If like me you’re bothered by the state of our over-developed world, here’s a routine to ease the troubled mind. Every morning, before doing anything else take a few minutes to look around.
See the shoots of grass emerging through the cracks, the moss on the damp concrete, the mould on the fence post, the lichen on the rock. See the spider eggs in the web under the eaves, the ant carrying a leaf, the beetle sensing the air, a tree moving in a breeze. And smell the roses.
Wherever we are, in some form or other there’s always something alive nearby keeping us company. For me at least, this reminder never fails to lighten the moment.
But it’s also an opening to understanding this point in our existence on Earth, where we face a real prospect of endangering our species and a fair chunk of the rest of life. Surviving is about living together. The essence of life is not single organisms or species, but communities. United we stand, divided we fall.
A morning ritual like the above tells more about where humanity needs to be than any amount of intellectual analysis. Our future wellbeing is a matter not of the mind, but of the gut. What we’re made of.
Our ancient ancestors knew this instinctively, before industrial technology dulled our senses and inflated our hubris. Australia’s first nations people knew it too, and those who’ve been able to keep in touch with the old ways still do.
People like Adrian Burragubba, who has led an 11-year struggle by his people to have their land connections formally recognised. Last week his Queensland Indigenous group won the right to a Supreme Court trial over the state government’s “protection” of their sacred wetlands, Doongmabulla Springs, from the impact of Adani’s new Galilee Basin coal mine.
“The Court affirmed that our cultural rights do not come from statute or government – they come from the law of the land and are deeply connected to Country. When Country is harmed, our rights are harmed. That is First Law. Now it is Queensland law too,” says Birragubba.
The principal established in the legal action by Birragubba’s “Water Protectors” – Nagana Yarrbayn – is applicable everywhere. “When Country is harmed, our rights are harmed” is a dictum that needs to find its way into law in every Australian jurisdiction.
Deforestation is a second reason to heed what First Nations people, in Australia and globally, have been saying about connection to Country – a uniquely Aboriginal use of that profoundly English word which means far more than the non-Indigenous meaning, “nation” or “non-urban”.
Of the nine planetary boundaries established by science over the course of this century marking points where life-sustaining systems start collapsing, eight have been crossed already. We have managed to pull air pollution back from the brink, leaving only one boundary, depletion of upper-atmosphere ozone, reasonably safe.
The three boundaries concerned with things happening on our lands are all flashing code red. These are the integrity of our biosphere (the part of Earth sustaining living organisms), the natural health of our freshwater systems and the natural health of our land systems.
Of greatest danger to these critical boundaries is widespread land clearing, including clear fell logging. Tasmania leads the nation in the damage done to forest ecosystems by refusing to end a declining native forest logging industry and limit tree harvesting to plantations.
“Forests are the foundation of life on land,” says Planetary Health Check, a non-profit body monitoring the boundaries. “They store vast amounts of carbon, keep the climate and water cycles in balance, and provide habitat for countless species.” Forest loss, says PHC, “disrupts biodiversity, increases carbon emissions, alters rainfall patterns, and weakens soil and water systems.”
“When forests are cleared or degraded, these natural systems lose their ability to regulate the planet’s climate, purify water, and hold soil in place. Because land systems connect so closely with other parts of Earth’s environment – like the atmosphere, water, and living organisms – changes in land use can ripple through the entire Earth system.”
• At 7pm next Saturday the Bob Brown Foundation is sponsoring a special screening at State Cinema of the new documentary film Nagana Yarrbayn: The Water Protectors, followed by a conversation with Adrian Burragubba about what’s at stake for Indigenous Australia and the rest of us.
• At 11am on Sunday, the annual March for Forests leaves the corner of Bathurst and Murray Streets for Parliament House.
But before you do anything, be sure to pause a moment, feel the ground in your little corner of the planet, take a good look around, and smell the roses.