Australia - Climate Convulsions, Disasters & Arrogance - The Age

[hatrack]

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We see signs of some of these precursors to societal collapse in Australia today. For example, problems with rising salinity, soil erosion, years of drought that make farming areas uneconomic in the long term, water shortages, dying river systems, rejection of the Kyoto Protocol for reduction of carbon emissions and global warming. However, we can also see (as Diamond highlights in his books) a growing push by some Australians to grapple with how we can better adapt to and sustain our extremely fragile ecosystems and build more positive relationships with our South-East Asian neighbours while retaining important economic and political links with Britain, Europe, Japan and the United States.

As Australia grapples with the challenges of the 21st century, it would be wise to avoid making the mistakes that have led to the decline of other nations that once considered themselves "lucky".

For example, will we have the political will to actively discourage rather than subsidise farming in areas where it can never be globally competitive or environmentally sustainable? Will we develop a national identity that allows us to build positive relationships with our neighbours while maintaining our traditional relationships with other important trading partners and allies? Will we respond quickly enough to climate changes that have the potential to drive us to the brink of collapse? Will our governance be driven by lobby groups and political parties representing sectional interests or will we develop the means to govern ourselves in the sustainable interests of the nation and the planet?

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/climatic-convulsions-disaster-and-arrogance/2006/01/06/1136387620931.html?page=2

[pretzel4gore]

1. 'wild farming'

recently, i heard about this kinda sustainable farming, which lets nature do the heavy lifting for 1st time. A japanese farmer, apparently quite famous in the 70's, uses no plowing or toxic fertilers or so on, just natural growth, with a bit of 'weeding' to assist the crop/plants, and successfully worked a small farm for years. This sounded silly, yet from the documentary, the 'farm' outproduced its neighbors w/out any of those costs associated with farming (a variety of animals like goats chickens and pigs etc lived semi wild on the farm, and were part of the idea)...australia might have a too complex ecosystem to impose the slash, burn, then artificially rebuilt farms that our agriculture only knows how to do...too bad 'wild farming' hasn't at least been tried alot more (has anyone else even heard of such a thing?) since nature just is NOT THE ENEMY!