Category Archives: Earth Changes

Foreign Influence “greed” = Australian Weakness “greed”

This blog is inspired by the Four Corners documentary on Chinese influence in Australia (see below).  This message from Lao Tzu sums up the real issue from an ancient sage in China.  We have to go deeper if we wish to stop the conflict. It is not about cleverness, cyber security, bioterrorism, it is about “who we are” as a people and what we believe in. What is true? What is important? What serves the Australian people?

Fear is false evidence appearing real. True friendship is transparency.

It is not the fault of a foreign country when it influences Australia. It is the belief in powerlessness in Australian leaders that compromise sovereignty for economic advantage as they have been conditioned to believe that is more important than democratic principles. The fault line in the sand is within which attracts the problem from with-out. It they truly believed in democracy they would not allow disproportionate influence.

It you don’t want donations to influence then ban donations.

If our government seriously wants to stop Chinese or other foreign interference then values is where you must focus. What you focus on expands. Do not underestimate the strength of balanced decision making weighing up all sides to Advance Australia Fair. If all politicians operated from a base of community services, principled decision making and had the courage to be willing to sacrifice economic gains external influences would disappear.

Lao Tzu’s message is directed to both leaders in China and Australia. For those who do not want to hear criticism are in denial of the violence they project covertly or overtly in the name of friendship or freedom. The most genuine friend will be the one who holds the mirror up to those in denial so they can see themselves without their story.

Only love will sacrifice everything to reveal the truth that sets all free.  Yet there is no sacrifice when you no longer attach your identity to materialism. True freedom comes from allowance not domination. You can be free in prison. You can be imprisoned in a mansion. A person is respected when what they say and do aligns. This means the inner truth and outer appearance are integrated. This is what creates a “great” leader.

Greed is both the “thief” and the “rich” as it causes imbalance and unrest.

The Four Corners documentary holds a mirror up, perhaps life is sending China and Australia a message – like attracts. Eventually truth surfaces, you cannot control anyone, as nature will rebalance to find harmony. Truth tellers are natural rebalancers that feel the impulse to speak the truth to perceived power, this rebalances power dynamics.

The Chinese people are not the enemy. Criticism is not the enemy. Greed is the enemy as it has no culture, no identity, no name yet quietly it corrupts and erodes innocence as insecurity (not enough) is the home of greed. The problem to solve is insecurity. In conflict resolution we teach “solve the problem do not hate the person”. We seek wise solutions as no problem is intractable when you understand human nature not in the sense of “know your enemy” but in the sense of “understand your potential friend”.

So those dominating are never free until the pain of denial becomes too great and they must change. What you resist persists what you look at disappears, society disappears because “you are me”. When I hurt you I hurt myself.  Truth is not about belief it is about clarity to see through the illusion of the lies we tell ourselves that become cultural stories. Many surround themselves with “yes” people they call loyal or glee clubs they call friends (clubs) to reinforce the lie as the truth.  Yet truth cannot be faked, it is what it is and unifies naturally.  Lao Tzu demonstrates real justice which is based on wisdom (divine law) not law (legislation) or the constitution. Wisdom looks into the root of behaviours that cause imbalance (or disharmony) in society.

The wise do not control or force behaviour change through pain, they recognise to rebalance one must honour only truth. that is why we call a Justice “Your Honour”. Truth sets both parties free as they evolve through respecting unbiased decisions. Truth leads to unity which some call social order, real order is natural resonance which requires no social contract as harmony is the outcome. 

I contemplated the endless lies we speak identifying as this country or that, this power or that, pro this or anti that. I shake my head as confusion not Confucius is the outcome which is the maze with no exit. That is why violence escalates my friends. You are fighting yourselves believing it is the “other”. The cyber wars, 5G mmwave (US), sub-6 spectrum (China, world), exploiting labour, connectivity, smart cities, city deals, buying up resources to control or predict outcomes to feel secure. 

When truth is the centre-peace, you can predict harmony as you understand universal lore.  This always works to the highest good of all, as the sum of the parts is the whole. Yet we are still at a primitive stage believing in self interest, economic growth, security as force, personal fortunes whilst the planet traverses tipping points, the icecaps melt, the magnetic fields weaken, resources redirect away from those in greatest need and we call this security as Earth Inc (titanic) sinks.  This is a false economy.

Below is the Four Corners Documentary entitled “Interference: China’s covert political influence campaign in Australia” | Four Corners.

I did smile at Peter Dutton making a moral stand on the relationship between Sam Dastyari and Huang Xiangmo, when he too met with him.

