Misunderstanding our reason, if we ever had one

Humanity has misunderstood its reason, if it ever had one.

We emerged from primordial slime and
then benefitted from near ideal
"Goldilocks-like" conditions.

We are a problem solving species and that is something at which we have been wonderfully effective, but interestingly some of the resultant solutions have produced seemingly unresolvable unintended consequences.

In solving problems we have, it appears, frequently asked the wrong question.

The questions were driven, and still are, by survivalist instincts and base human emotions from which we have never truly escaped.

Humanity, generally, is still somewhat childlike, grabbing selfishly at most anything that goes by, but with little thought for others, always seeking immediate gratification and within that caring little about what tomorrow will bring.

The idea that is maturity has been distorted in being applied to trivialities, rather than being used to honour the steadfastness and wisdom of some, particularly experienced and older people.

That however, is in itself contradictory, as wisdom, experience and age do not necessarily equate, but it is where wisdom, something which is short supply, is most commonly found and so we should not be uncomfortable or embarrassed about turning there for help or advice.

Humanity has scrambled for, and fought among itself, for earth’s resources, whether land, oil, people or whales, but in expanding its understanding of how to exploit those assets, it is locked technologically into an apocalyptic way of living.

With scant regard for tomorrow, justified by hollow and shallow rationalisations, we have battered the other into submission, plundered earth’s finite resources, privatized the profits and socialized the costs, while leaving behind the mounting residue of our less than honourable behaviour to accumulate in and so have filled up the earth’s environmental sinks.

Being simply the fortunate bonding a few elements in the primordial slime that benefitted from ideal conditions, we did not really evolve for a purpose nor was there any real planned reason, rather driven by species survival we simply capitalized on whatever came our way.

That was fine until we evolved to exceed nature’s capacity to cope and so now we must voluntarily moderate our behaviour and live within our environment’s finite bounds.

For millennia, the entire Holocene, we have been favoured by near ideal circumstances – Goldilocks-like temperatures of not too hot or too cold – but undeniable science illustrates that what is a massive human experiment is going wrong.

Never before has mankind been so close to the precipice and rather than compete in a search for endless growth in a finite world, we should step back, think about, understand and benefit from the social warmth, trust, co-operation and help between fellows that appeared to be the locus of the recent floods and fortified by that comforting reassurance, build and shape our reason.

Considering that, we have much to do.

Considering life retrospectively

The dynamics of a drought can only be understood retrospectively.

Floods - are they the opening
gambit in the next drought?

What happened throughout the Goulburn Valley in the past few days is hugely different, but it too can only be understood retrospectively.

People throughout the area, particularly those living in Tallygaroopna and Congupna, wrestled with an excess of water, the reverse side of the drought coin.

Accurately pinpointing the beginning of the recent south-eastern Australian decade-long drought never happened, but had we understood that, our communities would have been able to avoid the worst of the difficulties.

Knowing a decade with scarce water supplies was about to unfold, we would have planned and conserved our resource, easing practical difficulties and ensured people were psychologically prepared for the certain changes in their lives.

Drought, however, is remote from the minds of those presently wrestling with the outcome of record rains, filling sandbags and doing what they can to protect their property from rising water.

Considering the reality that we never really know when a drought has started – strangely, considered in retrospect, this could be the start of another – how do we know whether or not the flooding of late should be attributed to changes in our climate brought on by human activities.

The climate change doubters, or skeptics, will rush to the barriers declaring recent record rains were simply cyclical and little more than nature doing what nature does, while the global warming adherents will argue the event fits exactly with scenarios predicted by the climate scientists.

So while knee-deep in water, do we mark this as the beginning of a drought; a predictable and understood cyclical event; or is it evidence of human-induced climate change?

It is the latter argument that is beyond question and, yes, it may well be the beginning of another decade long drought and, no, it is not a predictable and understandable cyclical event.

Had it been predictable and understandable, the events that filled the pages of this newspaper in recent times could have been avoided.

Climate change is subtle and silent and remains that way until we experience events such as those of the past few days, but it is something which we can neither touch nor see.

