Dave Groves
…the tune sung by industry is still the same. They sing of “jobs”, wealth for the masses, and community support. Instead our leaders and the marauding merchants bring misery through unemployment as heavier machinery takes over manpower; environmental degradation and siltation are billed to the taxpayer diverting funds from community services, copious accidents through road attrition, truck overloading and bad design.
MORNING in Launceston; It is half past seven and the near constant rumble of heavy vehicles along the southern outlet grabs my attention.
Heavily laden log trucks roll steadily down the southern outlet, exhaust brakes clatter and crackle in a bid to keep these juggernauts under control as they make their way like obedient soldiers towards the Long Reach chippers.
It is our local reminder of the war being fought around the world, the greed of man versus our planet.
There is only one outcome, regardless of the battles fought in the past and those to come.
The planet will win and the human race will lose. We have no where to go, we cannot just move to another planet and set up shop, we are stuck here come what may.
Those whose only goal is to join in the race for the bottom of the cookie jar may use their wealth to last a little longer, but the results of their actions will impact on them just like the rest of us.
Our leaders seem to be agents for the wealthy, supporting the race of greed with laws and rulings, amendments and permits designed wholly to fast track the transfer of nature to money in largely the most irresponsible and unsustainable manner available.
Here in Tasmania we have the proposed chemical factory at Long Reach, although languishing on the sidelines, still an ominous threat to all of Tasmania and therefore our planet.
In Indonesia plans are underway for a $4 Billion pulp mill, a plant set to eclipse our pride and joy by around 400,000 tonnes per year.
In Sierra Leone foreign interests are logging as quickly as possible in case bans make life hard for them.
In Oregon, 90% of their complex native forests are gone.
This list goes on, but the tune sung by industry is still the same.
They sing of “jobs”, wealth for the masses, and community support.
Instead our leaders and the marauding merchants bring misery through unemployment as heavier machinery takes over manpower; environmental degradation and siltation are billed to the taxpayer diverting funds from community services, copious accidents through road attrition, truck overloading and bad design.
They feed on community division through fear and alienation.
Still at the end of the game, kings and pawns all go into the same box.
Perhaps the penny will drop before it’s too late?