The issue of access due to lobbyists when ordinary Australians, like myself, can’t get access.  Santoro charged $20,000 for access. This is greed.  How is that democratic? We have no economic value yet we are citizens and our taxes pay for their privilege. Is this how we advance Australia fair? This is about allegiances.  For whom do political figures work? Who places them in positions of power?  Who elects the faceless faces who have disproportionate influence?  What happens to the Australian public? Are they truly safe?

Australia has interfered in East Timor and I am sure if we drilled own we could find the mirror here in so many cases where other foreign influences have manipulated us into issues that are not relevant to the Australian people.  The real work for Australian politicians, intelligence and law enforcement is to look within if you genuinely want to change what is happening outside.

I think of the murdered Assistant Police Commissioner Colin Winchester, he comes to me in inspiration these days as I feel for his case. My own father believed the accused David Eastman was a miscarriage of justice, he wrote many Letters to the Editor.  In 2014, after 2 decades in jail, David Eastman was released. He was later awarded $9 million in compensation.  The police must be protected when they uncover crimes or confront illegal power. Colin Winchester was going to testify in Queanbeyan against cannabis growers. The cannabis growers were known as the Bungendore 11 and linked to the Italian mafia who started two crops in NSW in the 1980s under the supervision of the police informant.

Immediately I go to the murder of Donald Mackay. The murder of Liberal Party candidate and Griffith anti-drug crusader Mr Mackay was Australia’s first political assassination. It is alleged it was at the hands of the Calabrian mafia, apparently the same group as Winchester.  A quick search provides more insight into what creates corruption, money laundering, drug trade and illegality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Ndrangheta

My thoughts turn to poverty, corruption, greed and powerlessness parading as power. The same mirror that others can see themselves caught up in.  So how do we help them exit what is, a self defeating circle of pain and fear intensifying a culture of violence?  I see the links as all the same root cause. Yet we still spend energy making the “other” wrong yet we won’t look into where we are “wrong”.  Byron Katie speaks of projection and she is right.  We have to question our own thinking every time we see an enemy, imagine if every side did this.

When I was teaching truth to children, I gave them a blind spot test. They look at two dots, cover one eye and then one dot disappears. The eyes play tricks. The dot represents what we deny, refuse to see, the reality is, it is there, but we won’t see it as we are right the other wrong.  The other is the “enemy”. The Christians say in relation to judgement “take the log out of your own eye” until we do, we blame the world for what is our own blindness, our own weakness contributing to a values free world. At what point do we stop what we want the other to stop. Until you stop the other won’t as what you think about you bring about. This is the law of attraction. We create our reality, remember! We blame others but we don’t see ourselves as the same.  We are all in it together. This is a truism.

This article by the Guardian provides insight into the hypocracy that we witness in politics.  Peter Dutton is now Home Affairs Minister with the power to decrypt and access every citizen’s information inclusive of the Covidsafe app for contact tracing without a warrant.

In the story below Malcolm Turnbull asked Scott Morrison to deal with Petter Dutton. Yet he did not do anything to reinforce values and sovereignty, there is no leadership by example when there is nothing to see here when clearly there is.

Scott Morrison says of Peter Dutton’s meeting with Chinese billionaire: ‘Nothing to see here’ – as it happened

Going back to Lao Tzu’s example  we do not go to the root of the problem of “greed” as we are persuaded that economic growth is more important than Australian sovereignty, it would be argued as pragmatic “the way things are done”.  Is it serving the Australian people’s true interests? This is why Australians become disheartened, why social order breaks down, it is because Australians don’t know who to trust anymore as all seem amoral.  We then lose respect for those in power as they don’t respect themselves. This is loss of face.  We respect integrity and honesty.

