Tim Flannery's Quarterly Essay

I've just finished Tim Flannery's Quarterly Essay on the management or rather mismanagement of biodiversity in Australia. I just want to briefly summarise his argument (made in characteristic fashion with the odd swear word and powerful invective)

1. Setting aside areas is not enough unless they are properly managed. We have nature reserves with animals going extinct
2. Conservative governments by in large are cutting funding to conservation projects and eschew the word biodiversity.
3. Nowhere appears safe and anything short of World Heritage areas can be mined if it suits the government of the day
4. Some key wins can be made by organized private citizens in protecting biodiversity and keeping governments accountable when they don't even follow their own rules.
5. Government/private partnerships may be a useful way forward
6. Management is necessary because Aborigines were responsible for the extinction of large marsupial herbivores that kept vegetation down and greatly reduced the risk of hot, widespread destructive fires, but then they themselves became intimate parts of the ecosystem by their fire practices. An absence of this since Europeans have arrived has seen an increase in destructive fires and other impacts, such as lack of herbivore control by predators and too much growth of some vegetation types. Where such control has been introduced, species thrive

The essay is not all bad news, though while it is realistic about the present threat of extinction, there does appear to be useful ways forward if governments have ears to hear.

2011-2020 United Nations Decade of Biodiversity

The document for this is found here.

For Christians skeptical of 'ecumenism' it is worth noting we share the planet with everyone else made in God's image and in the Spirit of Jeremiah 29:6-8 should be working for the good of the planet and the people with whom we share it. This is to say nothing of acting as Good Samaritans to protect the food stores, water reserves and purifies, buffers against land slides, etc of the world's poor. A casual glance at Psalm 104 will also show that the biodiversity of creation is a hymn of praise to God, and hence our preservation of it. To be truly Christian is to be truly 'green' without a hint of paganism.

Friday's links summary

I suspect this may end up being Saturday sometimes, but here are a few links to check out

How to talk to climate skeptics - a short list of must dos that are worth considering if you want to engage those who are skeptical

Artistic ugliness - photographs of environmental devastation. Hard to look at but closing our eyes is no option.

Canberra University bans the sale of bottled water - a good decision given we have good quality water in this country (still), plastics are unhealthy to drink out of and the oceans and land fill sites are filled with plastic.

Biodiversity loss & researcher loss - nice piece on Wired about decline in study of biodiversity and its loss. We are losing things we don't even know we are losing (but God does)

Historical affects of war on climate - short, interesting piece, will chase up paper and blog more.

Must watch TV tonight

SBS 1 at 7.30 tonight, Sir David Attenborough on the state of our oceans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v7tmd

Biodiversity Day

On Saturday 20th at St Mark's Anglican Church in Spotswood, Ethos Environment ran a day on biodiversity in honour of it being the year of biodiversity. There was a rather small but enthusiastic turn out for some good presentations.

Jess Morthorpe, a Christian environmentalist who started the Five Leaf Eco-Awards gave an excellent summary of biodiversity, it's value and the things that threaten it (pollution, global warming, land clearing and habitat fragmentation, etc). It was fairly non-technical but comprehensive. Her blog is here.

I gave a talk addressing why we would want to waste energy developing a theology of biodiversity when it should be obvious we just need to get on with it. Apart from the fact that many Christians work under a dualistic framework or under the fear of paganism, there are apologetic and evangelistic opportunities when we actively engage. As the late Rob Frost noted (UK evangelist) 'When Christians take the earth seriously, people take the gospel seriously'.

Based on Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 I tried to develop a transcendent ethic of biodiversity based on a theocentric perspective. A paper may appear in Zadok Perspectives and Papers.

Amar Breckenridge gave an excellent introduction to the economic issues. He highlighted the difficulty of including the costs of biodiversity since they are a public good rather than a private good that can be included in the market. For those who don't know much economics it was a nice general introduction. Amar also highlighted the various places where the Christian faith can have input into what is essentially an utilitarian ethical framework.

Marion Mortimer is a school teacher who recently went on an Earthwatch trip to the Daintree in north Queensland, and gave an inspired and enthusiastic talk on the work they do and the risks biodiversity faces as the planet warms.

Finally, Johnathan Cornford of Manna Gum spoke about issues of development in the developing world, and the complex relationship between development, quality of life and biodiversity. He spoke at length about the Mekong Delta where dams have raised GDP via electricity export but certain groups have experienced poverty and biodiversity has decreased as a result. This links human and creation's needs.

The audio will be available for these talks at some point. We are interested in how we might best run similar events either face to face or using Web technologies in future, so be in touch!