Many seek comfort in 'My Country' as climate change tightens its grip

Many retreat to the emotional comfort of “My Country” when forced to confront the reality of Australia’s changing weather patterns.

The legacy of Cyclone Oswald charges down Australia’s east coast bringing with it record rainfalls and subsequent flooding to many coastal areas and brutal winds that have ripped apart those same communities.

Dorothera Mackellar.

Tornadoes erupt without warning from this decidedly different combination of winds and heat over the oceans and land producing circumstances described as “never seen before” by a meteorologist.

Storms and rains of that never seen before intensity in the north of Australia, brutal bushfires in Victoria, heat of such intensity in central Australia that the Bureau of Meteorology had to use new colours on its maps to depict the event and still we argue and procrastinate about the realities of climate change.

It is unquestionably a reality and the longer we drag our feet, and continue with “business as usual”, the worse these so called “weather events” become.

However, the more dramatic and damaging the apparently disparate “weather events” become the more many people turn to the writing of Dorothea Mackellar for comfort.

Writing early last century, while in England, in a time absolutely unrelated to what is happening early this century, Mackellar attempted to assuage her loneliness by writing her memorable poem, “My Country”.

The second verse is the most quoted:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

Those eight lines of poetry written remote in time and distance from what is happening today in Australia are still alive in the minds of those unable to accept the reality that humans, a plague on the planet according to some, have changed the world’s climate systems.

You and I alone cannot have any measurable impact on the world’s weather systems, but we can change our attitudes and work together to build a more resilient community; a community that might be in a position to endure the unfolding changes to our weather patterns.

Writing on Saturday, social researcher, Hugh Mackay, discussed that in recognizing the early signs of climate change, some countries had embarked on clean and renewable energy sources, but there appeared no sense of urgency in Australia.

Writing an imaginary retrospective view for Australia day, Mackay said: “Even if it was too late to avert disaster for much of the world’s population, surely people realised a clean planet would be better than a dirty one for the survivors.”

Yes, Mackellar lived in a different time and wrote for a different time and although that Australia still exists, it demands a different response.

Walking about your city can make you 'happy, hopeful and healthy'

Walking is a favoured method of getting about the city.

Cycling is next and when time or distance precludes those options, driving is the next choice.

Tony Taylor's,
"Fishing the
River of Life".

Public transport, buses, need to be in the mix, but sadly it seems to be too infrequent and always appears to be not where I am or going where it is I want to go.

Research illustrates that for public transport to be truly effective, read useful; it needs to be effectively going “past your door” every seven minutes.

Our future will be decidedly different from what we know today and those three transport methods – walking, cycling and public transport – will become elementary.

They are, it has been said, society’s “silver bullet” as walking and cycling are both inevitably about exercise rescuing us from host of health difficulties and public transport, just like walking and cycling, will be our fundamental method of movement as the world really begins to scrabble for energy.

After 200 000 years of evolution, walking is still fundamental to our lives and our reactions have evolved in accord with that pace to ensure that a collision between walkers is a rare as snow in the Goulburn Valley.

Beyond ensuring that we can walk collision free, evolution has shaped our mental capabilities to coherently absorb what is happening around us we walk, or even at a steady cycling pace.

Driving determines that your attention be on the task at hand, or it should, and so the intricate and intimate realities of your community become a blur as you speed by; at least speed in terms of your cognitive ability to take note of what is in your field of vision, as limited as it is.

So, if you care about your community walk, explore the streets to which you have never been, look at the buildings, check out the signs, be curious, wonder why certain things are or are not happening, pick up some rubbish, encounter a stranger and talk with them, spend a few minutes talking with a friend and embed yourself in your community.

Coincidently as these thoughts were taking shape a friend lent me a book written by a 80-year-old allegedly about fishing, which it obliquely was, but in reality it was mediation about life and in which the author, Tony Taylor, thought about the five things he could pass onto his eight-year-old grandson; things that a person could do every day to make to make them healthy, hopeful and happy.

