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Loving Australia
. . . as we all do, here are a few suggestions from National Geographic today:
A personal update: Old-timers here will remember Mark Allinson. He lives in the southern NSW coastal town of Tomakin, one of the cluster of gorgeous places that you are seeing apocalyptic images of. He and his 95 year old mother were evacuated to the beach on New Years Eve, and were within two minutes of the deepest danger when the wind changed -- a southerly buster that drove the fire to destroy towns further up the coast. People in these small towns and villages have to boil their drinking water now. Water supplies have been "compromised" by the fires. Power and phone/internet reception is intermittent. Vehicles are driving up and down the streets delivering free water and bread and milk. Mark is safe for now. He saw this coming, and invested in a generator months ago. It's still really hard to think about all this, to keep it in your head, to talk about it. These areas have been the inspiration for much of the poetry I've written. The south coast of NSW means the world to me. Over a year ago, a poem set right at the heart of the present fires was published by The Common, called The Meringo Hotel. You can google it or read it here: https://www.thecommononline.org/may-poetry-feature/ Some of you heard me read it only a few months ago at our reading at the Newburyport Library. It's really my love poem to Australia. Now, black eucalyptus leaves are falling from the sky there. It's going to take lots of work and time before things get back to some kind of normal on the Sapphire Coast, as we call it. I live in southern Tasmania. And fires are burning in the north of Tassie. So far, the south is fire-free, although we're getting smoke haze from the mainland. And summer's barely begun. If you can put something towards the recovery and restoration of all manner of habitats, please do! And thank you. Cally |
Thanks, Cally, for the concrete suggestions and the news from down under. It is so awful. I wish you easy breathing and safety. Best wishes to you and yours--and to grumpy old Mark, whom I still miss around here.
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Thank you, Simon! Ha haha -- I'll pass that on to the old Grumpus (who, you will be astounded to know, can be the utmost ray of shine, too -- the ultimate, loveable contrarian!).
What I love watching, and hearing about from my friends and family in the deeply affected areas, is what's happening at street level. Help can't get there, or can't come fast enough, from government agencies, utilities etc, so households, street by street, are banding together, co-operating, bartering, basically helping each other get through hour by hour, one day at a time. It's inspiring, how tiny communities begin organising themselves to make conditions better, more bearable, for each member. One of the big lessons being learnt about immediate survival is the neccessity of keeping cash on hand. Very few people carry it anymore. And when the power is gone, ATMs don't work, nothing works, so you need cash to buy food and water. Mark, catastrophiser that he is, had cash as well as the generator he bought. They use the gennie for two hours in the evening, which means he can cook a meal (from the tins he's been stock-piling!!!) and watch the evening news to find out what's going on. Most people are living without power, without phone or internet. Mark is without internet, which is probably driving him more crazy than anything!!! He's found a couple of spots locally where he can pick up a phone signal, so he rings us with updates most days. |
Here is something I read today:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/a...88CD3C016D393B Flying foxes are dying en masse in Australia’s extreme heat In three days before Christmas, thousands of the mammals died in 110-degree heat in one Melbourne park. January 7, 2020 The 30,000 gray-headed flying foxes in Yarra Bend Park, just outside the heart of Melbourne, Australia, were having a fairly normal early spring. In September and October—springtime in Australia and prime birthing season for the 11-inch long megabats—many of the flying foxes had returned to the park from their winter migration up the coast. Females were birthing pups as normal, says biologist Stephen Brend, who is in charge of monitoring gray-headed flying foxes in Victoria province, including at Yarra Bend Park, which is home to a significant colony of the bats. All was routine. “And then the horror started,” Brend says. “It got too hot, too quickly.” Bat rescuer Tamsyn Hogarth cradles a young rescued gray-headed flying fox in Yarra Bend Park. Hogarth runs Fly By Night, a flying fox rescue and rehabilitation clinic. She and other volunteers rescued 255 baby flying foxes from the park in December. Photograph by Doug Gimesy Incapable of surviving the extreme, relentless heat that gripped Melbourne in December, the