Mum is coming home soon...

A government report today announced that Australia can expect significant climate change over the next 40 - 50 years. The same report also draws an indisputable link between greenhouse emissions, like those created by our harvesting of coal for electricity, and the destruction of our life giving ozone layer. By significant we are talking a 4 - 6 degree temperature rise; drought, flooding and rising seas; and the destruction of our natural habitats such as: the great barrier reef, many coastal beaches and some forests. I strongly suspect that this scenario may not take into account the exponential nature of natural events - I think that a collapse of biblical proportions is not far off…

My initial response to this report: 'durr, really?' Apply my most sarcastic Aussie drawl if reading the last sentence I just typed out loud.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, the federal government is focusing on how to manage the predicted change and not on reducing the source of that change. This is obviously because much of the Australian economy is based on the burning of fossil fuels and the export of oil. Are we ever going to learn? Preparing for disaster, as in the case of storms produced by our malfunctioning climate, is a simple, ridiculous and reactionary way of coping with what’s going to happen. Can we not see that it is our ‘patch up the problems, don’t find solutions’ way of dealing with things that has brought us to this stage in the first place?

War, famine and prejudice - I accept these things as a natural reality that every species must face in some form or another - I do not, however, accept the total obliteration of this gift of nature that the universe has bestowed upon us. Let the age of man come and go but let us not destroy the truly important things in the process.

When thinking about this issue it is hard not to get sidetracked on politics, but I have a simple format for environmental success that should be adopted by our leaders: think in the long term, not about the next election result.

We need to ratify the Kyoto protocol now. Right this minute. Not tomorrow or the next day. We need to bring massive pressure on to the American government to do likewise - unless they are forced to play ball the whole caper is lost. What are we doing instead? We are squabbling and squawking over free trade deals with China and the US. What use will money be, I ask you, if there is no habitable land to live in? There can be no more equivocations, no more excuses and no more finger pointing.

I guess there is a very dark positive in all this: if we don’t make the decision to truly learn to live in a symbiotic relationship with nature, nature will teach us (probably to the extent of the whole obliteration of our species) a very tough lesson indeed. We have been put on notice - we have been given a very friendly warning - but when ‘mother’ decides that we haven’t heeded her warning, and when she chooses to put things back the way that they are supposed to be, we will suffer a vengeance the likes of which will make any terrorist attack look like an episode of Sesame Street.

Jack Johnson puts it simply but eloquently as follows:

There's traffic in the sky
and it doesn't seem to be getting much better
there's kids playing games on the pavement drawing waves on the pavement
shadows of the planes on the pavement
its enough to make me cry
but that don't seem like it would make it feel better
maybe its a dream and if I scream it will burst at the seams
this whole place will fall to pieces
and then they'd say...

Well how could we have known?
I'll tell them it's not so hard to tell
if you keep on adding stones soon the water will be lost in the well

Puzzle pieces in the ground
but no one ever seems to be digging
instead they're looking up towards the heavens
with their eyes on the heavens
there are shadows on the way to the heavens
it's enough to make me cry
but that don't seem like it would make it feel better
The answers could be found
we could learn from digging down
but no one ever seems to be digging
instead they'll say...

Well how could we have known?
I'll tell them it's not so hard to tell
if you keep on adding stones soon the water will be lost in the well

Words of wisdom all around
but no one ever seems to listen
they're talking about their plans on paper
building up from the pavement
there are shadows from the scrapers on the pavement
it's enough to make me sigh but that don't seem like it would make it feel better
the words are still around
but the words are only sounds
and no one ever seems to listen

Instead they'll say
well how could we have known?
I'll tell them it's not so hard to tell
if you keep on adding stones
soon the water will be lost in the well