Taylor said people should develop friendships; be physically active; foster curiosity about the world; continue education throughout their life and finally, do not think about money all the time, rather offer help and services to all.

“These five things”, he wrote, “maintain good mental health”.
 

Getting it together or pulling it apart - both demand effort and intent

Pulling your life together, and keeping it that way, necessitates intent, planning and effort.

Oddly, pulling it apart, and sustaining that, requires equal intent, planning and effort.

Deciding on which side
of the line we stand.

Disequilibrium demands an exertion of certain mental or physical energy in order to achieve a purpose, just as does achieving its opposite, equilibrium.

Walking home recently as the temperature charged toward 40 degrees, three people walking the other way, with equal intent, shared the responsibility of carrying a slab a beer.

The nearest liquor outlet was nearly two kilometers away and so it was quite a journey to secure the 10kg package; a package that promised passing pleasure, but which would leave a permanent legacy of difficulties.

Those “lager luggers” obviously had a plan, had employed it with some intent and were demonstrably prepared to put in the effort to see their design through to fruition.

Any conversation questioning another’s conduct is fraught with danger as it is loaded with vagaries, opinion and seemingly insoluble differences about what is and isn’t right – maybe those struggling home with the slab of beer were doing the right thing and perhaps any judgment about their behaviour is what really warrants questioning.

Who is right and who is wrong about anything is a remarkably difficult delineation to make and probably the term “wrong” can only be applied to a few consensually agreed to and broadly understood evils.

Culture and tradition invades our lives circumscribing many things for whatever society in which we live decides for us what falls either side of the line that separates the good from bad.

Most alarming however, is the disengagement of many who appear to have abandoned the mutuality that is the energy of communities and rather than commit themselves to the greater good they appear to have capitalized the “I” in individual.

Such a development not only appeals to the corporate world, but is one that is actively encouraged for its bank balances are enhanced as people become more remote from, and less engaged with the with the forces that drive our world.

Existing processes have patently favoured an elite few, but it would be unfair not to attribute many societal advances to the present dynamic.

Rather than simply criticize and judge our fellows - that is far too simplistic and destructive - we need to engage with the vigor that shapes our communities, collaborating with those forces to guide them to an end that benefits people more so than profit.

That in itself is simplistic as any change so sweeping and intricate draws its reason from ideas as yet misunderstood by many and so to have people engage with their community they have to be able to see a benefit.

Education reveals that benefit.

Libertarian beliefs, bushfires and ideologies - what a conflagration!

A friend recently described himself as a 19^th century libertarian.

Such an observation demanded some research for this fellow is a sociable, likeable, community minded, not at all individualistic as success in the modern seems to demand and so does not equate at all with the popular conception of someone who has such beliefs.

Tasmania's fires.

As an incredibly reasonable, thoughtful and generous man, who always exhibits fairness and concern for the social equality of his fellows, my friend’s values appeared at odds with the popular understanding of a libertarian.

However, and interestingly, the traits he exhibits sit comfortably with those who align themselves with libertarianism, at least libertarianism of the classic variety.

Libertarians of all stripes are somewhat uncomfortable with government intervention and yet, strangely, they see something of a limited role for such an authority provided it does not impinge upon the liberty of individuals, either intentionally or through an unintended consequence.

Those who claim the title of “libertarian” are as different in content as they are in action, but broadly they are “classic libertarians” (such as my friend), “hard” and “neo-libertarians”.

They are suspicious of governments and yet they are equally wary of the behaviour or market, and yet they argue for a truly free market, one that is not influenced or favoured by governmental decisions.

Interestingly, some libertarians find a certain comfort in several anarchical ideals for while anarchy has a fearfully bad reputation it really means, historically, “without government” an idea that meshes with many endorsed by libertarians.