flying foxes were dying. Across three days just before Christmas, when temperatues exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenehit, 4,500 of the park’s gray-headed flying foxes perished—15 percent of the colony’s population. The tragedy for flying foxes in the park echoes scenes of wildlife suffering across the country and puts a spotlight on the perils of extreme heat, which for some species can be just as deadly as fire. Great and small, fast and slow, Australia’s endemic animals are falling victim to the heatwaves and fires that are ravaging the country at an unprecedented scale. It’s the hottest and driest summer in Australia in recorded history. As the planet warms, large-scale fires are becoming more frequent, and bushfire seasons are getting longer. Firefighters from Melbourne's Metropolitan Fire Brigade spray water on the bats clumping on tree trunks in Yarra Bend Park in an attempt to cool them down in late December. Photograph by Doug Gimesy For gray-headed flying foxes, which are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Yarra Bend event is not isolated. “The colony in Adelaide suffered even worse,” says Brend. Several thousand flying fox babies died there from extreme heat between November and January, says Justin Welbergen, associate professor of animal ecology at Western Sydney University and president of the Australasian Bat Society. On January 4, many thousands of flying fox babies died across multiple roosts in and around the Sydney region in New South Wales, where the temperature reached a record-breaking 121 degrees Fahrenheit. Welbergen’s team, which monitors flying fox heat stress conditions, is calculating a final death toll. This summer’s extreme heat and extreme fires, which have imperiled Australia’s entire eastern coast—prime flying-fox habitat—“risk wiping out the 2019 generation” of newborn bats, Brend says. Some 80 percent of flying fox pups are born in October. They were young and vulnerable when heat waves and wildfires broke out late last year. Kate Chamberlain, a wildlife rescuer, gives fluids to a dehydrated gray-headed flying fox in Yarra Bend Park. Photograph by Doug Gimesy Hour by hour in extreme heat A day in the life of a flying fox in a heatwave is unforgiving. By 5:30 a.m., as dawn breaks, the bats have returned to their trees after spending the night feeding on nectar and fruit. By 8 a.m., Brend says, it’s getting hot in their roosts. The bats fan their wings to keep cool, but they can only do it for so long before they start to get tired, he says. By noon, they’re getting exhausted, and temperatures continue to climb. The bats start to pant, which accelerates dehydration. At that point, they could fly into the river to get a drink (the Yarra River runs through the middle of the 640-acre park), “but it’s like us running to the shop in the middle of a heat wave,” Brend says. Flying takes energy, and when they’re exhausted and dehydrated, they’ll simply stay put. Distressed and starting to panic, the bats try to find a cool spot. Mothers will deposit their babies on branches and separate, Brend says, searching for a tree trunk that might be cooler. The bats follow each other—spotting one on a trunk seems to signal to the rest that it’s a refuge. They start to clump together. “It’s like a football scrum of bats,” Brend says. “To the observer, it looks mindless.” The ones who got there first are now surrounded and smothered by dozens of others. “At that point in time everything has gone wrong,” Brend says. That’s when his team, made up of park staff and volunteers, will step in to try to break up the clumps by spraying them with water, which cools them down and slakes their thirst. Yarra Bend Park ranger Stephen Brend passes a wheelbarrow filled with dead flying foxes that he and volunteers collected from the ground. Brend, Victoria province's grey-headed flying fox project officer, describes the three-day death event in the park as "carnage." Photograph by Doug Gimesy Tragedy on the trees On December 20th, at the height of the three-day heat event that killed 4,500 flying foxes, “it never got cool,” Brend says. At 9 p.m., the team was out spraying. But it was pitch black, tree limbs were falling, and there are venomous snakes in the brush. “We had to call it off. We couldn’t see. It was 38 degrees [100 degrees Fahrenheit]. It was deeply distressing,” he says. “It was carnage.” “One falls, and the rest cascade on the ground, crushing and suffocating each other. Dozens if not hundreds of dead or dying bats are at the bottom of the tree,” says Melbourne-based photojournalist Douglas Gimesy, who documented the December rescue efforts. “You’re looking down at them and they’re looking up at you gasping. They’re smothering and heating up. Volunteers will go in and separate out bodies and find some that are still alive. But you’ve got 20 to 30 rescuers and 4,500 bats. It’s like a war zone. It’s sad and distressing and heartbreaking, and you know it will