A native Scribbly Gum of Faulconbridge, Blue Mountains, Australia

…perhaps over 200 years old, healthy and in its natural setting.

(Photo by Editor 20111226, free in public domain, click photo to enlarge)

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.…but simply because land developers want to destroy the bush for selfish housing, they legally claim the tree is ‘potentially dangerous’

It seems the New South Wales Court Commissioner has sympathised and condemned the tree to a chainsaw death.

(Photo by Editor 20111226, free in public domain, click photo to enlarge)

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Court Presumptuous?

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The New South Wales Land (before) Environment Court has demonised and stigmatised this native Eucalypt tree as a “hybrid” (i.e. as a ‘half cast’ in human terms).   The Acting Commissioner has ruled a death warrant upon this native old growth Eucalypt in its natural bushland setting on the following three bases:

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Basis #1.   Blue Mountains ‘Significant Tree’ protection ignores claims of a tree being somehow dangerous (however contrived, false and self-servingly malicious the rationale)

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“While the provisions of (Blue Mountains Council’s) Development Control Plan (DCP) 9 must be considered as a fundamental element in the decision process…it does not necessarily follow that the tree should be retained under any circumstances.  

“DCP 9 is silent on how to address trees that are potentially dangerous or unhealthy although Clause 6 provides the opportunity to “cut down”… any tree on the Register of Significant Trees” but with the consent of Council.” 

(Ed:  Blue Mountains Council had unanimously rejected the development application – so the ‘acting’ Commissioner is presuming any real opportunity and by raising such weak argument is siding with the developer).

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Basis #2.   The ‘acting’ Commissioner rejects the tree’s scenic quality instantly without due consideration and with a presumed fear of trees

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“Accepting that the Hybrid adds to the scenic quality of the site and the surrounding area, this benefit needs to be balanced against the likely longevity of the tree and its health.  (Ed:  The Court has no grounds for estimating the longevity of this tree, and seems to be surmising on the basis of personal prejudice).

In this case, I have little trouble in concluding that the  balance falls in favour of the removal of the tree .  The conclusions of the two tomograph (xray) tests and the evidence of Dr McDonald and Mr James, and supported by the council officer, leave little doubt as to the appropriate outcome.

(Ed: Tomograph tests and evidence withheld in Court decision, so how do we know the tree is unhealthy?)

“I do not accept that the retention of the tree, irrespective of the scenic quality links to the area, should be preferred when there is a serious and legitimate question over the safety of the tree.  (Ed:  The “serious and legitimate question over the safety of the tree” is unsubstantiated and appears presumptive).

“In my view, the overwhelming expert and scientific evidence clearly suggests that the tree is dangerous and presents an unsafe situation for future ocupants of the site.”

(Ed:  ‘Overwhelming‘ from what independent qualified and scientifically relevant source and where is the report?  The ‘acting‘ Commissioner’s presumption of ‘future occupants of the site‘ suggests a high probability of judicial bias).

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Basis #3.   Tree canopies are inconsistent with housing safety

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“Even if a dwelling is constructed outside of the area covered by the tree canopy, I am not satisfied that (it) sufficiently overcomes the potential danger from the tree.  It would be clearly impractical to fence off the area under the canopy, given the limited area remaining for a dwelling on the site and the need to provide ancillary matters such as private open space and building setbacks.”  (Ed:  The Court is prejudging that the developer proposal for dwellings (x2) and proposed private open space and building setbacks have precedent values over the natural values of pre-existicng native bushland including a Council-protected significant mature native tree, native vegetation and bushrock).

“The suggestion by Ms Hobley that a dwelling could be located underneath the (tree) canopy is misconceived, given the weight of evidence for branch failure and which is supported by the obvious example where an existing branch has failed and only remains because it is held up by another tree on the site.  I am not satisfied that Ms Hobley has given proper consideration to the potential for injury in her assessment of the tree.”

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(Ed:   The ‘acting’ Commissioner conveys an preconceived view that trees are dangerous.  Details of “an existing branch” failing are not available in the Court’s decision.)

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A native Eucalypt, condemned as a ‘hybrid’

by those who themselves are but hybrid descendants of colonists

because human invasion is enshrined in law as having a superior value than existing native old growth.   

(Photo by Editor 20111226, free in public domain, click photo to enlarge)

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The Habitat Advocate is pleased to support the efforts of local people in Faulconbridge trying to save this grand native tree from being killed.  For further information visit:  ^http://savethetree.org/

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‘Native Cleansing’

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Clearing native trees for human development is a value judgment of convenience.  Philosophically native tree cleansing is no different to ethic cleansing of one human ethic group of another.

