The photographs here are all from my recent weekend down in Margaret River, one of the many beautiful places close to home.
I didn’t want to put in photographs of floods, fires and melting glaciers; or graphs of melting ice caps, increasingly acidic oceans or the carbon cycle that is becoming increasingly unbalanced; of starving wild life and displaced communities. We see that information daily if we chose in any form of media, and I had to face facts on my most recent intensive week which I have been deliberately side stepping for a number of years. It’s uncomfortable facing these facts, and our climate is on a trajectory to massive changes with a momentum which is now virtually unstoppable. Only concerted efforts by industry, governments, individuals and all sectors of the global community can make an impact on the course we’re following.
The unit of study currently is Climate Science & Policy. The climate science section, while very detailed and technical, is a type of learning and intellectual pursuit I’m familiar with, figures & graphs & scientific evidence leading to conclusions. I know how to manage that type of study. The other part of the course, and I have to say the major part, is Policy, how to influence policy and how governmental policy can impact climate change.That’s so very far out of my comfort zone and normal type of thinking, that it’s going to need a paradigm shift in thinking. However part of my reason for this Masters is to challenge my way of thinking and this module is really meeting that objective.
I’ve written many posts about working offshore, how that industry is part of my identity, and how much I enjoy the work, the people and the lifestyle that work has given me. However there is a personal conflict that I am working through, the course of study and being inherently part of a fossil fuel industry. Can I do more from within the industry, and keep my facility safe as it runs down to decommissioning, than by working outside the industry ?
Let’s be clear, the fossil fuel industry is part of the issue NOT the whole issue. The industry is financed by investors, shareholders, and supplies a product which is eagerly sought by the entire world who are consuming more and more energy every year. We all use power, drive cars, use consumer goods, fly around the world. The solution isn’t a single answer, it’s a myriad of initiatives and transitions and policies.
The sands of time have rendered fear
Blue skies on high no longer clear
Stars were bright whence they came
Now dimmed, obscured, pollution’s haze
Crystal clear our waters gleamed
Fish abundant, rivers streamed
Ocean floors sandy white
Now littered, brown, pollution’s plight
Trees towered high above
Trunks baring professed love
Birds chirping from sites unseen
Gone, paper joined pollution’s team
One can’t blame pollution alone
As they say, you reap what you’ve sown
So let us plant a better seed
Tear out old roots, cultivate, weed
Protect what has been given for free
Our waters, skies, wildlife and trees
For once they’re gone, don’t you say
Consider yourself warned of that fatal day
My Longest Journey 