happen again and again and again.” “Some we get to in time,” says Tamsyn Hogarth, one of the rescuers. “Others die in your hand.” By the third day, on December 20th, the air was thick with “the smell of death,” she says. Hogarth runs Fly By Night, a wildlife shelter in Melbourne dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing gray-headed flying foxes. She and other volunteers rescued 255 babies during the extreme heat events in December in Yarra Bend Park. Two dozen volunteers across Victoria province are currently caring for the bats, which range in age from two to 12 weeks old. Wildlife rescuers Kate Chamberlain and Treycee Baker examine the body of a dead gray-headed flying fox they recovered from Yarra Bend Park in early January. The bat's wings were ripped from trauma. Photograph by Doug Gimesy Heatwave deaths are normal for the bats—but this is different. Hot days causing bat deaths are normal in Yarra Bend Park. “We’re always worried about heat events. You’re not going to get through summer without having really hot days,” says Brend. Last summer, for example, a few hundred bats died, he says. One study found that between 1994 and 2007, approximately 30,000 gray-headed flying foxes died in extreme heat events in Australia. Red dots show locations of fires detected in Australia the week ending Jan. 6, 2020. The brown area shows the range of the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus). But the timing of this year’s extreme heat—right after birthing season—contributed to unusually high mortality. Because the young were still nursing, their mothers’ energy levels were depleted, and all of them—parents and new babies—are more vulnerable, Brend says. The first weekend in December was extremely hot, and it was followed by a succession of hot days all month, culminating in the three-day death event, reaching a peak of 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Yarra Bend on December 20. “It’s emotional and frightening for the species. And this is happening across their entire range,” Brend says. While Yarra Bend Park hasn’t been hit by fires, much of the flying foxes' habitat lies directly in the fire zones along Australia’s east coast. Left: A mother gray-headed flying fox hangs from a branch in Yarra Bend Park as her baby clings to her chest. About 80 percent of flying fox pups are born in October. The timing of the extreme heat in December meant that a whole generation of newborn bats, still dependent on their mothers, were hit hard. … Read More Photograph by Doug Gimesy A modern-day passenger pigeon? A May 2019 national survey estimated that there are around 589,000 gray-headed flying foxes in Australia. Although their numbers are robust now, they face a host of threats, from routine extreme heat events to entanglement in urban infrastructure, such as nets and barbed wire, as well as harassment from residents who see them as pests. The bats are nomadic. Much of their range is currently in the fire zones. Many travel north in winter, roosting in forests along the coast, which they may find scorched. The “bushfires have destroyed essential foraging resources on unprecedented scales,” says Welbergen. “There is no refuge for them,” says Brend. “It’s not like it’s bad in Melbourne but will be OK in northern New South Wales—it’s not OK anywhere.” “That can’t go on for too many cycles before the population declines,” Brend says. “I don’t want to be alarmist or dramatic—there are still thousands of these bats—but there’s no reason to be confident anymore.” “Our worry is we’ll have the new passenger pigeon,” he says, referring to what was once the most abundant bird in North America before being hunted to extinction in the 19th century. Gray-headed flying foxes hang in trees in Yarra Bend Park. About 30,000 of the bats lived in the colony here before December 2019. The bats are vital to their forest ecosystem: They carry seeds and pollinate trees, gardening the forest by night. Photograph by Doug Gimesy ‘Bats need the forest and the forest needs the bats’ Flying foxes play a vital role in the forest. “Their ecological role is as big, nocturnal bees,” Brend says. They carry seeds and pollinate trees, gardening the forest by night. “Bats need the forest and the forest needs the bats,” says Brend. And it’s still the middle of summer in Australia. “We’ll battle on for our upside down friends,” says Lawrence Pope, a rescuer caring for five orphaned baby bats at home, “but things look very grim.” “In this horror year, all species are suffering. It’s really frightening,” Brend says. “We’re hot, and they’re hot, and it’s a nightmare.” Natasha Daly is a writer and editor at National Geographic, where she covers animal welfare, exploitation, and conservation. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram. |
Awful, isn't it, Martin? I used to live near Yarra Bend, riding my bike through there every day. The flying foxes are amazing to watch. Seeing death on this scale is awful.
