Personal adversity, a friend recently suggested, is the only thing that will convince most people of such things as climate change, oil scarcity or food security.
That idea was echoed on Friday night by one of the speakers at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG).
Nearly 200 people gathered at Shepparton’s Eastbank centre to acknowledge that moment in group’s life and listened as Paul Gilding (right) warned of serious looming adversity.Gilding - a former chief executive officer of Greenpeace, both in Australia and overseas, a consultant who discussed and worked on environmental issues with some of the world’s largest companies, an advisor to many government and private organizations and one who has always encouraged social justice - suggested the adversity, pointed to by my friend, might only be five years away.
Gilding reflected earlier congratulations to the group but then added: “This is no longer just an environmental issue, rather the survival of human civilization”.
Friday night’s message from Gilding was not all glum as he was excited about human capacity to deal with a crisis and our willingness to act quickly when our “backs are to the wall”.
He pointed to the adversity of World War Two as a demonstration of our ability to deal with such a difficulty when just four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the American car industry switched from the civilian market to building war machines.
Friday night’s conversation appeared in stark contrast to another held only four days earlier in an adjoining Eastbank room when Governor of the Reserve Bank, Mr Glenn Stephens, predicted a “fairly robust upswing in the domestic economy”.
Rather than a robust economic upswing, Gilding said we will soon see the end of growth bringing on an era when things will get “ugly”.
Among those riveted to Gilding’s comments was the founding president of the environment group, Mrs Barbara Leavesley, who had travelled back from Airey’s Inlet for Friday’s anniversary.
Other speakers were the former GVEG president and co-convenor of Solar Valley Goes Solar, Geoff Lodge, and director of the Victorian Office of Environmental Sustainability, Gordana Marin.