 

Native forest deforestation (ethnic cleansing)

– at record levels across New South Wales

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‘Ethnic Cleansing’ is a process in which advancing army of one ethnic group expels civilians of other ethnic groups from towns and villages it conquers in order to create ethnically pure enclaves for members of their ethnic group.

‘Serbian military commander in Bosnia, a war criminal sought by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Ratko Mladic, sometimes issued specific orders to his subordinates to shell a particular village more than others, because there is less Serbs and more Muslims living there.  Often, refugees of one ethnic group previously “cleansed” from their homes by other ethnic group are made to live in freshly “cleansed” territory of that other ethnic group.’

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[Source: ^http://balkansnet.org/ethnicl.html]

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In 2011 humanity continues to trash the sublime for a selfish vista

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Further Reading:

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[1]    ^http://treeshaverightstoo.com/

‘It’s not just humans who have rights, all beings do. The right not to be polluted is a right that belongs to us as well as to the Earth, to the air we breathe and to future generations. There are other rights which apply to us all, the problem is that they are not yet recognised internationally. But this is rapidly changing and you can find more information about the campaigns and progress of this fast developing arena of humanitarian and environmental law, called Earth Law.’

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[3]    ‘Should Trees Have Standing? – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects’, by Christopher Stone, ^http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic498371.files/Stone.Trees_Standing.pdf   [Read Article]

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[2]    ^http://therightsfuture.com/t16-do-trees-have-rights/

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[3]   ^http://northshorewoman.blogspot.com/2011/12/trees-have-rights-too.html

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Humpback Whale in a magnificent breach

(click photo to enlarge)

^http://rtseablog.blogspot.com/2011/09/bermuda-humpback-whale-sanctuary-noaa.html

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Christmas is a time for goodwill and hope.

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“There is joy in the companionship of others working to make a difference for future generations,” declares activist David Suzuki,  “and there is hope.  Each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change; together we can regain that ancient and sustaining harmony, in which human needs and the needs of all our (plant and animal) companions on the planet are held in balance with the sacred, self-renewing processes of Earth.”

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We at The Habitat Advocate convey our goodwill and hope to those out there right now defending Nature.

We convey our goodwill and hope to the environmental activists in Tasmania’s wild defending threatened forests.

Activists of Still Wild Still Threatened  (SWST)

Camp Flozza, Upper Florentine Valley

Tasmania’s Southern Forests

^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/

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SWST advocates for the immediate formal protection of Tasmania’s precious Southern Forests using a combination of political and corporate lobbying, community education, research, exploration and frontline direct action. We also promote the creation of an equitable and environmentally sustainable forest industry in Tasmania. Protecting Tasmania’s ancient forests: a real climate change solution.

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We at The Habitat Advocate convey our goodwill and hope to the environmental activists in the Southern Ocean defending threatened whales.

 

Captain Paul Watson and the crew of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS)

currently braving the freezing Southern Ocean south of Australia to defend whales from poachers.

^http://www.seashepherd.org/

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Sea Shepherd’s mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

 

The meaning of Christmas has ancient Pagan origins pre-dating Christianity, coinciding with the Winter Solstice of the northern hemisphere celebrating the return of life at the beginning of winter’s decline.    [Source:  ^http://www.christmastreehistory.net/pagan]

Consistent with the original goodwill meaning of Christmas, we advocate the inclusion of Nature in this goodwill spirit:

• That each us strives to do something every day for wildness.
• That each us tries to practice simplicity and frugality. Conserve, reuse, and recycle to reduce pressures for resource extraction on remaining wildlands. Buy less. Play more.
• That each us supports conservation organizations that champion wildness, especially those acquiring acreage for wildlands preservation.

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[Source: ^http://naturepantheist.org/ecological.html]

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Eco-Christmas spirit

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As environmental activist David Suzuki advocates, “each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change”.  So we like the initiative of Melbourne-based company ‘Eco Christmas Trees‘. Eco Christmas Trees rents out ‘living growing trees providing the real Christmas experience without cutting down a tree‘.

Check out their website:  ^http://www.ecochristmastrees.com.au/

The real Christmas experience without cutting down a tree.

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“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

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~ Henry David Thoreau, environmental activist, (1817 – 1862)]

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Merry Yule!

