WE’RE KILLING THE EARTH
FOR the curious who wish to remain well informed, today there are thousands of sources available via the internet.
Google Earth and a mobile phone or ipad can make everyone a witness to the destruction of the natural environment. Professor
Ian Goldin of Oxford University has compiled a book titled “Terra Incognita – 100 maps to survive the next 100 years”, which documents man’s impact on the planet by using maps. I would recommend it to everyone who has brought children into today’s world. Unfortunately it is all too easy to cruise through life blissfully ignorant of what is happening on a global scale. A trip to the reef and bagging out on coral trout disguises the fact that without zoning of the Great Barrier Reef the coral trout might have gone the way of the Newfoundland cod.
It is important to remain informed and move through the world with eyes open. During my time in Weipa I witnessed the overfishing decline of the reef fish and the growing plastics dump washing in from Asia on the annual monsoon.
A trip to Oregon in the US in 2004 made me aware way back then of declining snowfall and increased rain leading to water shortages from Portland’s water supply dams. On my trip through the Rockies on the TransCanadian rail in 2009 I was told about the pine bark beetle plague killing one in 50 trees. The beetle
used to be naturally controlled by winter snowstorms. Winter is not cold enough to control the beetle today.
My old yachtie boss who sailed in Tasmania in summer told me about the Eastern Australian Current temperature rising by 4C. NSW fish are turning up in Tasmania. Tropical turtles are now an everyday sight at Byron Bay in winter. Crocs in Moreton Bay next; they are in the Mary River these days. I have driven through the deadly bushfire-ravaged mallee of WA. It is hard to see how the ecology comes back the same after such a complete burn.
You cannot stand anywhere in Europe on a clear day and not count three to six plane vapour trails at every moment of the day. Humans have overrun the planet and viruses consequently travel more easily. This follows on the back of warning shots by swine flu, SARS and MERS.
The wheat farmers of NSW and WA are praying for a virus to save them from their mouse plagues. Mouse control was once partly done by freezing winters. The days of walking your dairy cows across frozen creeks in the morning in New England are gone. The balmy winter we have just come through in Townsville hints at the future. We do not need climate models to warn us any longer. Climate change is here and it is getting very costly. The evidence is all around us if we just open our eyes.
GLENN WHITE,
Kelso.