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What did you expect?

August 29th, 2010 by Shani

What did you expect? or Despair , Transformation and Creativity in an Age of Environmental Collapse By Tim Darby

OK. I admit it. For most of the last month I’ve been feeling really miserable. What do you expect? I’m working on a community based program (Living Smart) getting people to think about the environmental impact of their behaviour and (with careful manipulation and a lot of luck) to head off in a more sustainable direction. Imagine trying to do that in WA – arguably the worst carbon polluter per head of population in the world, in the middle of a mineral resource boom.

Some days I feel like I’m running a mattress maintenance program for Japan’s National Sumo Wrestling Team. Whatever small progress I make each day gets crushed by the weight of incoming bad news a few hours later. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like there’s no reasons to rejoice. It’s just that what successes I have, while often profound and important on a personal level, tend to get lost amongst the litany of eco horror stories coming to you live from all over the world.

Recently, after watching ” The Age of Stupid”, I found myself caught up in one of those ” what’s the point we’re all doomed anyway ” cycle of thinking.

What do you expect?

It’s an occupational hazard for anyone who’s literary consumption extends beyond The West and those 15 year old New Ideas on offer in every suburban GP waiting room, particularly those of us involved in environmental behaviour change.

So what does one do with those feelings of despair? When I spend all day rabbiting on about how “every long journey begins with a single step” and that “we must all be the change we want to see”, it feels a bit hypocritical to stand up half way through my macrobiotic, low food miles, guilt free lentil burger and say ” You know what? I think you might be right. I think we are totally fucked after all.”

So after a couple of weeks of indecision, self-doubt and angst (sometimes I hate being a Libran!) I started to quietly mention it to a couple of fellow “save the planet”ers only discover that they all suffered similar periods of feeling totally overwhelmed and defeated.

Really, I suppose what do you expect?

So…Wearing my heart on my sleeve I tentatively suggested that we all put aside some time to share our feelings of “less than absolute certainty it will all be O.K.” This seemed like a rather cumbersome title (and also I’m only a two finger typist)so with the help of my far more optimistic partner Shani I sent out invitations to: “The Heart Night – Worried about the future? Bring along your stories, poems or songs to share”

As the ambiguously named Heart Night approached I was filled with apprehension (not an unusual state of event for me as you may have gathered). I didn’t really know what to expect. Would anyone show up? Would I be treated with disdain for daring to suggest that it really is a lost cause?

Or, on the other hand would I find myself surrounded by hundreds of teary suicidal eco- worriers? (See what I mean about being a Libran?)

As it turned out kind of neither, both and all of the above happened. About 15 people turned up, most of whom I know or had a least met. There was only one complete stranger and she seemed to make herself right at home chatting and sharing tea and bikkies with everyone. She brought her knitting along which seemed like a cosy kind of idea and not at all out of place at a heart night.

After a brief introduction I got things under way gently by singing a whimsical and funny song called “The Snip” about my concerns about overpopulations leading to me getting a vasectomy. A couple of members of the Hulbert Street choir sang backing vocals and provided a percussive accompaniment on garden shears. (the lyrics follow at the end of this blog)

That seemed to break the ice a bit and the evening rolled along pretty smoothly from song to poem to story and back again. Some sad, some hopeful, some funny. I would say that everyone who felt they had something to share felt they had a safe place to express it and perhaps break a bit of the isolation of “am I the only one who thinks like this?” (a few examples follow at the end of this blog)

Probably my favourite part of the evening was seeing the beauty and creativity that can come out of despair.

As the evening wound down and people were swapping phone numbers and putting their salty tissues in the compost bucket, the unknown knitter approached Shani, looking a little concerned.

“I just wanted to tell you that I think you need to change your face book page” she said.

“Gosh really? Could you tell me a little more about what you mean?” offered Shani, well aware that the Heart Night hadn’t featured on any face book page, but still in the mood for receptive listening.

“Well it just wasn’t what I expected. I must say I enjoyed it but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I think you need to explain it a bit more clearly”.

It turned out she thought she was coming to a knitting group, but had arrived on the wrong night!

Well, what do you expect?

Tim’s Snip Song

(Introduction with scissor percussion)

Well the planet’s getting crowded

Thought I’d make my contribution

With medical intervention

Be part of the solution

But what if something goes awry

And I’m filled with regret (oh)

Walk with a limp, become a gymp,

Move bass to a falsetto

CHORUS

I’ve got an inclination

For cessation of procreation

While engaged in recreation

Without sexual frustration

I want the snip.

I called around to Andy’s

He’d moved up to Mount Rugged

He used to stride out tall and straight

But now he’s all bow legged

Walking like a cowboy

So he’s gone up to the station

Our Andy’s gone with the cattle now

Since he had the operation

CHORUS

I’ve got an inclination

For cessation of procreation

While engaged in recreation

Without sexual frustration

I want the snip.

My hippy mate lit insense

While we listed to whales sounding

Sipping organic herbal chi

He said “man that’s astounding”

Your inner child will sure be pissed

If you snip your hidden genie

Your chi will all get tangled up

And you’ll block your kundilini

CHORUS

I’ve got an inclination

For cessation of procreation

While engaged in recreation

Without sexual frustration

I want the snip.

I dropped around to Johno’s place

As I was passing by

He helped me build my pergola once

He’s into D I Y

In fact he’s quite a guru

Bunning’s Obi Wan Kenobi

“Sit down son, you just relax”

He reached for his Ryobi.

