
So far I’ve watched episodes one to four which begin with John Muir’s campaign to protect Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California from commercial development and ends with his failure to stop the flooding of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley.
As the case cover explains: “Nearly a decade in the making, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea… is a breathtaking journey through the nation’s most spectacular landscapes and a celebration of the people – famous and unknown – who fought to save them for future generations to treasure.”
The first four episodes provide tremendous insight into not only the environmental campaigns lead by John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club, but also the important role of President Theodore Roosevelt in establishing and protecting national parks and also national monuments in the US.
The film is a reminder of how much was at risk before there was environmental legislation and protection. The story of the slaughter of bison in Yellowstone National Park to the verge of extinct is particularly harrowing.
John Muir would nowadays be called an environmentalist, or conservationists, but one hundred years ago he was recognized as a preservationist. In losing the fight to protect Hetch Hetchy Valley it may have appeared that the preservationists had lost to the conservationists.
In fact John Muir may have lost the battle, but won the war: Most of today’s environmental and conservation groups campaign for preservation, rather than conservation. And of course the management of national parks today in Australia, is mostly in accordance with the preservationist’s philosophy.
The film is narrated from the perspective of the preservationists with a deep respect for natural history and natural landscapes.
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Following is an explanation of the difference between preservation and conservation.
from Wikipedia…
“In July 1896, [John] Muir became associated with Gifford Pinchot, a national leader in the conservation movement. Pinchot was the first head of the United States Forest Service and a leading spokesman for the sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of the people. His views eventually clashed with Muir and highlighted two diverging views of the use of the country’s natural resources.
Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation’s natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use. As a professional forester, his view was that “forestry is tree farming,” without destroying the long-term viability of the forests.
Muir valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities. In one essay about the National Parks, he referred to them as “places for rest, inspiration, and prayers.” He often encouraged city dwellers to experience nature for its spiritual nourishment. Both men opposed reckless exploitation of natural resources, including clear-cutting of forests. Even Muir acknowledged the need for timber and the forests to provide it, but Pinchot’s view of wilderness management was far more utilitarian.
Their friendship ended late in the summer of 1897 when Pinchot released a statement to a Seattle newspaper supporting sheep grazing in forest reserves. Muir confronted Pinchot and demanded an explanation. When Pinchot reiterated his position, Muir told him: “I don’t want any thing more to do with you.” This philosophical divide soon expanded and split the conservation movement into two camps: the preservationists, led by Muir, and Pinchot’s camp, who co-opted the term “conservation.” The two men debated their positions in popular magazines, such as Outlook, Harper’s Weekly, Atlantic Monthly, World’s Work, and Century.
Their contrasting views were highlighted again when the United States was deciding whether to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley. Pinchot favored the damming of the valley as “the highest possible use which could be made of it.” In contrast, Muir proclaimed, “Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hearts of man.”
Nathan Dam would have mitigated Theodore flooding
State and federal governments, blinded by alarmist reports falsely predicting a dry future, have done very little about flood mitigation – except perhaps from sea-level rise.
Earlier today, the small town of Theodore was evacuated as the Dawson River flooded.
The Dawson River merges with the McKenzie River, forming the Fitzroy River, which flows through Rockhampton and into Keppel Bay – a little to the south of where I now live.
For years locals have wanted the river dammed upstream of Theodore including for the development of irrigated agriculture.
Construction was to be completed in 2005, but the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Queensland Conservation Council fought the Commonwealth Government over potential downstream impacts on the Great Barrier Reef and won – and construction never started.
In 2006 the Nathan Dam was identified again as important infrastructure, this time for the Central Queensland Regional Water Supply Strategy, in particular for the mining industry.
Planning for the dam, however, was again interrupted for environmental reasons, in particular the potential impact of the dam on the critically endangered Boggomoss Snail.
Initially the Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts mandated a translocation trial to assess the viability of relocating the snail to an alternative habitat – then it was discovered there were many more snails and with a wider geographic range than initially thought.
I am not normally in favor of more dam building, for example, there are already enough dams within the Murray-Darling Basin. And I am against grand schemes to pipe water long distances at great expense, for example from North Queensland to the Murray Darling Basin.
However, Queensland could do with a few more dams particularly dams like the proposed Nathan Dam. The water would be used locally for mining and also to develop a local irrigated agricultural industry. At the moment much of the catchment is grazed, and that has its own environmental impact.
And I wonder if there might not be a net environmental benefit from the dam if it stops the flooding of towns like Theodore and the city of Rockhampton.
How significant are water quality impacts on a body of water, when it flows, for example, through a town like Theodore?
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Related Links:
Theodore floods: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12084735
WWF wins court case against Nathan Dam: http://www.edo.org.au/edoqld/new/nathanwin.pdf
Recent planning for the Nathan Dam: http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/water/infrastr_prg_works/pdf/nathan-dam-qr-aug2010.pdf
And I spoke to these notes in Sydney earlier in the year, about how we live in a land of floods as well as drought, but government was not listening: http://www.htw.com.au/Industry_Presentations/Jennifer-Marohasy-Presentation-Sydney-2010.pdf
Christmas is for Atheists too: Chrys Stevenson
“Despite its name, Christians don’t own Christmas. The celebration of the winter solstice is a European cultural inheritance that’s been purloined by the Christian branch of our global family. I say it’s high time we non-theists contested the Will. Winter festivals were a feature of European pagan calendars long before Christ. Christianity cannot claim exclusive ownership of most of our seasonal rituals.
Many of the traditions we associate with Christmas festivities pre-date Christ by hundreds or even thousands of years, reaching back to ancient Babylon. Gift-giving, feasting, adorning the house with greenery and lights, and singers chorusing door to door all date back to these ancient pagan rites…
And, what is the atheist’s purpose in celebrating Christmas?
Read more here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11375
A Time for Sharing
I’ve just received an email with Season’s Greetings from Neil Hewett. Those who have followed this blog for several years will remember Neil for his wonderful posts from the Daintree Rainforest of North Queensland – the oldest surviving rainforest in the world.
Neil wrote:
As 2010 draws to a close, we reflect upon a year of challenge and excitement. Passing the seven-metre mark, it was the wettest year in living memory and surely the year of the tree-frog, whose niche is best supported in an abundance of rainfall.
It was also the year that we learnt of the separation of the Northern population of Stoney Creek Tree Frog into its own species: Northern Stoney Creek Frog Litoria jungguy, depicted in festive splendour (above – click on the image to see the other frog).
Cassowary sightings were unprecedented in their frequency. Over the years, the big birds have become increasingly nonchalant in our presence, but 2010 has set a new standard. There were times when we were regularly seeing eight different birds a day, sometimes all at once. With every year that passes, we gain additional insight into the complex social arrangements that distinguish these rainforest ratites with wisdom commensurate with their years.
One of the most important and appreciated gifts of the year is the completion of the first half of the Cooper Creek causeway. Whilst a development that would probably go largely unnoticed by external interests, there are many important reasons why this significant infrastructure upgrade will provide benefits to the Daintree Rainforest, the people that live within it and the travelers that provide the sole conservation economy through their patronage.
Visit Neil at:
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And best wishes to Neil and Angie, Tulli, Taiga, Tkoda and Prue, and also to you and yours, for Christmas 2010.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.