Fourth twenty in twenty – Environmental woes

Over time our society has developed a culture, a way of doing things, that cannot be sustained by the natural world. To be sure, it will take decades but it is clear that our way of life in Australia and most developed countries requires an unsustainable amount of destruction to the natural environment. Bit by bit, development swallows what remains of the bush. To question that process in front of some can result in astonishment or disbelief that we could want anything else other than more suburbia and more economic activity. These people are clueless about the importance of the natural world.

With the use of incremental steps, the destruction cannot be halted. The argument will always be ‘this is such a small impact, it is insignificant‘. Yet, viewing the current landscape often makes my stomach twist into knots. Suburbia and agriculture, typically devoid of native vegetation, covers huge swaths of land. Areas of bush often only exist where the land is unusable for people such as mountainous terrain. Even those areas are often seriously degraded by introduced species of flora and fauna.

What I believe is required is a hard line that cannot be crossed. That is, a percentage of land that cannot be touched. Really, I think we have crossed an appropriate point already but given we have flown past that point and will need a period of adjustment, we can  and should set a point in the near future where no further bush can be cleared. Without this type of policy, we will incrementally destroy our environment to the point of no return.