This article demonstrates the hypocracy as each follow the  money not values to ensure the real security of Australians. So we are indeed stuck between a rock and a hard place. The enemy is within, not outside. So in my view $270 billion on new weapons only escalates the problem and diverts precious resources. We have to learn to think differently if we want to reclaim our sovereignty and dignity as Australians. I always see the Man from Snowy River, as so many forget or don’t remember our heritage. Clancy allowed this stranger to come on the ride with other bushmen. They were rounding up horses in the high country. There was one colt that was wild and free.  Everyone was too scared to follow the colt of Old Regret down the sheer mountain face. It was the man from Snowy River who showed courage, others thought suicide! as he jumped the log and headed down a near vertical cliff face. He didn’t think of himself, he went for it, took the risk and his story was told in years to come by Banjo Paterson. Banjo was reminding Australians of courage in the face of great risk. We don’t respect those who feather their own nests at the expense of the public. We respect those who truly represent us as they have taken our taxes and given us narratives of democratic representation.  We discover it is they who stand back, too afraid to confront what they fear, saying this is the way it is, no choice, this is the future.  Clancy and this stranger from the high country would say “bullshit mate”. You define your own reality.  You take the reins. You don’t hang back. You take a leap of faith (remember Indiana Jones) not a great leap forward. You decide what you want on behalf of Australians and commit to it.  This is leadership. This is integrity. This is power.  But if you sell out “freedoms” and weakly claim it is a trade off for a higher standard of living, you have sold out to the highest bidder. You will lose everything as life will not support you, as greed takes from life. Why? You are out of balance or indeed harmony. Life will rebalance. As nature is the power. So if you suppress, oppress and control others the pendulum swings back the other way as it must, as all are part of nature, to restore balance we must speak up and be heard. Whistle-blowers are being nudged from within. So for those who say one thing and do another, the children are watching. They will copy and call it “the way things are done”. If you speak with integrity what you believe you live, then others will feel inspired. That is how you restore Australian sovereignty. You live as an example of what it means to be a genuine Australian. We are waiting for you.  I wonder who you will be?

Below is an article discussing Peter Dutton and China.  It doesn’t mention Malcolm Turnbull and Goldman Sachs.  It was Josh Frydenberg who received a job in Goldman Sachs on leaving the government. They are all in it together in my view.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/09/malcolm-turnbull-scott-morrison-peter-dutton-china-allegations

Malcolm Turnbull says PM must ‘deal with’ Peter Dutton China allegations

Turnbull says Scott Morrison must address claims about Dutton’s meeting with Huang Xiangmo as a matter of national security

‘Dutton has a lot to explain’: Malcolm Turnbull on Dutton’s meeting – video

Malcolm Turnbull has called on Scott Morrison to “deal with” Peter Dutton after allegations that the immigration minister met the former Australian resident billionaire Huang Xiangmo after he paid $10,000 to a lobbyist.

Turnbull, who introduced foreign interference laws in 2017, said the allegations contained in a Four Corners-Nine newspapers report regarding a meeting between Dutton and Huang following a payment to former Liberal minister turned lobbyist Santo Santoro were “very troubling”.

“The allegation is that Santo Santoro received money in return for securing privileged access to the minister on behalf of Huang Xiangmo and all of that, in circumstances where there has been rising concern about lobbyists, about foreign influence,” Turnbull said.

“Look, Peter Dutton has got a lot to explain about this.”

Earlier in the day, Morrison had defended the government’s record citing Turnbull’s foreign interference laws and highlighting instead former Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s resignation after rolling controversies regarding his relationships to Chinese-linked donors, including Huang.

“All I know is Sam Dastyari had to resign in disgrace over foreign interference and behaving in a reckless and shameful way, betraying his own country,” Morrison said.

“I think when it comes to these issue, our government’s record is squeaky clean.”

But Turnbull said Morrison could not waive off the allegations and he used Dastyari’s example as a reason for his successor to move quickly on the issue.

“Remember the furore that arose about Senator Dastyari. All the same issues have arisen again and this has to be addressed at the highest level of security, priority, urgency by the prime minister,” Turnbull said.

“The buck stops with him. I know what it is like to be prime minister and, ultimately, you are responsible and so Scott Morrison has to deal with this.”

“Scott Morrison is the prime minister and you can’t waive this off and say it is all part of gossip and the bubble. This is the national security of Australia.”

Asked later about Turnbull’s comments, Morrison said he had spoken to Dutton.

“I have spoken to Peter Dutton and there are no issues here that troubled me,” Morrison said. “No suggestion that Peter in any way, shape or form has sought or been provided with any benefit here.”

The allegations relate to the desire by Huang for Australian citizenship. The Four Corners investigation revealed Huang tried to speed up a citizenship ceremony for his wife and children late in 2014.

Dastyari claimed he was surprised that after passing on the ceremony application to Dutton’s office, it was approved within two weeks in the holiday period in January 2015.

According to the report, when Huang applied for his own citizenship in late 2015, he was already being investigated by ASIO. He was worried about his access so consulted Santoro who had boasted Dutton was one of his “best friends”.

Huang put Santoro on a retainer in 2016, according to the report, and in the same year, Huang, Dutton and the minister’s senior staffer had lunch at Master Ken’s restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown.

Dutton rejected the allegations as a “beat up” and said he met Huang as a “significant leader in the Chinese community”. Huang’s bid for citizenship failed.

“I have had that one meeting with him over lunch. I have never seen him since. What has he got from me? He is now offshore and is prevented from coming back into Australia,” said Dutton.

Dutton said that the transactions for lobbying businesses on both sides of parliament was an issue for lobbyists.