There was a story on the news here the other night that kookaburras are becoming climate refugees. Although not endemic to Tasmania (where we are), they're moving further south due to the mainland heat, and have arrived in numbers in southern Tasmania. Because they are 'perch and pounce' birds, scientists are monitoring closely the effect of our new resident kookas on small native mammals. |
Hi Cally,
I just watched a couple of videos about kookaburras. Their call is remarkable and complex and they are really cute birds. The only kingfisher that rarely eats fish (except the occasional pet goldfish). |
Janet Kenny is safe.
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Thanks, Catherine. JK and MA were two of my great friends when I first started here, and I miss them. I'm glad to know they're both safe through these awful fires.
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I spent ten years in a specialist fire fighting group and saw a number of crown fires that I thought were horrific but nothing like these ravening monsters. Flames more than twice the height of the trees they consume.
A former bluestone courthouse in Kiandra (Snowy Montains) New South Wales was burnt the walls still stand but the glass in the windows MELTED! Glass melts around 1400 degrees Celsius. A couple of million acres have burnt not far to the south of me there has been some tension but so far we are lucky. The danger for us is that the drought sits heavy, my dams are drying up and trees are dying, the grasses crunch underfoot. it is a tinderbox. Kangaroos and wallabies have moved out onto the road edges for grazing and each road becomes a killing ground. I am in wine country and it seems that there will be little to pick as all the grape that has survived is smoke tainted. The disgusting part of disaster is the political posturing. |
Martin, you would get so much joy from the birds here! I just read this in Australian Geographic about what the fossil record shows about bushfires.
Jan, I've been checking the map to see if you're safe. So glad you are, so far. Yes, I look around, and it's like we're all standing in a heap of kindling. At least it's cool here in the southernmost shire! I've been wearing a jumper for the last few days. I saw an extraordinary image of strange fire behaviour sent by a friend -- fighting fire in the Blue Mountains. She filmed it with her phone. The fire looked like a pool of mercury spreading along the ground. Have you ever seen such a thing?? |
No Cally I have not seen anything like that but once fighting a fire at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains the forest floor became alive with Huntsmen that ran all over us in their panic to escape luckily we were young and not a single heart attack but many a pounding pulse.
The temperature has dropped massively here down to the low twenties., We have had the high forties. |
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As I remotely watch the Australian fires engulf and consume chunks of territory, I am overwhelmed by my inability to fathom the tragedy taking place. Unable to imagine the ripple effect of it all. Unable to comprehend the magnitude of it, vis-a-vis the role climate change plays. I gasp at the thought of the animal life ravaged. My own soul feels on fire. Truthfully, I am helpless. I have not the time nor money to appease my remorse. And it’s just not Australia. I weep for the world. I go about my day. I laugh. I consider the little things that are right and good around me. I keep my doors and windows open. Yet under it all the gloom forbids my heart light, my soul to soar like it should. So be it. I’ve been tracking the fires on Google Earth and found myself at times becoming/sidetracked by the beauty of the photographs posted of the natural landscape, now under siege. My heart. To you Cally, Jan, and all those in distress, bless you. x x |
This is the most detailed news I've seen. Thank you all. I am grieving over the bats, & hoping the world will get some sanity about its climate problem.
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Cally, how is the air down there in Tassie?
