When wondering about the fate and future of the Campbell Town Hall, with the Northern Midlands Council determined to sell the building, I wondered if a way to keep this iconic building in public hands would be with a public art gallery, with a focus on art inspired by rural Tasmania, but this suggestion did not inspire the council.
After holding a community meeting in Campbell Town on Monday 6 June, the reality began to dawn that there was a large area of public land next to the Town Hall, where the library and Fire Service are located.
I wondered if a new building could be built there, to serve as a civic and cultural centre, including the Town Hall.
The new complex would see the Town Hall be used as a theatre, cinema, and place for exhibitions, functions and meetings, with a passage to the new building where there would be new toilets, a cafe, a new smart shop for Service Tasmania, a largerl brighter library, a purpose-built home for the museum, and the public art gallery featuring art inspired by rural Tasmania.
There could also be an environment centre in the mix, featuring information and displays on the needs of the Earth, and environmental concerns for farmers across Tasmania.
The reality of our age is the monitoring of the Earth’s environment from space, and farm enterprises that use satellites to increase efficiency, such as knowing exactly how much water is in the ground.
As an environment centre in Campbell Town would need to include space development to be relevant, an opportunity rises to forge a unique environmental vision of Earth and space.
A potential name for this project could be the Space Age Environment Centre.
A CELESTIAL PERSPECTIVE
Humans have forever looked up to the stars to see the motions of the Moon, the visit of comets, the movement of the planets, and the occasional asteroid flaming through the air, sometimes making a crater in the ground.
The art of star gazing became the science of astronomy, seeking to see the surface of Mars, exploding stars, as well as distant galaxies.
When the Soviets broke the ice on the space age and sent the first satellite into orbit in 1957, the race was on in space with the Americans, which became a challenge by President John F. Kennedy to reach the Moon in 1962: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills.” [2]
Apollo 8, the first mission to the Moon, did not land, but sailed around the dark side, and when they came around they discovered the Earth, rising above the lunar surface like a jewel in space.
The earthrise photo taken of the Earth from the Moon in December 1968 arrived for Christmas, made front page news around the world, and inspired a whole new generation of environmentalists who cared for the Earth.
The first Earth Day in 1970 saw 20 million Americans march for the Earth, and when the event went global in 1990, two hundred million people came out for the Earth.
Despite hundreds of millions of environmentalists, conservationists, campaigners, academics and concerned individuals fighting to save the Earth over the past half century, there has been a total failure to keep our home planet safe, let alone healthy for future generations.
The Sixth Great Extinction of life on Earth is only just beginning, and is being accelerated by the rise in heat, where there is no end in sight to how hot this planet will get.
In this heating world wildfires are becoming more dangerous, ice is melting and raising the sea level, and marine heatwaves are killing corals, threatening the diversity in the largest environment on Earth, the sea.
We know what is driving the heat rising, but why did this happen, and was there an alternative to stop it happening?
HOW TO LOSE A SAFE EARTH
In the same year Apollo 8 astronauts discovered the Earth, Dr Peter Glaser, an American engineer, proposed the construction of solar power stations in space to harvest the virtually infinite energy well of the Sun, and beam the energy to ground by microwave.
Construction of solar power stations in space could have begun in the 1970s, with transition out of fossil fuel under way in the 1980s.
There was no other way in the 1970s to make energy transition out of fossil fuel and to the power of the Sun.
As a consequence of turning away from space, nations on Earth have burnt too much fossil fuel for too long, releasing a monstrous volume of carbon gas into the air, where it works to heat up the atmosphere, by absorbing reflected sunlight, and radiating the energy back into the air.
The carbon gas problem was known about in the 1800s, and understood in greater detail in the 1960s, but the problem was ignored.
Why the environmental movement did not support space based solar power in the 1970s, is a total mystery, as their voice could have made all the difference in the world.
One hint of why the global environment movement failed to see the need for space options can be seen in the widely read Limits to Growth report published by the Club of Rome in 1972, which is entirely focused on the Earth, and ignores how human civilisation would work in the Solar System.
This position served to empower the fossil fuel industries, resulting in the dangerous world that we are now in, where at some point our survival could be on the line.
We evolved in the Ice Age, and can die in heat, as we have not evolved for a heat age. Our bodies cool by sweating, but when the humidity is too high, we cannot sweat.
THE IMPACT ON TASMANIA
Tasmania is listed as one of the five safest places on Earth, along with Iceland, that could carry on beyond the collapse of human civilization.
What we cannot do is stop a flood of mainland refugees seeking a cool change.
We cannot stop the fires that will be fiercer in a hotter world, and can threaten all parts of the island.
Hotter ocean water flows south and around Tasmania, changing the marine environment, and making the land along the coast more drought prone.
To maintain a quality of life with a predictable doubling of our population, or more, we need to engage in state-wide urban planning, or the cities and larger towns will be clogged with cars.