“There are lobbyists who are registered on both sides of parliament, people that operate as lobbyists,” he said.

“Their transactions and how they conduct their business is an issue for them.

Dutton said while he had never met Huang when his family’s citizenship ceremony was approved, it would be unusual for a minister to knock it back.

“You take at face value what somebody like Sam Dastyari, as a member of parliament, was vouching for and they ask for the ceremony and it would be very unusual for a minister of the day to knock that back,” Dutton said.

“So if Mr Dastyari has not been above board or misrepresented the reason for the citizenship ceremony then I think that is something that he, and frankly, Mr Shorten need to explain.”

Bill Shorten described the Four Corners revelations as unhealthy.

“It is explosive and very surprising revelations on Four Corners last night about the conduct of the minister in charge, one of the ministers in charge of national security where it is cash for access and meeting people connected to the Chinese government.

“This is very unhealthy.”

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Australia’s St Elmo’s Fire is a Test

This poem came from inspiration about the Australian bushfires and homelessness.

Notable excerpt from The Big Issue article below:

Fire has destroyed 8.4 million hectares of land in southern and eastern Australia, an area bigger than Scotland. And despite heroic efforts by thousands of firefighters and volunteers the relentless, unpredictable and fast-changing blazes have killed at least 26 people, more than a billion animals, and destroyed over 2,000 homes.

Refer Big Issue for homeless people in fires. https://www.bigissue.com/latest/how-are-homeless-people-in-australia-affected-by-the-bushfires-down-under/

There are over 116,000 people homeless in Australia.

The poem I felt inspired to write reveals the importance of fires in nature to clear the old to make way for renewable growth within us.

The poem rekindles the Australian spirit of who we really are when in crisis. The real phoenix is our rebuilding who we are as a nation.

Einstein said:

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We have to think anew”

Australia’s St Elmo’s Fire is the Test

 

The burning bush,

Is not a winter burn off,

It is not seasonal regeneration,

But a towering inferno of epic proportion,

Smoke billowing blanking out the blue sky,

As communities are under siege,

Seeking to defend property,

Unaware our right to property is the real fire storm,

So help me God!

 

A climate of change in government is not responsive to the real ecological crisis,

A climate of change in business is not responsive to sustainability as they aim for more growth with less,

Yet it is market based economics that is the red hot ember that won’t go out of season,

Cutting public services as under growth is neglected,

For they cannot see the forests for the wood,

Nature is a raw material costed for production not a natural wonder maintaining ecological function,

People are human resources costed per hour
not human beings growing up to empower,

Seen through the googles of economics
life is an algorithm not a rubrics cube,

The yoke of debt is not an Act of God but unaffordable rent,

As business as usual is endless chaos not order,

As we look for the quick buck not the long term fix,

Markets have short horizons not over the horizon radars advancing civilisation to higher expressions,

For to see beyond the space time continuum of self interest is to realise the uni-verse is the one song in tune with nature.

 

The wild fires have become a fire sale,

Destroying 8.4 million of hectares in the blaze will increase market prices,

A billion animals perished in the smoke haze,

Impacting the biomass as prayers were not answered,

Homeless people camping in the bush were razed
gained no relief or went missing without alarm,

Renters were given no grants or land,

As property owners are hard working and deserving,

Government, media and business jumped on the bandwagon not on the fire truck,

Circling the wagons is not containment of disruption,

Opportunities to strengthen brand images rather than imagine no brands to ask for change not coins,

Still seeking a bounty from the mutiny,

The mutiny on the bounty is to leave GDP,

As branded cattle are piled on burial mounds,

Agricultural crops and harvesters went up in smoke,

Timbers become cinders,

Run for your life abandon possessions, beloved memories and pets,

This is the test,

To save lives not things,

To remember each other and lend an equal hand,

For this is the meaning of the aussie battler,

Bush community know common unity,

As they battle fires with families and friends.

 

Giving is to be good as gold,

Yet what if the gold is in being truly good,

You would naturally give time and all you have,

For it is human nature to give not take away,

To pitch in or risk losing all,

As livelihood is to live your life to be really alive,

This is St Elmo’s fire testing your determination and stamina,

From smouldering embers spark new shoots to push up breaking new ground,

From hardship comes rebirth of a renewable life,

From pot ash comes the phoenix resurrecting renewal,

And all can rise when you can go down no further,

For the rural farmers have suffered for years,

They lost their voice,

Mortgages as debt was the tourniquet squeezing livelihoods year on year as hard work doesn’t yield.

