January 1st, 2007
I took this photo in May last year in Australia’s central east coast rainforest – in Lamington National Park. I didn’t publish it at the time, but today is a good day to share this river’s beauty with the world.
In Richard Wilbur’s poem ‘Year’s End’ he writes of how most of the time we don’t boldly step into our future’s with clear and shapely resolutions:
‘These sudden ends of time must give us pause.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.’
Australia’s great poetic voice of honesty and human frailty, Michael Leunig, has some words that I think would make a good centre-piece for anybody’s list of new year’s resolutions. The following bit of writing comes from his collection Wild Figments (yes, it has a painting of people picking figs on the front cover). Check it out.
So, in the coming year I will keep this bit of Leunig wisdom always at the back of my mind:
‘A Herbal Remedy for Lifeache’
You suffer from lifeache. Your whole life is sore; it hurts when you move it. Herbal remedy: take one patch of grass, a mild day, and two large green trees. Lie on the grass beneath one tree and contemplate the other tree. Nap from time to time, or gaze occasionally at the grass. Pain will subside. Lifeache cannot be cured, but you can learn to manage the symptoms.
January 9th, 2007
Earth Man.
(Actually it is my friend Danny Cummings a few years ago in Byron Bay, east coast Australia.)
I recently discovered a drawing by Paul Livingston, author of Australia’s most sadly neglected comic novel The Dirt Bath (buy a copy if you find one), which continues this theme of finding union with the Earth.
Livingston accompanies his drawing with some humorous words on the habit of sunbaking.
After heeding Livingston I will never look at Australian beaches in the same way again:
‘I believe this irrational behaviour is a subconscious attempt by displaced Anglo-Australians to get in touch with the land. One only has to witness the hordes of white flesh basting on the beach to realise that these people have a deeply repressed need to become a desert.’
January 10th, 2007
Funny Weather by Kate Evans is a recently published book of cartoons about climate change (Myriad Editions: 2006). I’ve just finished reading it and it is essential reading: humorous, honest and entertaining drawings and witty commentary on the biggest issue in town. I thought I knew plenty about climate change, but I also learnt a few things from Evans’ book (here are a few pages from the book for you to preview). I was so impressed by the ability of this slim volume to pull one’s attention along, that I might go and leave a copy of this book in the waiting room of my local doctor – I’m sure some of the patients will pick it to pass the time. This is pretty crazy but you can’t buy the book in Australian book shops right now, so you have to resort to ordering it off Amazon.
There are many more obviously funny cartoons in the book, but the above image of Gandhi has lodged itself in my mind. If you’re not living in a log cabin far from news of the day, and you have an ethical bone in your body, then it is likely that you will have informed yourself about the developing global climate crisis and decided that low carbon living is the way to go. But you may despair that your efforts are ultimately not going to change the course the majority of your neighbours have set the planet on. When you feel like this, remember this image of Gandhi, and don’t give up.
January 23rd, 2007
Finally local government has become serious about encouraging the people to reduce their carbon footprint in the face of a growing climate crisis. This morning STOP signs all over the Australian port city of Fremantle were unveiled, boasting a new design which incorporates a motivational carbon neutral message. Well done government!
Visiters to the Fremantle train station needed no encouragment.
Fremantle’s historic West End proudly wore the anti-car moniker on another beautiful, sunny West Australian afternoon.
January 26th, 2007
On the National Interest on Radio National (21/8/06) a few months ago, Ian Lowe and Tim Flannery, two of Australia’s most eminent environmentalists, discussed climate change.
Ian Lowe praised the actions of some state governments, and then gave to the federal government’s role thus far. He said: ‘…the problem is that the commonwealth government is asleep at the wheel’.
Tim Flannery quickly added the following: ‘I would even go further than that Ian, I don’t think the federal government is asleep at the wheel, I think that they are actively acting against addressing climate change.’
Today is Australia Day, and for the first time in close to thirty years a hero of the planet has received the nation’s greatest honour. Tim Flannery has been named Australian of the Year by the prime minister.So what kind of odd predicament do we find ourselves in here? The nation’s leader hands out the great award for Australianess to Tim Flannery. Tim Flannery points his finger right back at the PM and accuses him of putting the fate of the planet in peril.
Score: Australia: 1/ Dishonourable PM: 0.
And so, amidst the helter and skelter of today’s recrudescent tribalism, the annual outing of the flags and the louts, I will have a smile on my face. I will be smiling with the knowledge that this country has officially recognised the greatest Australian of all as the one who speaks with much eloquence and intelligence on behalf of the living earth. Today we have some real, widely acknowledged, reason to recognise honourable Australians as being those who work to care for this country’s ecological heritage.
Oh, and if you have yet to listen to this talk that Flannery gave at Sydney University last year, then today is your day.
