ok, here it is, Year of the Rabbit on its way, one of the hottest days you ever endured ( or at least this is what it feels like) and BANG, the first post of 2011 comes out…
You could talk about so many things, so much went through without being recorded, but it kind of holds you back, all of this things you should write about, is holding you back!
SO, no excuses, a fresh drink and whatever comes out of this rant will be good enough to break the ice ( wishful thinking)
Let’s start with this amazing image:
This is real and is going to hit Far North Queensland on Wednesday, this article is one of the many on the topic.
Why bringing forward such disastrous events?
Because the sense of urgency is not quieting down, actually, news as such feeds your impetuous.
what weeds got to do with it?
Uhmm.. by now it is common and undisputed knowledge that the weather patterns of the globe are changing, increasing in severity and recurrence. This is not going to stop, changes are already afoot. You don’t tend to buy into the alarmist attitude though, not the one that spur out of despair anyway.
You tend to be proactive, changes are afoot in all areas. What is happening is directly related to the way we abused the environment, felt safe in our money-hoarding lifestyle, and, literally, mined the environment for the quest towards consumerism.
Monoculture agriculture is part of that.
Industrialised systems of productions, aimed at high yields with little care for the land is part of that.
There was a posting you wanted to come out a while back, in October, when big headlines were presenting the newly developed plan to secure the long-term ecological health of the Murray-Darling Basin.
“The Murray-Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. It drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural area in Australia.” from Wikipedia
The plan proposed by the Federal Government entails cutting existing water allocations and increasing environmental flows.
The criticism making the headlines at the time was coming from farmers and communities who will be directly affected by the plan, lamenting the fact that ‘only’ environmental priorities were taken in account, and not the social and economic repercussions of such proposal.
The way you see it is even more bleak, we need to rethink our systems of production, the way we eat and where our food comes from.
We need to rethink and act on a Government that on one side brings forward great environmental commitments, and on the other side release more and more land to international corporations for mining.
We need to rethink our gardens, lawns and parks, as waiting for the food to be grown elsewhere, packaged, transported and sold where we live is not sustainable, we all know it.
Lets act, turn you lawns into vegetable patches, let the Monsanto Round-Up collect dust in shop’s shelves, get to know what grows and take advantage of what is offered, not of what is sold to you.
Uhmm how’s that as a starting post for the year of the rabbit?
You have been invited to give a presentation at the Weeds Society of Victoria annual general meeting this coming April. THis is very interesting as the rest of the speakers are all quite critical about weeds legislation and how much those pieces of legislation have been used to foster monocultural systems, see the PDF here..
Weed Society Flyer
Weed psychology and the War on Weeds.
John Dwyer, Melbourne.
The plant invasion processes, and understanding the impacts of plant invasions.
Paul Downey, University of Canberra, ACT.
Weeds or Wild Nature; a positive view of weeds from a permaculture perspective.
David Holmgren, Permaculture Principles.
The place of weeds in the honey industry.
David Severino, Chairperson, Victorian Apiarists’ Association Melbourne.
Some issues associated with the introduction of weedy species as biofuel crops.
Bruce Shelley, DPI Werribee.
Nettle, dock, dandelion and wild fennel: environmental weeds or environmental belonging?
Diego Bonetto, Sydney-based artist.
When someone’s meat is environmental poison: under what circumstances should we tolerate ‘beneficial’ invasive plant species?
Geoff Carr & Steve Mathews, Ecology Australia & Invasive Species Council.
Dissent, conflict, enquiry: A systems view of weed controversy.
David Low, Monash University & DPI Frankston.
Change is afoot.