 

Many have been weighed down…

By what is not important in fears,

By material things that no longer bring joy,

By worries about money that never end contracts,

By conflicts from stress and out of touch bureaucracy,

By family breakdown under pressure,

By rising costs and uncertain futures,

They have been the backbone of our country.

 

Yet what if you look up to the stars my friend?

Take your hands from your eyes to see beyond,

That a new day dawns every day,

The sun-rises from the east setting in the west,

To know that from bad seeds come good,

From disruption comes clarity of purpose,

For you can’t get back what is a final demand,

When one door closes another opens,

And the finale of life is to let go when it is done and dusted,

To face fires, flood, famine and drought fearlessly
as dawn, midday and dusk mark time,

For we must face the phases of the moon together,

We must give a hand up and a hand out
no matter who is in need,

As you are me,

And I am you,

Learn to let go of the seed of greed marketed as need,

It is the fast breeder of fear,

It is the terminator seed,

For what you give away returns the bounty,

What you earn you give away in trust,

As abundance is not in what you have but who you are when you dig deep,

And who you are is gratitude, service and love without end,

And these are the real seeds St Elmo’s fire is renewing,

For the old must die for the new to arise.

 

We are one country under the Southern Cross,

We are stewards not owners,

We are temporary not permanent,

When every ONE is deserving of charity,

We are a nation girt by sea,

From the coast, to the forest, to the deserts,

We are free,

We have boundless plains to share to care,

And air to breathe when we see the key,

That we can regenerate our country’s spirit,

We are dreaming in the land of Oz,

Starting again resets from zero point,

To nurture shattered lives by piecing together the puzzle as the final peace in the big picture,

The deck chairs are rearranging on the titanic seeking to keep the currency afloat,

The Big Issue is that Australians are sharing the bounty not holding cards to the chest,

As friends in-deed we are stepping up to lead,

For Mount Kosciusko can be climbed in a day,

The Murray can replenish a sunburnt country,

The Snowy Mountains can rekindle Clancy of the Overflow,

As he drove cattle down mountain views where all hesitated to step off the real cliff hanger,

He proved the impossible is possible,

Courage leads whilst fear weighs the risks,

In the high country the brumby’s sniff the wind adapting to climates of change as they know which way to run.

Australians know the struggle and the peaks,

As we are heading for a depression of great magnitude,

An economic earthquake shaking ‘em up,

The Great Barrier Reef sacrificed corals to pollution favouring a crown of thorns,

The Great Artesian basin is sinking the water table as hard water is diverted and dries up,

Salt lakes muddy clean waters,

Fertilising biosciences grow at ever diminishing returns akin anti-bio-tics,

Nature is not an electrical circuit board or linear cog in an industrial flywheel,

It is a tipping point of infinitesimal sensitivity,

Where the sum of the parts is the whole.

Descartes reduced life to boxes not cells,

Newton gravitated to apples not seeds,

Einstein’s relativity theory was not absolute,

Mythical dragons breathe fire yet oxygen is fuel,

Oxford became lost in space seeking the last frontier,

Dances with Wolves chose to go to the frontier country before it was lost,

Buffalos were killed for skins not hunger,

Science invented wars losing the peace prize,

For the real courage is to face what we have truly lost and not hesitate to act,

We are lost in space unable to make peace

A priority,

For until we do we hesitate on the mountain view unable to step off the cliff of uncertainty,

As life is not predictable nor mechanical,

It is a miracle,

And only when you lose everything do you realise the true value of life,

For this is the real gold,

Or indeed the Fool’s Gold of awakening from the dream,

Fires cleanse away debris to make way for renewable growth,

To see the forest instead of the wood,

To value nature as a flow not a production process,

For the real currency is love,

What you truly love becomes visible in crisis,

To breathe is nature’s rhythm,

To speak is nature’s sound scape,

To eat is nature’s bounty given for free,

For free dominion is nature’s possibility,

That self selects when the fruit is ripe,

To fall from the tree at the perfect moment,

As love withholds no wealth from life,

As life is the real wealth loving,

And until you taste the sweetness
greed will be the bad seed replanted,

Yielding endless wars fuelling climates of disruptive change,

For until the burning bush is seen as a message from the creator,

Heralding that all people are chosen,

And that all roads lead home,

For Rome will return to the Garden of Eden,

Adam & Eve will plant an apple tree together,

Receiving nature’s bounty at the perfect time in peace,

Loving what is was all ways the peace that passeth all understanding.