Critics of libertarians might argue that philosophies they pursue and endorse concern only the “big-end of town”, but for someone truly aligned to the libertarian cause would deny that and argue for equality and fairness, both in social and hierarchical terms, and in economic dealings.

However, the troubles of life are frequently beyond tightly held political and religious beliefs as exampled by the recent bushfires that engulfed parts of Tasmania.

As many eyeballed tragedy with homes, property, and their lives, in the path of the advancing blaze, it is unlikely anyone questioned their political or religious beliefs as they negotiated themselves around that difficulty.

Some may have found comfort in religious beliefs later, but it seems improbable they would have been would have been front of mind at the height of the fires, when the needs of sheer survival would have clearly supplanted those interests, just as political fancies would have been equally remote.

Unfolding dilemmas facing the earth; the collision of burgeoning population, energy scarcity and a worsening climate, demand we re-consider the status of personal ideologies.

The politics of tomorrow just simply has to be different from what exists for what we have is more about answering wants, rather than peoples’ true needs.

Our understanding of growth and a fresh approach to the dynamic will enable us to navigate our future

An adage of uncertain origin is front of mind for many today.

Tim Jackson has written
about "Prosperity
without Growth".

America is shivering and the world, including many Australians, is afraid it will sneeze.
The axiom, attributed by some to a newspaper editorial says that when American sneezes, the world catches a cold.

Today some in the world watch on breathlessly as American politicians attempt to negotiate the country into a position from which it can avoid falling off what is colloquially known as the “fiscal cliff”.

Australia is geographically remote from America, but considered financially we live in its hip pocket and some are arguing that if the U.S. trips and falls over the imagined “cliff”, the impact will be felt tomorrow in Australia’s financial markets.

The “cliff” is about budgetary matters and the legislative need for that country’s politicians to inject some imagined stability into its finances, which could be significantly worsened if existing laws remain unchanged.

America has the world’s biggest economy and when the U.S. falls into recession, which is possible if laws remain unchanged, the resultant domino-like slowdown effect on other economies, including ours, sweeps around the world.

To restore some balance to its troubled economy (its national debt presently exceeds $US16 trillion), the U.S. had legislated laws the come in effect from tomorrow to introduce possible tax increases and spending cuts and to reduce its budget deficit or; the country’s leaders could act to repeal the several laws to resolve the immediate difficulty, or simply postpone an inevitable confrontation with reality.

Any attempt to argue “this” or “that” would resolve the U.S. difficulties and so ease the domino-like trouble Australia can expect would be hollow and pointless, but what we can do personally is consider our attachment to an economic way of living that has clearly overwhelmed the human beauty of life and eroded social equality and our natural sociability.

Life has evolved to become intricately entwined with the economy and today the quality of life is wrongly judged by an accounting process called “gross domestic product” (GDP), which includes as “good” even costs associated with efforts to counter and repair such damage as that caused by floods in north-eastern Victoria, including Numurkah, Nathalia and Rochester.

Economists sensitive to what is happening in the world argue for a more enlightened approach to growth; oxygen the present and dominant ideology urgently needs for sustenance.British ecological economist, Tim Jackson, wrote about a fresh approach in his book “Prosperity without Growth”.

In the final analysis, whether America goes over the “fiscal cliff” or not, and whether we follow, is substantially irrelevant, for what really matters is being able to look beyond this impending forest of troubles, to see and understand that the ultimate solution is in ideas like those of Tim Jackson.

Turing broke the Enigma Machine and was himself an enigma

Alan Turing.

This was the year of Alan Turing.

“Ho hum, so what?” I hear you ask.

Well, despite your lack of curiosity, this is a moment in history that warrants interest as Turing’s skills shortened World War Two saving hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of lives and today the outcome of his efforts is implicated in most of what we do.

Turing was born a century ago last June and along with breaking the German Enigma Code of the Second World War he is credited with being the founder of computer science.

Many of the thoughts that once flooded through Turing’s mind are now embedded in your computer or the intricate workings of your smart phone.

