Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Philosophy

Build Dams So Hydra Can Wash Her Hair

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I don’t think KPMG partner Bernard Salt would like Hydra Sustainable -a member of the Victorian Government’s eco-perfect family. In today’s The Australian, Salt complains about hotels suggesting he re-use his towel to save water. Hydra goes as far as to suggest we should wash our hair just once a week to save water.

What Salt says:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16370702%255E25658,00.html .

What Hydra says:
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/thesustainables/hydra.htm .

I lived at a Presbyterian and Methodist girl’s boarding school in the 1970s and we were only allowed to wash our hair once a week and then only in the hand basins – noone was allowed to wash their hair in the showers at Clayfield College.

The ban on hair washing in showers probably had something to do with being austere – a Presbyterian and Methodist virtue. The rule actually created a lot of self-loathing, greasy-haired teenage girls.

Salt makes the observation that “The environment lobby has skilfully manouevered middle Australia to a no-dams policy without having to go through the tedium of public debate.”

The environment movement is really very Presbyterian and Methodist?

Salt suggests that no water restrictions would make Sydney greener and that this would be good for our souls, and our wildlife, and for social cohesion. … and I would add, our hair.

He suggests we should start talking about building some more dams.

On Politics (Part 3)

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This follows my earlier two postings ‘on politics’ including the proposition that the left think the right are evil:

“The truth is not as simple as the question are people good or bad, as we so often put it. It is not as easy as Hobbes or Rousseau, because Hobbes and Rousseau are both wrong about the essential, inescapable fact of human nature.

Namely, that humans are animals, pure and simple. We are not good. We are not evil. We are not angels or demons. As much as we may try to deny it, we are very much a part of this world.

We are the product of evolution, and evolution bequeathed to us a system that is damnably hard to improve upon. If we find the world today is not to our liking, perhaps it would do us well to examine those cultural systems that evolution gave us, that worked for us so well for millions of years.

I refuse to believe that striking bit of irrationality that of all the animals in the world, humans are unique twice–the only fallen animal, and the most exalted one. Our mythology talks of “the fall,” and makes us the worst of all animals. Or we can focus on our superior soul or intellect, and laud ourselves as the best. Neither is true, but those myths serve a purpose.”

… from a blog here http://anthropik.com/2005/04/the-state-of-nature/
by Jason Godesky and titled ‘The State of Nature”.

More on Jared Diamond & ‘Collapse’

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“The fundamental flaw in Jared Diamond’s treatment of Easter Island is that he approaches the problems of its evolution and history with the zeal of an environmental campaigner, and not with the dispassionate detachment of a scientist. He is too much inclined to employ his historical reconstructions as a tool for the environmental agenda and subordinates much of his analysis to moralistic and preconceived intentions. ‘Collapse’ is perhaps the prime upshot of the amalgamation of environmental determinism and cultural pessimism in the social sciences.

“It epitomises a new and burgeoning doctrine expounded largely by
disillusioned left-wingers and former Marxist intellectuals. In place of the old creed of class warfare and socio-economic driving forces that used to explain every single development under the sun, environmental determinism essentially applies the same one-sided rigidity to historical events and societal evolution.”

…according to Benny Peiser in a piece titled ‘From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui’ in Energy & Environment, 16:3&4 (2005), pp. 513-539. Read the complete paper here:

http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/spsbpeis/EE%2016-34_Peiser.pdf .

And Roger Kalla has emailed me with a link to a multimedia exhibition based on Diamond’s book and commented that in a recent issue of Nature (vol :436 p778) under books and arts the exhibition is given a positive review by Philip Campbell who is the editor-in-chief of this respected Journal.

The link to the exhibition:
http://www.nhm.org/exhibitions/collapse

On Politics (Part 2)

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Following on from my post about the left thinking the right are evil and the right thinking the left are dumb …

at the Australian libertarian’s website it says:

Often libertarians are described as ‘economically right-wing’ and ‘socially left-wing’. While this isn’t a perfect explanation, it’s a helpful shortcut and one that has been used by www.self-gov.org in their ‘world’s smallest political quiz’.

What is Wilderness? (Part 1)

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In order to understanding how and why the coronial inquiry into the January 2003 Canberra bushfires unraveled, and in order to understand the recent decision of the ACT Supreme Court to clear Coroner Maria Doogan of ‘apprehended bias’, it is perhaps necessary to have some understanding of the various meanings of ‘wilderness’.

The following quotes are perhaps relevant:

“Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and downs,
To the silent wilderness,
Where the soul need not repress
Its music.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, c. 1820

“Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1903

“The emotional aspects of a wilderness experience might be compared to a religious experience. It is particularly valuable for those people whose unconscious association of pain and discomfort in relationship to man render a deity in human form impossible. Christianity is unacceptable to some people because of the use of the human symbol, but some who can’t accept Christ can gain a tremendous sense of peace from relating to uncontaminated areas.”
Donald McKinley, Forest Industries, February 1963

“Wilderness, in the environmental pantheon, represents a particular kind of sanctuary in which all true values – that is all nonhuman values – are reposited.”
William Tucker, Harper’s, March 1982

“Wilderness: Land that, together with its plant and animal communities, is in a state that has not been substantially modified by, and is remote from, the influences of European settlement or is capable of being restored to such a state, and is of sufficient size to make its maintenance in such a state feasible.”
National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biological Diversity, Department of Environment and Heritage, 1996 http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/strategy/gloss.html

“This might apply to the surface of Pluto or the centre of the Earth, perhaps, but it would be arrogance or ignorance to presume that there is any place on Earth that hasn’t, at some time in the past, been managed or substantially affected in some way by humans.”
Bob Beale and Mike Archer in their book titled ‘Going Native’, October 2004

“Wilderness is an outdated 70s concept and it is dangerous. It is dangerous because in its pure form it prohibits proactive management in the area.”
Phil Cheney’s evidence to the ACT Coroner’s Inquiry into the January 2003 Canberra bushfires
http://www.courts.act.gov.au/supreme/judgments/doogan1.htm

Don Burke Talks About the AEF

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Don Burke was on ABC Television’s Landline program today talking about the need for a new approach to environmental issues. You can view the interview at:

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2005/s1436505.htm .

Don was speaking as Chair of the new Australian Environment Foundation (AEF). I am a board member of the AEF and there has been some discussion about the organisation at this web-log:

https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000757.html .