Ecological Economics is the Future

In my book A Fool for Peace I speak of Wholistic economics.  This is based on real needs and wants.  Ecological economics is a step closer in that we start to factor in the real costs of economic activity.  When I studied economics the first thing I realised was that economics only deal with infinite growth modelling.  It regarded all activity as wealth, whereas real wealth must factor in Gross National Happiness (actual purpose of economics) and optimal resource use whereby we do not denude future resources for future generations.  We have to understand the real meaning of balance and homeostasis not only with the planet but within ourselves as all needs arise from inner narratives that say ‘I need…I want…’  When we become happier the needs and wants narrow as we no longer fill gaps but meet actual needs.  This runs counter to the economic narrative that depends on expansion in expenditure (wants) and profit (wealth) rather than balance where need=want.  So this is where the tension is. We see this in how the government deals with environmentalists and the resistance of industry to living a truly sustainable life, rather than marketing one that sounds good but does not have any real impact on nature, no matter the digital rhetoric. The outer world always reflects the inner state of ourselves.  The outer will not change until we address the inner state, this is universal law not man made law.  Even ecological economics has not understood the fundamental link with inner peace.  I am waiting still, I am still waiting… for change.  Now to the article on ecological economics…

http://theconversation.com/what-is-ecological-economics-and-why-do-we-need-to-talk-about-it-123915?

Ecological economics focuses on sustainability and development, rather than the traditional economic concerts of efficiency and growth. thodonal88/Shutterstock

What is ‘ecological economics’ and why do we need to talk about it?

November 5, 2019 6.03am AEDT

Anitra Nelson, Brian Coffey, RMIT University

Authors

  1. Anitra Nelson

Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

  1. Brian Coffey

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, RMIT University

Disclosure statement

Anitra Nelson is Vice-President of the Australia New Zealand Society of Ecological Economics (ANZSEE), has been on the ANZSEE executive (2015–19) and is Chair of the Organising Committee for the ANZSEE 2019 Conference at RMIT University. An Australian research team she has led also received funding associated with entries made for the online data-base EJAtlas.

Brian Coffey is on the Organising Committee for the ANZSEE 2019 Conference, which is to be held at RMIT University.

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RMIT University provides funding as a strategic partner of The Conversation AU.

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This article is part of a series on rebalancing the human–nature interactions that are central to the study and practice of ecological economics, which is the focus of the 2019 ANZSEE Conference in Melbourne later this month.

As environmental crises and the urgency to create ecological sustainability escalate, so does the importance of ecological economics. This applied, solutions-based field of studies is concerned with sustainability and development, rather than efficiency and growth. Also, given that cities account for 70-80% of global economic activity and associated resource use, emissions and waste, they are central to finding solutions to the challenge of sustainability.

Ecological economics recognises local to global environmental limits. It ranges from research for short-term policy and local challenges through to long-term visions of sustainable societies. Ecological economists also consider global issues such as carbon emissions, deforestation, overfishing and species extinctions.

Read more: Our cities fall short on sustainability, but planning innovations offer local solutions

Core concepts

You’re probably familiar with some core concepts of ecological economics. These include “steady-state economies”, “carrying capacity”, “ecological footprints” and “environmental justice”.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen was one of the first economists to argue that an economy faces limits to growth as a result of resource depletion.

A steady-state economy is both relatively stable and respects ecological limits. Drawing on the work of mathematician and economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, economist Herman Daly elaborated the model, editing a 1973 anthology, Toward a Steady-State Economy.

In 1990, Daly co-founded the International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE). It had three key principles:

  • the human economy is embedded in nature, and economic processes are actually biological, physical and chemical processes and transformations
  • ecological economics is a meeting place for researchers committed to environmental issues
  • ecological economics requires transdisciplinary work to describe economic processes in relation to physical reality.

Joshua Farley, who has worked with Daly, discusses some of these principles in an opening address to the Australia New Zealand Society of Ecological Economics (ANZSEE) conference at RMIT University later this month.

In a partnership program of several North American universities, Farley teaches Economics for the Anthropocene postgraduates. They apply ecological economics to “real-world environmental solutions”. Some will talk at the conference about their research.

Today overconsumption is measured against Earth’s carrying capacity.

Read more: Human carrying capacity and our need for a parachute

William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel developed the related concept of the ecological footprint. It’s an indicator of the ecological impacts of everyday activities and practices.

Ecological footprints are useful ways for industries, governments and people to assess which practices we need to reduce to keep within the limits of Earth’s regenerative capacity.

The ecological footprint explained. See https://youtu.be/fACkb2u1ULY

 

Read more: Chinese migrants follow and add to Australian city dwellers’ giant ecological footprints

ISEE co-founder Joan Martinez-Alier established the global Environmental Justice Atlas. Activists and scholars developed this online database of around 3,000 environmental justice conflicts. It provides open access to many and various ecological and economic value assessments.