Much of the credit for the life we enjoy is attributable to Turing for as he helped cut short a damnably destructive war and was instrumental in developing the God-like technologies on which the modern world depends.

Turing was a different and sometimes difficult man who epitomized the popular idea of “nerd” and being something of a loner enjoyed the solitary world of marathon running and it was that predilection that resulted in him working pretty much alone on the German cryptography used in the Enigma machine that transmitted messages to and from that country’s World War Two submarines.

That “loner” is credited with breaking the code used on those German machines changing the fortunes of the allies in the Second World War.

Turing, iconoclastic in behaviour and attitude, paid dearly for his pragmatic approach to life that manifested itself in a logic and honesty that, at the time, exceeded the intellectual capacity of society.

Homosexuality was a crime in the early decades of last century and Turing, who had never hidden his preferences found himself, because of those desires, entangled in a potential blackmail situation, and naively went to the police only to be subsequently charged for his behaviour.

Turing, who had been a “behind the scenes” hero of Great Britain during the war was found guilty for his sexual preferences and rather than go to goal, accepted chemical castration, but then in 1954, just before his 42^nd birthday, he died of poisoning, something many considered suicide, but believed accidental by his mother and others.

However, in 2009 following a public push, the then British PM, Gordon Brown, officially apologized on behalf of his government for the “appalling way Turing was treated”.

Listening to a recent discussion about Turing, one queried whether or not the remarkably thinker, had he lived, would have continued to add to the sum of human knowledge?

Leading the discussion, Monash University associate professor, Graham Farr, said such a question was unanswerable, but he liked to imagine Turing would have remained at the forefront of knowledge.

Twenty-six die in something 'beyond normal'

Actions beyond what most consider normal resulted recently in the deaths of 26 people.

The mass shooting at the Newtown primary school in Connecticut, USA, unleashed a wave of emotion as the news broke that 20 of those killed were kids between the ages of five and 10.

The young man responsible, who first shot his mother at home before focussing on the school, ended this sorry episode when he shot himself.

However, for a moment, let’s consider what happened at the Newtown Sandy Hook Primary School is in fact becoming the norm for it was the outcome of living in a society drenched with the idea that whatever is troubling you can be resolved through violence.

The educative and humanising processes of society are swamped by this idea to become a nation-wide characteristic that sees the United States embroiled in a hegemonic rampage around the world.

Blame rests unequivocally with the young man, but it seems diametrically unfair that he should shoulder the culpability alone when the broader society of which he is a product sees violence as an attractive solution with guns as the preferred method of dispute resolution?.

The portrayed bravado of America’s wild-west from late in the 19^th Century has transmogrified to a grotesque and bizarre sense of normal today in which many Americans, and some Australians it must be noted, feel a sense of vulnerability without a firearm in the house.

The young man was unquestionably troubled, but is it just to heap all the responsibility upon him and walk away comforted by the thought that there was nothing you could do when the young man and his behaviour is clearly a product of the society we helped create?

Many shocked by events at the school see themselves as pacifists, but stand with a government that commits similar, or worse, atrocities in other countries.

Unable to explain it any better I quote Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, who said:

"Like Bush’s government in Iraq, Barack Obama’s administration neither documents nor acknowledges the civilian casualties of the CIA’s drone strikes in north-west Pakistan.

 

But a report by the law schools at Stanford and New York universities suggests that during the first three years of his time in office, the 259 strikes for which he is ultimately responsible killed between 297 and 569 civilians, of whom 64 were children.”

“Yet”, Monbiot writes, “there are no presidential speeches or presidential tears for them; no pictures on the front pages of the world’s newspapers; no interviews with grieving relatives; no minute analysis of what happened and why.”

That prompts the question: Are some children automatically more valuable than others in our eyes?

 

Was what happened at Sandy Hook Primary School normal? Considered from the perspective of what is the statistically most violent culture on earth it has to be ”yes”, but the vast bulk of Australians would say “no”.