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The Great Grey Owl of Lapland (Strix nebulosa) – the largest owl in existence

(click to enlarge)

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‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing‘ is a wise old proverb meaning that a small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are.

The phrase is considered originally derived from English politician and philosopher, Francis Bacon, in his literary work ‘The Essays: Of Atheism‘ of 1601, as follows:

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“A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.” [1]

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It may generally apply quite aptly across the human species.   Homo sapiens sapiens is the most intelligent species on the planet.  Yet given our legacy thus far, are we really much more intelligent than any other species that exists simply to breed and perpetuate its species?

Our intelligence has enabled us to successfully breed not just for survival, but to colonise the planet like no other.  Yet our intelligence can only be a little more intelligent than other species, since our breeding and colonisation has grown to such an extent that it has driven other species to extinction and has destroyed much of the planet upon which we depend.   While other species have a symbiotic relationship with their environment, the extent of ecological destruction that humanity has caused and continues to cause to our host planet makes us Earth’s Pathogen.   A pathogen is an agent causing disease or illness to its host, such as an organism or infectious particle capable of producing a disease in another organism.  Human breeding and colonisation is extreme to the extent that it is approaching 7 billion.  As we exponentially breed, colonise and destroy, we destroy our host planet.

Speaking of religion, the demise and extinction of the Rapa Nui civilization on the remote Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean has become a metaphor for the self-destruction of humanity. One theory for the collapse of the Rapa Nui culture is that the Ancestor Cult that respected the dead drove the building of large stone statues (moai) to represent deified ancestors. It was believed that the living had a symbiotic relationship with the dead where the dead provided everything that the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune etc.) and the living through offerings provided the dead with a better place in the spirit world.  The island’s trees were killed and used to help move these massive moai into desired position, but over time, as more moai were erected, the island’s trees were eliminated.  Absolute deforestation led to the collapse of the island’s ecosystem and food supply and so to the demise of the Rapa Nui.

A second theory is that  by Hunt and Lipo (2006) who found no evidence of human deforestation, or of human habitation prior to 1200. Instead, they suggest that the collapse of island society was due to the introduction of Polynesian Rats that arrived in the boats of early settlers. They hypothesize that rat population spiked at around 20 million individuals, and that these rats quickly consumed all the seeds of the native palms, leading to the collapse of the island food supply. [2]

The Moai of Easter Island,

the living faces of worshipped ancestors of the Rapa Nui people

(click to enlarge)

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‘Homo sapiens – time for a new name?

The following article is directly sourced from a transcript by Julian Cribb on the ABC Radio Science Show programme, which was aired 20110820 [3]

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“It is high time the human race had a new name. The old one, Homo sapiens – wise or thinking man – has been around since 1758, and is no longer a fitting description for the creature we have become. When the Swedish father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, first bestowed itⁱ, humans no doubt seemed wise when compared with what scientists of the day knew about both people and other animals. We have since learned our behaviour is not quite as intelligent as we like to imagine, while some other animals are rather smart. In short, ours is a name which is both inaccurate and which promotes a dangerous self-delusion.

In a letter to Nature I am proposing there should be a worldwide discussion about the formal reclassification of humanity, involving both scientists and the public. The new name should reflect more truthfully the attributes and characteristics of the modern 21st century human, which are markedly different from those of 18th century ‘man’.

Consider the following: Humans are presently engaged in the greatest act of extermination of other species by a single species, probably since life on Earth began. We are destroying an estimated 30,000 species a year, a scale comparable to the greatest extinction catastrophes of the geological past.ⁱⁱ We currently contaminate the atmosphere with 30 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent every year.ⁱⁱⁱ This risks an episode of accelerated planetary warming reaching 4-5 degrees by the end of this century and 8 degrees thereafter, a level which would severely disrupt food production.^iv Estimates for the ultimate losses from 8of warming range from 50 to 90% of humanity.^v

We have manufactured around 83,000 synthetic chemicals^vi, many of them toxic at some level, and some of which we inhale, ingest in food or water or absorb through the skin every day of our lives. A US study found newborn babies in that country are typically contaminated by around 200 industrial chemicals, including pesticides, dioxins and flame retardants.^vii These chemicals are now found all over the planet, and we are adding hundreds of new ones, of unknown risk, every year. Yet we wonder why more people now die of cancer.