Issues of environmental justice in Australia include:

Read more: An environmentally just city works best for all in the end

Mountains of waste are a stark reminder we are consuming more than the Earth can sustain. ThavornC/Shutterstock

A new kind of economics

Ecological economics partly developed from frustration with the narrowness of environmental and resource economics. These approaches apply mainstream economics to the environment. In doing so, they fail to incorporate critical environmental concerns that arise with inputs, outputs and waste.

Read more: Beyond GDP: are there better ways to measure well-being?

In addition, ecological economists have a broader view about what “progress” is and how to measure it. Ecological econonomists are more sceptical about how much human-made capital improves on the benefits we get from nature. Critically, they ask: “How useful is it to put a monetary value on nature?”

Ecological economist Clive Hamilton discusses that question in the case of Coronation Hill in Kakadu National Park. He argues that market-based assessments such as “willingness to pay” favour market-based solutions. Similarly, Brian Coffey highlights the conundrum of monetising ecological values:

I would rather ask “why is nature important?” and “how can we live with, and within, it?”

Despite this, certain ecological economists use monetary data to make powerful ecological statements. For instance, Ida Kubiszewski and her co-authors surveyed land uses under different future scenarios. They concluded that continuing business as usual could wipe out a third of the value of Asia-Pacific ecosystems by 2050.

Read more: Without action, Asia-Pacific ecosystems could lose a third of their value by 2050

Solutions for sustainable and just futures

In short, ecological economics has contributors from diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds.

Presenters to the ANZSEE conference of course include ecologists and economists. But there are also social and physical scientists, sociologists, philosophers, historians, planners and sustainability experts.

Sustainability expert Samuel Alexander speaks about living well with degrowth. Others argue that a climate-safe world requires radical forms of economics.

Read more: Limits to growth: policies to steer the economy away from disaster

Contributors will also talk about just transitions, commoning, the genuine progress indicator (GPI), School Strike for Climate (SS4C), resilience, decarbonisation and ethical investment. Keynote speaker Jon Altman presents a model of hybrid economies that’s useful in the context of Indigenous peoples

 

David Attenborough, Cher, Chomsky and Climate Denial

The video below features a few experts commenting on the times we are moving through.  The selfishness and greed of economic narratives are the barrier to healing our planet. Yet until we look into ourselves, become very still, speak our truth and work together it is a struggle to the bottom.  What sort of world are the children going to inherit?  The lower video is David Attenborough speaking to a Parliamentary inquiry.

One of the World’s experts on the dynamics of our planet, David Attenborough.  Here is a video on climate change.  I certainly can feel the heat.  I wonder if he will get the Nobel Peace Prize for his educational work informing us about nature.  Watching this film with its brushstroke across the world from the perspective of a biologist given a deeper impression of our footprint.  I think about the butterfly effect and can see it works in nature.   When you think about self interest can you make the quantum leap to best interest?  Global temperatures have risen 0.6 degrees (average) since 1900.  David asks how can such a small increase create such havoc.  He speaks of places cooling and then refers to the Arctic warming by 3 degrees.  The environment is highly specialised and he describes the extraordinary animals living above and below the ice.  He has explained the Arctic is melting so fast that the wildlife is under threat, especially the animals at the top of the food chain, the polar bears.  As the ice melts earlier each year mothers are finding it harder to provide for cubs.

 

Here is a video featuring David Attenborough.  We must wake up!

 

My poem.

SINKING THE PLANET

Are you top of the world,

Can you see the northern lights?

A ribbony weave waving

providing a natural display of great beauty,

Yet the ground feels unstable under my feet,

As the ice is melting,

The polar bears are starving,

As climate change is the Mount Everest of humanity

that cannot be climbed in a day,

For mountaineers are no longer adventurers with the courage

to acknowledge the peak in CO2 emissions,

As denial provides the immunity from an

inconvenient truth.

 

Yet the ice caps are unable to cap trade,

Humanity is unable to understand the missing links,

The feedback loops,

The wildlife pressures in search of diminishing food stocks,

As stock and trade is the human food security,

Detached from the natural economics of supply,

For we keep demanding business-as-usual,

Unconscious of the sinking ship,

In a climate of real change,

As we wait to see who ‘will be the change’

of a new future and a new earth

of awakened stewardship.

 

The Earth Institute Columbia University

The Earth Institute is based at Columbia University in the United States. It is multi-disciplinary.

In the spirit of Einstein:  

“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”

14 Mar 1951, Princeton, New Jersey, USA --- Albert Einstein sticks out his tongue when asked by photographers to smile on the occasion of his 72nd birthday on March 14, 1951. --- Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

14 Mar 1951, Princeton, New Jersey, USA — Albert Einstein sticks out his tongue when asked by photographers to smile on the occasion of his 72nd birthday on March 14, 1951. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

A few questions at the outset.