If you’ve heard this conversation

‘Bout the inflation of population

From excessive copulation

And it caused you consternation

And the thought of reproduction

Doesn’t fill you with elation

And you’d rather learn macramé

Do another renovation

There’s a medical procedure

That could soon be your salvation

Without further hesitation

Seek a nearby destination

Hey hey hey hey staying alive staying alive

Staying alive . . . . . .

Get the snip

I love you my wonderful child – by Amy

I love you my wonderful child

And I’ll whisper it through your curly blonde hair

A million times a day

But what I really mean is

I love you and I’m sorry

If I tell you enough times

Maybe I can equip you for the future

Can I fill your heart with enough love

So you grow up to be brave, compassionate and strong?

For you will need these traits

And many more

I love you so much

Sometimes I wish you were never born

How can a mother say that?

I worry so much about your future

How will my little boy survive?

How will you grow food

without water or topsoil?

Will you be a faceless environmental refugee?

I want you to survive and thrive

And find love, hope and happiness

So I’ll love you and tell you so

A million times a day

I love you my wonderful child

I love you too mummy and daddy

We look to each other and grow

We read and research and think and observe

We share and talk

In my arms are my beautiful boys

My reasons to be bold

So we all take a deep breath

Hold our heads high

And turn away

And fuck it, we will be ourselves:

Amy: No, I won’t fly to Sydney for those workshops,

See we take our carbon footprint seriously

Adam: Let’s grow the best community orchard ever

Quin: Dan’s, If its yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.

Do you know what that means Danny?

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Posted by Shani Tags: despair, environmental concerns, heart night, Living Smarties, Sustainability, sustainable living, the painted fish
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Economic Development and Your Speedos

July 11th, 2010 by Shani

Flicking through a local paper a while ago I came across an ad calling for five community representatives to be involved in an economic development working group to “deliver an economic development strategy … to grow Fremantle’s economy with a focus on increasing employment … and the number of businesses in Fremantle.”

After due consideration I don’t think I have the prerequisites to apply for one of the positions but I did have a few thoughts about economic growth generally.

Let me start with four things I really like about Winter:

Snuggling up in bed every night with a yummy rich hot chocolate
Butter melting through a stack of crisp yet deliciously spongy crumpets
Toasting marshmallow over an open fire
Slothing around in comfy old tracky pants (the ones with a really stretchy waist band.

OK what about Summer?

Here is one thing I really don’t like about the start of Summer.

Trying to get into your budgie smugglers on the first sunny day after the rains and realising that they just don’t fit any more … or more to the point, as they haven’t changed over the Winter, you don’t fit anymore!

Struggling with the unimaginable notion that you have grown too big, your mind rushes about grasping more and more implausible explanations.

Maybe the very last time you went to the beach last summer you mistakenly took someone else’s Speedos (someone much smaller, of course) . . . .

Maybe your bathers are made out of some new fangled lycra which shrinks when not exposed regularly to sunlight. . . . .

Maybe your partner is messing with your mind by replacing your togs with an identical but much smaller pair. . . . .

Finally (possibly after a reality check in the mirror) you are faced with the incontestable fact that they are your bathers and you’ve just grown too big. There’s no escaping it. How depressing.

At this point you have three choices.

One, you can decide you never really liked swimming anyway and you’d rather spent the rest of your life wearing comfortable trackies.

Two, you sneak out and buy a bigger pair of bathers, which is fine this year and may be next year, but at some point in the not too distant future you may find yourself at the centre of a mob of enthusiastic young conservationists trying to push you back into the water and chanting ‘Save the whales, save the whales’.

Three, you come to the painful realization that your pleasurable overindulgence has led to your unpleasant over expansion and that as painful as it may be, the best time to address the problem is sooner rather than later.

What’s this all got to do with economic development? Well it’s like this.

Essentially, some things get bigger, and some things don’t. When the two collide there’s a problem.

Let’s look at some non-budgie smuggler examples:

Some things get bigger -

1) Population. At the moment, Australia’s population is growing at over 2% annually – one of the fastest in the world. Perth’s population is predicted to double by 2050.

2) House sizes and the urban sprawl. Since the 1950s the average Australian house has doubled in size (despite the population per house halving). We are living in four times as much space as we used to.

3) Cars. Between 1980 and 2003 the number of cars in Australia doubled to 10 million and continues to increase faster than the population.

In fact, if you look at just about anything to do with consumption of resources, you’ll see a parabolic increase since about the end of WWII

Some things don’t get bigger -

1) The number of habitable planets currently at our disposal.

2) Happiness. Despite a threefold increase in the material wealth of the average Australian since the 1950’s our happiness has flatlined.

In fact some things are actually on the decline – (mostly natural resources!)

3)Water. Water inflow into Perth dams has fallen from about 330 gl (in 1960) down to about 80 gl (2009) and continues to decline.

4) Oil. Australia’s oil production has peaked and is in decline, and according the ASPO predictions production worldwide may well have already peaked.

5) Land. Viable food producing land. At present 2.4 million hectares of Australian farmland has become unusable due to salt encroachment. This is estimated to increase sixfold over the next 30 – 50 years.

Maybe I’ll stop there before I run out of fingers . . . .

It concerns me that economic growth is taken as a given, even though it is based on increasing consumption of our dwindling natural resources, driven largely by increasing population (baby bonus anyone?), which in turn has only been made possible by the availability of cheap oil.

I understand that the very suggestion that we can’t continue to grow indefinitely will be howled down as ridiculous.

After all, the last fifty years has seen the average Australia undergo continued increases in wealth and prosperity.

Surely the next fifty years will be the same!

Surely growth is good …

Or is it?

Think about it next time you try to fit into last year’s Speedos.

Cheers, Tim

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Posted by Shani Tags: economic development, fremante, Living Smarties, sustainable living
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