I've never seen haze like this in Melbourne before - it is unbearable. Almost every day is smoky, hazy, making it dangerous to spend long amounts of time outside - especially for asthma sufferers like me. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-...smoke/11865178 I can never remember it this bad for this long - and I can remember the Ash Wednesday fires in '83 (just a kid), the '97 fires and the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Scary times. We have some close friends up in the Alpines (Harrietville), so this all hits home in a big way. Fingers crossed the worst is over. |
NASA: Smoke from Australia fires will travel 'around the globe'
by Tim Pearce | January 14, 2020 03:20 PM Wildfires in Australia are producing so much smoke that their plumes are expected to travel across the world. NASA released satellite images and models last week showing how massive amounts of smoke from Australia’s wildfires were affecting Earth’s atmosphere. The clouds of smoke, ash, and soot are so thick in regions they are forming their own thunderstorms. “The smoke is expected to make at least one full circuit around the globe, returning once again to the skies over Australia,” said Colin Seftor and Rob Gutro of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The smoke clouds are causing environmental problems in other parts of the world. The smoke has worsened air quality in New Zealand, “causing severe air quality issues across the county and visibly darkening mountaintop snow.” The fires have covered more than 12 million acres, killing dozens of people. Estimates of animal deaths range into the millions. University of Sydney professor Chris Dickman estimates that a half-billion animals may die as a result of the current spate of wildfires. Australian authorities have arrested dozens of people suspected of intentionally starting brush fires across the country. The alleged arsonists may face charges of manslaughter and other crimes. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...ound-the-globe |
Do watch this!
He's really caught how we're feeling, what we're all talking about. This place has never been more beautiful to me (and it's always been the most beautiful place on earth!). I was an ex-pat for 10 years, and it is so very hard to be an Australian not in Australia. Damian, I'm very distressed by your distress. I know, I know. We had the smoke in Tassie this time last year when the southwest wilderness was burning across the river from us. Smoke so thick for a fortnight that on some days you couldn't see your hand at the end of your outstretched arm. The last few days have been crystal clear and glorious here, but today the smoke haze is back. I suspect this pattern will go on for all of summer. Melbourne, dear Melbourne, sounds in bad shape. The smoke is so unhealthy. After our experience last year, we bought an air conditioner, not for temperature regulation, but to help clean the air inside the house. I'm not an air conditioner kind of person. At all. But I can't be caught in that kind of smoke again. It's the worst I've ever felt, and I can't bear thinking of all the mainlanders breathing it right now. It creates a kind of depression over everyone, like a grey blanket over the spirit. It feels alien. Everything feels alien. I'm waiting to see how they're going to handle the Australian Open. Yes, the bush has always burned. I nearly died, with my sister, in the great bushfire of 1967 when the whole of Tasmania burned -- 62 dead, 7000 homeless. And we lost a place near Marysville on Black Saturday. Terrifying. But it's the sheer size and tenacity of this one that makes it different. And just think -- our hottest times are usually Feb. March, and often right up to the Easter break! Stay inside, Damian. Spend time in air-conditioned spaces. I can't believe that I, an air-conditioning despiser, am actually writing those words. |
I watched and listened to that poem, Cally, and strongly felt the emotion of it. If I had been reading it aloud, I might very well have cried, too.
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Yes, Martin -- it's palpable emotion, isn't it? It's so honest.
Are you hearing about this overseas? The food drops for wildlife? Can you read this link? https://www.smh.com.au/environment/c...12-p53qss.html |
I am glad you posted that Cally it came from his heart.
I am wholeheartedly sick of the politics when Blind Freddy can see what is wrong. There is something about Australia she grows through your feet and you become her. This hurts. |
Thanks, Cally, for posting that link about people dropping food for the animals. Here is something kind of disturbing:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2...ation-backlash |
Thanks for that beautiful link Cally. I had not seen that before, but I am familiar with the Lawson brothers. Good on him for writing that. Heartfelt.
