I heard on the news this morning that the huge red-gums that have lined the banks of the Murray River for hundreds (thousands?) of years are dying, very sick or dead. The news said that the cause of this environmental and ecological disaster is the lack of water and increasing salinity caused by the reduced flows of the Murray river as a result of human diversion of the river. One commentator said that to get an idea of the magnitude of the disaster; imagine that you drove your car between Melbourne and Sydney and imagine that all the trees along that road were either dead or dying - a distance of 1000 kilometres.
Now, I am not a card carrying "greenie" by any stretch - I enjoy the odd picnic and certainly appreciate good Australian landscape paintings (eg Tom Roberts) but this news both shocked and angered me very much. So the news story ended, the next story started and somehow, the dead and dying red gums just become part to the "way the world is now" and another fact that is just put into the often forgotten depths of our collective sub-conscious, not to interfere with our daily lives and the business of getting on with living and business.
Some of you will be aware that in the bay-side suburbs of Melbourne, the local councils put up large road-side signs saying "TREE VANDALS OPERATE IN THIS AREA - $10,000 REWARD for information leading to conviction". These signs refer to localised felling or severe pruning of foreshore trees - usually scrubby natives that are "vandalised" by persons unknown for reasons unknown" Some say that the "vandals" are foreshore residents wanting to improve or restore their un-interrupted water views - but that is just hearsay... Can we please send these council zealots to the Murray - what would they do about the absolute destruction of 1000 kilometres worth of hundred year old iconic flood plain red gums?
What was even more disturbing about this news story was the ecological (systemic) consequences of these magnificent trees dying - the trees stabilise the soil on the flood plains and the leaves from the trees provide "clutter" which goes into the river as a further food chain input to who knows how many little "critters" that form yet another part of the food chain etc etc.
And now, get this... it was only the previous day that I heard on the news that the latest plan to solve the water supply problems in Perth is to divert all the "spare/excess" water that flows from the Kimberley region into the sea and carry it by pipeline to Perth. (it is just being wasted right? Just flowing into the sea?
Haven't we learned anything from the theories of "systems thinking" as popularised by people such as Peter Senge in his book "The Fifth Discipline"? Haven't we learnt about "un-intended consequences"?
Do we not understand the inherent flaws of the "quick fix"?
My suggestion to improve the world is to compel every politician and public servant to be trained and trained and trained some more, in the concepts as embodied in the Fifth Discipline - particularly systems thinking. And that every decision and policy be "bench-marked" to ensure that fundamental causes are identified and adressed rather than just attacking symptoms of the problems (which we all know is not going to solve the root cause). Policies and initiatives which do not measure up are to be abandoned and any politician or public servant found to be responsible for three "short-term" strategies would have their salary reduced by 15%.
I couldn't believe that the situation was so bad with the red gums and I was so moved by the story that I just wanted to drive up to the Murray to see what they were talking about first hand.
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