Environment
It saddens and disgusts me
Johanna Wadsley
Not only was AA Gill spot on in the ways that counted, he touched on a point that resonates beyond his writing: the landscapes, the forests and the extraordinary creatures described, are characters and voices in the ongoing discussion of Tasmania’s future. It saddens and disgusts me to the core to know that half way around the world, in one of the most extraordinary places that any people ever go to live, that the very thing that makes Tasmania precious is being treated as if it were there to be used, abused and exploited. To those Europeans who aren’t familiar with the nature of Tasmanian politics, Tasmanian economic and industrial attitudes and practices beggar belief and seem completely irrational. Tassie politicians and policy-makers should know that that this very issue, this mono-theistic, puritan and utilitarian view was the source of debate in the US back in the late 1800s and resulted in the forming of the Western world’s first “Green” organisation (The Sierra Club) and had immense impact on the US forestry and land management agencies’ practices to this day. That debate was actually between preservationists and conservationists, interestingly enough (The Sierra’s: leave as is, and Forestry: maintain and develop as is for future generations) … .More recently, one of Clinton’s best actions was, at the very end of his term, to endow many ‘undeveloped’ areas in the US with the gift of freedom from persecution and exploitation.