I can only imagine how tough last year would have been in Tassie. I recall reading some pieces by Richard Flanagan (brother of Martin) about it. I'm not a big fan of air-con either, but I'm with you, it's an absolute necessity now. We have evaporative cooling, which is okay for a day or two, but then it really starts to struggle with the load. There's a cool change coming soon here, we're told - my hands are folded. We live in Warrandyte, so have to keep a close eye all the time on the VIC emergency app. Two weeks back, when it was 45 degrees, my wife packed a few things and took the kids to her parents’ house in Reservoir as a precaution (I was at work). And would you believe it, there was a fire just down the road from them in Bundoora. I can only imagine the terror of 1967. How close were you to the action? I drove up to the 2003 alpine bushfires in the middle of the night (to aid a friend) and will never forget what I saw – Mt Buffalo with streaks of fire through it – like something out of Mordor. And I also recall the befuddled roos stranded by the side of the road, not knowing where to go, as their forest was on fire. |
Fires flaring still on the South Coast of New South Wales at emergency level , three dead as air tanker crashed homes lost on the back of hail in Melbourne and floods in Queensland. Temperature hit 43 on the farm today trees dying, dams drying and no feed and there is no climate change.
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Sorry Jim it is not time to panic it is time to all work together in solutions. The centre must hold, breast beating and denial will not cut it.
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"Panic Greta-style" is meant to allude to her remarkable use of the word "panic" as a call to action. Did you watch then link? Right from the outset of her speech she debunks the myth that "panic" is her message. (It's more urgent than that.) The speech was given at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on 1/21/20. x x |
Sorry Jim I have heard, but both extremes do little, we need action we need the generally silent centre to stand. She polarises by assumption of the moral high ground. We do not need polarisation we need cohesion we need to draw together all the uncomfortable bedfellows for the good of this world and all the life on it. Crusaders do feel good about themselves but do not have a blanket history of success.
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Jan, You are, of course, right in many respects. But GT does not polarize IMO.The polarization had taken place before her arrival on the scene. I would argue that she galvanizes. She catalyzes. She is not extreme, in my view. She articulates a sense of urgency (not panic -- that is what the clip I linked to is about, in my view: Panic = Urgency.) Does she ignite the extreme? Yes. but the extremes are by definition tinderboxes that easily ignite. "Now is the time to act" is her urgent (not panicked) message. I had been luke-warm to her ability to champion/speak to the solutions to the climate emergency. But I keep listening to her (yes, I know there are extreme forces at work trying to manipulate her -- I believe that time will show that she is in fact using them to advance what has been her singular objective: to expose the hypocrisy of the powers-that-be and hold them accountable for their actions. She is a seminal voice. For now, I'll take Greta's clarion call over the false notes of the political and economic power-elites. But of course, as you say, the tipping point will come when the silent center stands and says, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more." Every voice — left, right and center — that champions that effort counts. But I'm with you... And let the rains fall all over Australia. x x |
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Hi Jim, she is not galvanising the centre nor is she converting the opposite extreme IMHO. She is being used and I think she wants to be. how can someone that young be immune to the headiness of where she is at, a modern day Joan of Arc We are facing massive problems on many fronts and global warming is a major one but not the only one. Oikophobia is alive and well and hardly solution oriented.
At present a six inch downpour is six inches between the drops. I think your view a wee bit too simplistic Andrew and it is not something I put forward at all. To change or activate the centre requires a lot more. Regards JAN |
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I am aware of her reputation in some quarters as being "manipulated". I don't worship the ground she walks on or view her as a savior of the environment. She is just one more cog in the wheel. I don’t mean to distract this conversation away from the climate events unfolding in Australia. We have thoughtlessly, cruelly, greedily engaged in waging war against the environment for too long and the environment is responding to those attacks by going to war against us, the aggressors. Nature is a living organism that is collectively infinitely more robust than any single living thing and will kill us if it has to to survive. Jan, Andrew, you both sound convoluted in your thinking about her. Yet both of you are among the most articulate thinkers and writers I know. So why can't I decipher what you are saying? Do you appreciate the contributions of Greta Thonberg or not? She is without doubt being “handled” by others. And I do see your point about using the word “panic” as a descriptor / motivator. “Panic” as a word and an action is problematic. But she used the term in a broader context than the narrow definition inion of the