To keep Tasmanians safe when heat age fires strike, we need to look at bunkers, which will also be a place to retreat to when days of extreme heat strike.
WINNING BACK A SAFE EARTH
China has declared an intention to build solar power stations in space by 2030, and beam the power to ground by microwave or laser beam. Australia is going to the Moon with the United States and other nations, to pursue science, exploration and astronomy.
Nations could work together to launch an international space program, including with China, to build solar power stations in space, beam the energy to ground, and use the power to extract excess carbon gas from the air, as soon as possible.
We can also look at constructing an adjustable sunshade in space to cool the planet.
We will then have the two dials needed to determine the temperature of the Earth, indefinitely into the future.
SPACE AGE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
In the heat age that we have brought upon ourselves, and the more dangerous fires that follow, much will be lost, as environments change into a more arid landscape, even in Tasmania.
A Space Age Environment Centre can tell the whole truth about how we created the crisis that we now have, and how we can reverse it.
By providing visitors with information on surviving more dangerous fires, people will be empowered with knowledge and understanding about what to do to prepare, such as with designs of fire and heat bunkers for homes and communities.
The centre can explore how we can survive in a changing environment, where at some point food may need to be grown in protected environments, much as many crops are now grown under cover around Tasmania.
Much work has been undertaken with the building of space environments, and growing food in space. [3]
Food is being grown and consumed in the International Space Station now.
The centre can celebrate the environment we know and love, and explore ways to preserve all we have, until hopefully, we find the will to win back a safe Earth. The centre can also celebrate the great space adventure, and where it can go.
An Australian Federal Government minister said at the opening of the office for the Australian Space Agency in Adelaide in 2018: “Nothing inspires people like space does.” [4]
A Space Age Environment Centre would be in position to draw on the inspiration of space when presenting environmental concerns on Earth, and how to deal with them.
CREATING WORK AND CAREERS
The Centre can also have on hand information on careers in Earth care and space futures, and how to prepare for them.
An annual expo could put on show all the opportunities for new enterprise in the region.
Food is researched and prepared in Scottsdale for Australia’s armed forces. There is no reason that an enterprise could not be launched in the Central Midlands to research and prepare food for astronauts, scientists, engineers and support staff in space.
There are endless possibilities to consider.
MAKING IT HAPPEN
The Space Age Environment Centre is not dependent on the Town Hall location, but could be included there.
Land in Ross is available for aspects of the centre to happen now, along with research projects.
To create a Space Age Environment Centre at the Town Hall, we need to keep the Town Hall in public hands, and convince the Northern Midlands Council of the benefits of this happening.
Anyone interested can engage with the vision of the centre now, and help get the ball rolling, where meetings can be held on-line, and in the Supper Room of the Town Hall, or other location if preferred.
Specific funding can be sought to create this project, which would then become part of the drive to create the Civic and Cultural Centre.
A monster stumbling block in the way is the cost of delayed maintenance on the Town Hall, which the council declares is to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that they cannot afford to do the work.
It is beginning to sound like the council will give the Town Hall away to a good home.
The council have committed to look after the museum, having already spent over $100,000 in 2013 to move it into the Town Hall. Will the council end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars moving the museum into a new home, should the Town Hall be sold?
Will the council’s relocating of the museum end up costing ratepayers more than the sale price for the Town Hall?
It is strange, even bizarre, that a council thinks they can put a property on the market that is in need of hundreds of thousands of dollars in maintenance. A house sold under such conditions may attract no more than the value of the land, plus the cost of demolition.
HUMAN RIGHTS MATTERS
It has often been suggested that to successfully deal with our planet crisis, and win back a safe Earth, we must also address poverty.
In a recent article I explore how this can happen, beginning with solving the housing crisis. The homelessness problem cannot be solved by only focusing on that one problem.
The whole of human society and the economy must be examined, to progress toward a solution that works, and is sustainable, so that the problem does not return and become entrenched.
After World War II the Australian Government applied the ‘fair go’ where it mattered to ensure that people had work and a home, but in the 1970s we slipped up, diving into a form of economy that has delivered a housing crisis.
It is interesting to observe how in the same period progress in space was avoided. The challenge for the observer is to consider whether there is a connection. My previous article explores how we can work our way out of the housing crisis, which for too many good people is now a living nightmare.
What Does it Mean? – Kim Peart, 5 August 2021
https://visionross.discussion.
Kim Peart is a long-time resident of Ross, a writer, a keen aficionado of Second Life, and the founder of Space Pioneers.
REFERENCES
[1] Space and Farm Connection
Kim Peart, 12 October 2020
https://stargategrid.
[2] John F. Kennedy Moon Speech
Rice Stadium, 12 September 1962
https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/
[3] Space Settlement
National Space Society
https://space.nss.org/
[4] South Australia beats strong competition to be home to Australia’s new space agency
Leah MacLennan & Caroline Winter, 11 December 2018, ABC News Online
https://www.abc.net.au/news/