  • What do we want to create?
  • What is the core problem?
  1. Is it an analytical problem?
  2. Is it a spiritual problem?
  3. Is it a political problem?
  • Should contemplation on the earth be multidisciplinary or multi-faceted opening conversations with people from all walks of life.
  • When did the earth community live in harmony with the natural world?  What have we learned?
  • Is it about knowledge or wisdom?
  • Is it about evidence or awareness?
  • Is it about being right or happy?
  • Is it about sustainability or symmetrical balance?
  • Is it about harmony?

The answers arise from the questions. Are the questions we ask going to provide the answers we need  given our desires?

Here is an overview of the Earth Institute followed by a listing of the board (next blog).

Prospectus
 

Introduction

The governance of the Earth Institute includes a group of scholars who will address the challenges that humans face as Earth continues to develop. This group, the Earth Institute faculty, will ensure the quality of the research of the Earth Institute’s research clusters as well as educational activities, which the Earth Institute develops and coordinates in conjunction with Columbia University schools and departments. The Earth Institute faculty will also advance integration across disciplines in both research and education.

Membership

Members of the Earth Institute faculty will be appointed by the Provost of Columbia University. The Earth Institute faculty are a group of 50 faculty members with a diverse set of backgrounds who are providing leadership in the defining and implementing activities critical to the mission of the Earth Institute. The Earth Institute faculty includes 8 ex officio members to ensure representation of the clusters and affiliated departments.

Areas of Responsibility

The general areas that the Earth Institute faculty will oversee include the following:

  • Intellectual guidance of the Earth Institute – The Earth Institute faculty will provide the intellectual underpinning of Earth Institute activities. It will formulate and update the general vision and specific goals of the Earth Institute including a strategic plan. In the framework of this general activity, The Earth Institute faculty will have responsibility for writing case statements for development targets such as Earth Institute Professors.
  • Curriculum Development – As the Earth Institute develops, it will expand not only research, but also educational activities, in conjunction with Columbia University schools and departments. The Earth Institute faculty will coordinate undergraduate and graduate education programs and will oversee the developments of new degree programs.
  • New appointments and visitors – Accomplishment of the ambitious goals of the Earth Institute requires new hires to (1) fill crucial gaps in the existing expertise, (2) augment existing core strength to enable Earth Institute scientists to compete at the highest level, and (3) to facilitate interdisciplinary research which is the key to the success of Earth Institute goals. The Earth Institute faculty will be the body that designs a plan for hires that helps to meet the overall goals of the Earth Institute, and recommends candidates for appointment to Earth Institute positions and for visiting appointments.
  • Intellectual Balance – Throughout the Earth Institute units there is much variation in strength of the programs that are vital for its success. As the Earth Institute moves toward closer interaction and integration, it is necessary to review the status of the individual clusters and to develop procedures that ensure balanced strength to accomplish Earth Institute goals.
  • Guidance of specific programs – The Earth Institute faculty will oversee a variety of programs that are important for development of new ideas and development of intellectual resources. These programs include the Earth Institute Fellows program.
  • Workshops, conferences and seminars – The Earth Institute faculty will review these activities to the extent that they carry Earth Institute imprimatur. The Earth Institute faculty will have resources to hold and sponsor these activities as they see fit.
  • Home of the Earth Institute academic activities – The Earth Institute faculty will consider the most appropriate intellectual structure and physical home for efficiently conducting Earth Institute academic affairs.

Committees

The Earth Institute faculty will have 6 committees:

  • Academic Appointments Committee: This committee will oversee contributions of the Earth Institute to academic hires and design a plan for academic appointments and promotions through the core of the Earth Institute. The Earth Institute’s Appointments and Promotions Guidelines can be found here.
  • Education Committee: This committee will oversee the development and integration of the Earth Institute’s educational programs.
  • Executive Committee: This committee will oversee and further develop new initiatives of the Earth Institute and its faculty, using the strategic plan and the 2003 Strategic Vision Document as a baseline.
  • Faculty Development & Diversity Committee: This committee will promote diversity and disciplinary balance among Earth Institute faculty.
  • Practice Committee: This committee will oversee the work of practice-oriented scholars at the Earth Institute, and foster their work as it relates to the mission of the Earth Institute.
  • Unit Review Committee: This committee will establish a review process for assessing the operations and performance of Earth Institute centers and programs.

Bylaws

Bylaws of the Earth Institute faculty (pdf)