Dirk Flinthart's totally unsustainable whimsies

Can development be environmentally sustainable?

(Check out the "note from the trees" received after Sonny Bono went crr-RUNCH-ah!)

Is that a trick question, or what? I mean, suppose you ask the CEO of BHP Billiton that question. He's going to say: "Yes, of course." But when he thinks "environment" he's thinking pretty much about golf fairways and nature strips down the middle of the Autobahn, and maybe the back yard of his summer retreat in the mountains of the South Island of New Zealand. Sure, development is environmentally sustainable. All of HIS environments are looking pretty good, aren't they?

(Damn. That wasn't funny at all.)

On the other hand, if you ask the same question of Mahatma Rainbow Whaleseeker, he'll raise his skinny arms above his dreadlocks and intone a mantra of cleansing to lift the curse you have brought upon him with the word "development." For Mahatma, it's not an environment at all if there are human beings in it. Anywhere.

(Okay. That was funnier.)

Really, it does come down to what you call an environment, doesn't it? I grew up in an area of Far North Queensland, well north of Cairns. Back when I grew up, we didn't have ecosystems or environments. We just sorta had "nature", a catch-all phrase that meant you could drink the water, the trees were nice, the sea was clean and you could eat the fish that came out of it. Of course, that was some time ago. I'm not saying just how long...

(Hey! That's a good one!)

In the interim, though, there's been some development. Oh yes. A lot of money has flowed under the bridge in Far North Queensland since the days when we had "nature". The place where I grew up has got electricity now, and I believe they've even got a reticulated water supply. And of course, with the arrival of such benefits, the new residents were officially issued with an "ecosystem" and an "environment" all their own, very shiny. By and large, of course, the old residents were long gone. I think they were attached to their "nature", which seemed to be rife with exciting mushrooms and certain hemp-related plant species. However, the new residents seem to be pretty pleased with the "environment" they were given when they bought their new houses.

(Is that meant to be funny?)

(This is definitely not funny. But it's kind of neat.)

Last time I was up that way, I drove through my old neighbourhood and took a look around. The houses are nice, I suppose, but someone seems to have mislaid all those trees that used to look so nice. And the road up the range is still dumping red clay silt into the creek, so I don't suppose you'd want to drink the water unless you were prepared to shit bricks for real. Also, it seems that the silty run-off has messed up the little reefs that were just a couple-hundred metres offshore, so you don't get much in the way of fish along my beach any more, but other than that, the "environment" there looks pretty nice, I guess. If you like "environments". Me? I think I know why the old residents left when they had to turn in their "nature."

(Desperate, but funny!)

Since then, I've moved on down to Tasmania with my little family. We're pretty primitive down here in Taz. Heck, we don't mind admitting it. Everybody knows we're all inbred hicks, right? Forever strapping ourselves to trees, trying to save the damn Franklin, making cheese out of organically grown goat smegma and all that kind of thing. And I've gotta tell you, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of "environment" down here, either. Not the kind of "environment" you get with lots of modern development happening --- because if the truth be known, "development" isn't happening much down here any more. They keep shutting the mines, reducing the heavy industries, and they even seem to have forgotten to keep exploring for more minerals. Globalisation at work, apparently. Awfully hard on a little backwater of a place like this.

(rather good!)

Still, I will say this: you can drink the water straight out of the springs and rivers around my place. The trees look damned nice too. Come to think of it, you can swim in the sea and the fish that you catch around here are pretty damned tasty. We may not be able to afford a proper environment here in low-employment Tasmania, but from what I can see, the local nature is still looking good.

Can development be environmentally sustainable? I don't know. Go ask somebody with a lot of science up their arse. I'm just a bloke who has opted to live as far away from development as he can get, without having to change his name to "Rainforest Dillweed" and grow a bunch of stupid dreadlocks. But ultimately, I think I might be able to point you in the direction of the answer. The best clue I can give you comes from a little newspaper article which nicely illustrates the way that the forces of Development and the forces of the environment get along together:

"1995 -- In July, French president Jacques Chirac awarded the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, the nation's second-highest military order, to Major General Jean-Claude Lesquer, for commanding the troops that sank the Greenpeace environmentalists' protest ship in Auckland, New Zealand, harbour in 1985."

Boom boom! See you in a month!

PS: Did everyone remember to send George Bush a packet of pretzels? Keep those donations rolling in!