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Nature and Society Quotations used in the August-September 2006 edition Returning to a way of life which is balanced and which supports the earth is not going backwards; developing impressive, but ultimately destructive technology is not going forwards. Rachel Francis Extinction opens new environments for colonisation and, because former terrestrial animals have become extinct, we humans now have a habitat. Sea levels have risen and fallen thousands of times by up to 400 m, land levels constantly rise and fall, and massive climate changes occur derived from supernovae, solar flaring, sunspots, meteorites, comets, uplift of mountain ranges, pulling apart of land masses, drifting continents, orbital changes, changes in the shape of the Earth, ice armadas, changes in ocean currents, and release of methane from sediments or volcanoes. Ian Plimer The fundamental argument for redistribution of income is that an extra pound makes more difference to a poor person than to a rich person. Therefore the average happiness goes up when we take it from the rich and give it to the poor. That is something we can do. Professor Richard Layard It is important to recognise, however, that drylands are also home to some of the most magnificent ecosystems of this world: the deserts. These unique natural habitats with their incredibly diverse fauna have been home to some of the world’s oldest civilisations. They stand like open-air museums, bearing witness to bygone eras. The Year will therefore also celebrate the fragile beauty and unique heritage of the world’s deserts, which deserve protection. Quote from IYDD flier We’re continuing to see debt levels rise between 10 and 15 per cent per year at a time when household incomes are probably growing at around 6 or 7 per cent. Australians are much more vulnerable to higher interest rates. Canberra Times 29 July 2006 The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, as some seemed to believe, but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a certain time: the Indian summer of the fossil fuel era. James Howard Kunstler I would argue that Malthus was correct, but that cheap oil has skewed the equation over the past hundred years while the human race has enjoyed an unprecedented orgy of non-renewable condensed solar energy accumulated over aeons of prehistory. James Howard Kunstler With their water bill in October last year, Perth residents received a pamphlet with a bar chart showing the average annual inflows to Perth’s reservoirs over various periods. For 1911-74 the average annual inflow was 338 gigalitres. For 1975-96 it was 177GL. For 1997-2004 it was 120GL. Graham Chitleborough, 2006 I keep harking back to the first CSIRO conference on Greenhouse which I attended about 1980. On each side of the dais was a large banner. One said ‘If we do something and it doesn’t matter – it doesn’t matter’. The other said ‘If we do nothing, and it matters – THEN it matters’. Graham Chittleborough, 2006 Today’s researchers are embracing interdisciplinarity: we think bigger by working out how all known objects – from atoms to galaxies, from cells to brains, from people to society - are interrelated. The closer we look, the more everything seems related to everything else. Eric Chaisson The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. Aldo Leopold Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Aldous Huxley It is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting. H L Mencken The act of getting stuff makes us feel good. It’s not having it, it’s getting it. that’s why we never feel we have enough. We never get enough, because it is the act of getting that feels good. That’s biology. Jay Hanson The problem is that people evolved specifically to overcome social constraints on inclusive fitness. That’s what we’re for, that’s what we’re good at. So no matter what kind of controls other people put on us, we’re going to sit down and figure out how to get around it. We’re good at cheating. That’s why we’re here. Maybe Neanderthal man died out because he was too honest. Jay Hanson
August-September 2006 edition accessible here
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