Every year we also release around 121 million tonnes of nitrogen, 10 million tonnes of phosphorus and 10 billion tonnes of CO2 into our rivers, lakes and oceans, many times the amounts recirculated by the Earth naturally. This is causing the collapse of marine and aquatic ecosystems, disrupting food chains and causing ‘dead zones’. More than 400 of these lifeless areas have been discovered in recent times.^viii

We are presently losing about 1% of the world’s farming and grazing land every year. This has worsened steadily in the last 30 years, confronting us with the challenge of doubling food production in coming decades off a small fraction of today’s area. At the same time we waste a third of the world’s food.^ix

Current freshwater demand from agriculture, cities and energy use will more than double by mid century, while resources in most countries – especially of groundwater – are drying up or becoming so polluted they are unusable.^x

We passed peak fish in 2004^xi, peak oil in 2006^xii, and will encounter growing scarcities of other primary resources, including mineral nutrients, in coming decades. Yet demand for all resources, including food, minerals, energy and water, will more than double, especially in Asia.

Humanity spends $1.6 trillion a year on new weapons^xiii, but only $50 billion a year on better ways to produce food. Despite progress in arms reduction, the world still has around 20,000 nuclear warheads and at least 19 countries now have access to them or to the technology to make them.^xiv

Finally, we are in the process of destroying a great many things which are real – soil, water, energy, resources, other species, our health – for the sake of a commodity that mostly exists in our imagination: money. While money has its uses as a medium for exchange, humanity is increasingly engaged in mass self-delusion as to what constitutes real wealth, as is quite clear from the current financial crisis.

All of these things carry the risk of catastrophic change to the Earth’s systems, making it difficult to justify our official sub-species name of Homo sapiens sapiens, or wise wise man. This not only looks like conceit, but sends a dangerous signal about our ability to manage what we have unleashed. A creature unable to control its own demands cannot be said to merit the descriptor ‘wise’. A creature which takes little account of the growing risks it runs through its behaviour can hardly be rated ‘thoughtful’.

The provisions of the International Code on Zoological Nomenclature provide for the re-naming of species in cases where scientific understanding of the species changes, or where it is necessary to correct an earlier error. I argue that both those situations now apply.

This is not just an issue for science; it concerns everybody. There needs to be worldwide public discussion about what is an appropriate name for our species, in the light of our present behaviour and attributes. Here are some names suggested by eminent Australian scientists. Marine scientist and author, Charlie Veron, suggests Homo finalis. Desert ecologist, Mark Stafford-Smith, proposes Homo quondam et futures – the once and future human. Spatial ecologist, Hugh Possingham, likes Homo nesciens – ignorant man. And atmospheric scientist, Barrie Pittock, suggests Homo sui deludens – self-deluding man.

Down the track we should not rule out an eventual return to the name Homo sapiens, provided we can demonstrate that we have earned it – and it is not mere flatulence, conceit or self-delusion. The wisdom to understand our real impact on the Earth and all life is the one we most need at this point in our history, in order to limit it. Now is the time humans get to earn, or lose forever, the title sapiens.”

(Source: Non Sequitur – by Wiley Miller, ^http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2011/08/23)

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Editor: Globally, a material difference between Humanity and other species is that we are more intelligent at doing what other species naturally do – colonising for our own self-interest.  We are Homo colonus ventosa (the conceited coloniser), or simply Homo ego ruina (self-destructive Man).

If we accept that at our current stage of evolution we have a little more knowledge than other species; and that our legacy has proven thus far to be dangerous to us, other species and to the planet, then we would be wise to seek deeper knowledge of our circumstance, of our place and of other species and the planet.  The test for Humanity now is to ask what would the wise do and not do? A first step in advancing our species is to recognise that we have become Earth’s Pathogen.  the second step is to recognise that we don’t know the true extent of the damage we are causing to the planet and so in the face of such uncertainty, we are wise to adopt a precautionary approach.   The Precautionary Principle states:  ‘When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof.  The process of applying the Precautionary Principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action.’  [4]

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‘We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.’

~Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949).

The Great Grey Owl in flight

(click to enlarge)

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References:

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[1]   ^http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-little-knowledge-is-a-dangerous-thing.html

[2]   Hunt, T. L.; Lipo, CP (2006). “Late Colonization of Easter Island”. Science 311 (5767): 1603

[3]   ‘Homo sapiens – time for a new name?‘, Julian Cribb, ^http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2011/3294576.htm, accessed 20110825

[4]   Nancy Myers, 2004, ‘The Rise of the Precautionary Principle – A Social Movement Gathers Strength’ in , September 2004, Vol. 25, No.9, http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2004/09012004/september04corp1.html  [>Read More]

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– end of article –