So while we need to band together and support all those troubled by the floods, what is even more important is that entire communities need to gather and consider their response to a demonstrably changing climate.

Dr Cameron Hepburn

Our behaviour is the root of the trouble and it was only on Thursday that a visiting professor, Dr Cameron Hepburn told nearly 300 people at a Melbourne lecture that about half the complications leading to climate change would be eradicated if we stopped subsidizing technologies dependent on fossil fuels.

The saved money, he suggested, could then be used on a small suite of climate change abatement policies to support Australia’s carbon tax.

Life looked at through the rear view mirror is easily understood, but Dr Hepburn, like us, does not have one and so is eager to understand future workable climate change abatement processes.

Proposed levy will ultimately be ineffective

Australia’s new flood levy will ultimately be ineffective.

Individually the cost is insignificant, but with most Australian workers tipping into the fund, it will have sufficient financial clout to see much of what has been damaged, repaired.
Returning to a business as usual paradigm is understandable, but it is a lost opportunity.
Australians should work together to ensure their fellows are safe and not alienated from comforts that bring contentment and allows a worthwhile contribution, but rather than rebuild processes and infrastructure that worsened the difficulty, we should be exploring and investing in a strikingly different way of living.
Most of us, including me, have been seduced by the bounty we enjoy in this modern life, a way of life funded by the consumption of what those who follow should inherit.
So rather than spending with enthusiasm to re-build a life dependent on practices known to worsen climate change, that money should be directed at understanding a different way of living.
Australia already has many voluntarily set up Transition Towns organizations, groups that are working to prepare their communities to live and flourish in a low-energy future, and they, and their communities, would benefit greatly from Federal Government recognition and funding.
Resilience is an idea often discussed at such groups and it is essential those presently dealing with the aftermath of floods understand that concept.
Transition groups, we have one in Tatura (about 18km east of Shepparton in Northern Victoria), explore how we can live a fulfilling and contented life in a future that is missing many of things now considered normal.
Rather than simply return to a life as it was, Queensland and Victorian people affected by the floods, along with the broader population, need to re-imagine life and apply cash from the levy to re-engineer of life.
The starting point in any community re-building process is equality, something many would argue is impossible to achieve, but that error in thinking doesn’t devalue its pursuit as research illustrates equality positively impacts on the poorest to the wealthiest.
This levy is an opportunity to help communities become resistant to similar future difficulties and resilient enough to survive them should they happen again, something climate change makes almost certain.

Weather worsened events distract from understanding knotty reasons

Floods, fires and other weather worsened events seriously distract us from understanding and acting on the more knotty issues that contribute to their complexity.

Although Queensland’s floods (right) and Victoria’s fires, along with the many other weather-based difficulties around the world, are catastrophes of immense dimensions, with a huge human cost, they are simply symptoms of a grander world event.
Struggling with floods, fighting fires and marshalling our forces to get back to business as usual has honourable intent, but it misses the point.
Mute nature may be,  its actions speak louder than words it can’t speak and through its massive weather events, it is attempting to alert us that we do not act with impunity and so are not beyond its influence
Rather, however, we are a part of it and as the past century has shown, just a fragment, although a critical and influential fragment.
The urgency with which we seek that return to business of usual following such disasters as floods and fires is misplaced and ignores warnings from decades ago that without a fresh approach to our politics and way of living, decided difficulties were certain to emerge. Record droughts and hitherto unseen flooding suggest the accuracy of those predictions.
True, the floods and fires are not directly attributable to climate change, but weather events arising from changes to our climate worsened those present and recent difficulties and should be seen as another warning that all is not right.
Rather than rush to a return of business as usual, we should be re-examining our life-styles, our ideas and the management of our ways in the interest of reducing our carbon footprint remembering that it was the former Chief Scientist with the British Government, Sir David King, who said that climate change is the most severe problem the world faces, bar none.
Neo-liberal inspired growth has opened up the good life to most in Western economies and the resultant accompanied comforts have psychologically trapped many of us leaving us with a misplaced obligated sense that we must return to business of usual as quickly as we can, whatever the cost.