word. I’ve personally “panicked” more than a few times about issues close to me. It (the “panic”) always seems to represent a kind of awakening to reality. It has always led to more reasoned, more rational, more constructive action. It spurs and awakes me to resolution. I don’t fawn over her or consider her a “leader” or an “expert” in climate / environmental issues. I see her as more of an educational tool for the young. She is an emblematic figure that signals a further awakening of societies to what is happening. But there are other equally / more important fronts where positive change is beginning to take root: increased innovation in green technologies / energy to create green economies, political "green" platforms that have gained traction here in the US (albeit tenuous), etc. etc. Greta Thonberg represents a rather superficial aspect of global environmental awareness that is useful because it is easily digestible to the general public across all cultures. That can only help. Is she the “brains” behind the solutions to the world’s environmental crises? No. Is she the child screaming in the room of adult idiots until she is heard? Yes. Does what she say make sense? Yes. Does what she represents provide other children with ways to constructively engage? Yes. She is the child who, annoyingly, won’t go away. She is, in some ways, an apparition of the future. She is herself a victim of nature’s randomness and indifference to its own creation. She suffers from aspergers/ASD which ironically uniquely equips her with the ability to focus relentlessly on a single subject/topic. What better role model can you point to for children to emulate? It we are lucky and if she survives these formative years between childhood and adulthood she may very well turn into a bonafide catalyst in her own right for positive environmental change. Like Malala Yousafzai. She has matured into a real force for change and hope for women around the world suffering from oppression and abuse in so many ways. Will she and what she stands for make a positive difference going forward? Let's not throw cold water on her. Let's praise her efforts and guard her from being negatively manipulated. x x |
No convolutions here, baby. I think her responses and life choices are entirely reasonable and justifiable. I doubt she is anymore handled than you or Jan or I am. I think focus on her, espeicially critical, is suspicious and telling. I think the center is a fairly meaningless term in regards to the choices before us. We can either radically adjust our attitude toward other species or we can continue to remove them from the planet one by one through our commitment to slef interest and confusion regarding economic growth vs. economic health. I don't see any of it simplistically in the sense that we are now all fully immersed in the very thing we need to adjust in a way that will make solutions complex and hard to parse. The center here, where we must jump across the abyss of our own adjustments and systemic immersion or refuse that jump, is a Yevteschenko leap halfway across the abyss.
I have very little faith that the present state of the species is up to the task. I love many of them anyway and will stay in the game as it unfolds. |
This argument really does not belong here.
We are agreed that change is necessary however we need to look at the nature of mankind to create that change. Emotion can be seemingly and comfortably righteous but is often a blinding factor. Jim and Andrew if you wish to take this further please open a new thread. We agree on most things but it could be salient to keep that discussion going. We are facing hopefully the start of the aftermath here although fires are still burning and their containment is totally dependent on the vagaries of weather. Flooding rains in Queensland and heavy downpours to the south and huge hail in Melbourne and we have had a couple of millimetres of rain. We are still in the iron grip of drought, drying dams and no feed and of course another hot spell and we are sitting in the tinderbox. The emotion dies down and bastardry and inertia begin. We do not know what extinctions have occurred or what impact unprecedented fires of such intensity have had and will have on flora and fauna. We are guessing at its impact on water quality in the catchments. I have friends suffering from the impact of poor air quality. There has been a massive outpouring of support and money but little is getting to those who need it human nature rears its ugly head once again. We need cold hard thought not breast beating posture. How many bleeding hearts fought on the fire lines or rescued the wild life or will be there for the slow processes of repair. The answer my friends is .... |
I do agree with you on all of that last post, Jan. I responded mostly to post #26 but I see maybe you meant it a bit differently than it read. The internet is a silly place in some ways. I just read so much venom directed at that kid lately I get irritated by it. Yeah, wrong thread place for that. Sorry.
I imagine cold hard thought can come only after the political will is somewhat unified and without the profiteers virus but maybe things are different there. Here, hours after disaster, the toxins are unleashed and the rocking back to sleep begins. The majority of the work of keeping the "order" stable is accomplished by the sheer demands of capital and survival needs that allow very few to throw themselves into anything new or helpful without losing their homes or their ability to feed/care for their loved ones. Again, hopefully it will prove other where you are. |
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