Editorial
Some
ten years ago Stephen Boyden gave a lecture at Questacon - The National
Science and Technology Centre, for World Environment Day. His message
was that society is facing an overwhelming ecological crisis but there
is a lack of understanding on the cultural level of how humans fit into
nature and the consequences of this for the wellbeing of humans and the
ecosystems of the biosphere.
In
Stephen’s opinion a new type of organisation was needed, one that
enabled concerned, interested people to learn about the problems, their
causes and what could be done to solve them. Armed with that knowledge
these people could help to educate the rest of the community and get society
to take effective measures to solve the problems. The lecture resulted
in a group of people getting together to form such an organisation and
thus the Nature and Society Forum began.
Among
the many important things Stephen said in that lecture was a list of what
humans need to enable them to live a happy and healthy life. As well as
the absolute essentials of clean air, water and food, he said we need
shelter from extremes of weather, and clothing to protect us from the
same. Apart from those material goods we need a number of social goods:
a feeling of belonging and appreciation (usually conferred by membership
of a group) and something worthwhile to do.
It
was interesting to find, in Alain de Botton’s “The Consolations
of Philosophy” that Epicurus had prepared a similar list in the fourth
century BC. His list of essentials consisted of friends, freedom, thought
(about the main sources of anxiety, such as death, illness, poverty and
suspicion), food, shelter and clothes. The things he thought it was natural
to want, but which were not necessary for happiness, included a grand
house, private baths, banquets, servants, fish and meat. But fame and
power, in his opinion, were neither natural nor necessary for happiness.
In
a truly classic case of misunderstanding Epicurus’s name has come
down to us as the adjective Epicurean, meaning “devoted to the pursuit
of pleasure, hence luxurious, sensual, gluttonous.” It is sometimes
used to persuade people that they need to purchase yachts or eat in expensive
restaurants. The misunderstanding started with his contemporaries. Epicurus
did indeed talk of pleasure and happiness and founded schools of pleasure
that admitted both men and women. This resulted in lurid tales being bandied
about.
The
truth was that when the philosopher moved to Athens and set up a group
house with friends, they lived a simple life. In order to be free of employers
they grew their own vegetables and were happy with meals of bread, vegetables
and olives. A pot of cheese provided Epicurus with a feast. Their great
pleasure was to be with friends and to talk about what interested them.
Epicurus
was concerned with discovering what would make us truly happy and healthy.
He considered that humans were woefully bad at analysing what really contributed
to their own wellbeing. For well over 2000 years his message has been
misunderstood.
In
NSF we, too, are interested in what is necessary for wellbeing, but our
main sources of anxiety have shifted somewhat and include a great concern
for the environment, both in its own right and as necessary for human
welfare. We also talk, and at our monthly discussion meetings over the
years we have had a wide range of speakers all concerned with various
aspects of this broad problem.
Some
of the speakers whose talks have had the greatest impact on me include:
John Burton several years ago, talking about conflict resolution; Michael
Rowbotham, only last month, on third world debt and the inbuilt defects
in the current financial system; Brian Fleay, several times over the years,
on petroleum depletion. These concerns all seem to have come to a head
in recent weeks. John Burton pointed to the impossibility of solving problems
by war, the need for quiet negotiation out of the public arena, away from
television cameras and reporters, so that disputants have a chance to
recognise their common humanity. Somehow, peaceful solutions need to be
found, but that necessitates a lack of grandstanding for public viewing.
It
was a revelation to find out that John Maynard Keynes, having seen how
the world suffered for the disastrous debts between the two World Wars,
devised a financial system that would not consist of debtor and creditor
nations. If only the USA, at the end of World War II, has accepted his
plan that country may not have suffered the recent tragic terrorism. The
whole world would certainly have been less troubled. We do need to achieve
a much fairer system if peace is to stand a chance.
As
to the decline of the age of oil, we have only to look at the crisis in
the airline system at present to realise that we are nowhere near ready
to live without oil, yet we will have to do so in a few decades. If the
economy cannot function without aeroplanes then we need a new economy.
It is amazing and tragic that people and governments cannot see the connections,
that they think each problem is a separate one, that they think each problem
is just here and now, rather than part of an ongoing one. We seem to be
as far away as ever from understanding what is needed for the wellbeing
of society and of the planet.
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Forthcoming
NSF meetings
17 October
- 7.45 pm, Heysen Street, Weston
Smallpox: from
eradication to bioterrorism
Frank Fenner, NSF's patron, whose own role in the eradication
of smallpox is famous, will speak on the past and possible future
of this disease.
21 November
- 7.45 pm, Heysen Street, Weston
Jerra-bomb-bera
How well does the new GreenSmart Display Village score against it
own aims? The Biocentre's Buildings Team has been taking a close look
at what they hope will be their neighbour. Derek Wrigley reports
on their findings.
No
meetings in December and January
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People,
Planet and Debt
report by Jenny Wanless
In the course
of this lecture Michael Rowbotham, the speaker at NSF’s August public
meeting, debunked the myth that it is the corruption and incompetence
of third world governments and administrators that have caused the current
debt crisis. Governments, officials and individuals in the developed world
display the same sins and weaknesses. No, it is the very structure of
the financial system and of its leading players, the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, that have caused the dept.
Furthermore, all countries are in debt. The USA has a total debt of three
and a half trillion dollars, one and a half times the total debt of the
‘developing’ countries. What message do the international money
managers have for the less fortunate countries? Maybe it is ‘work
hard, sell off your assets, tighten your belt and you can aspire to the
same level of debt as the USA’.
The consequences
for the third world have been disastrous and continue to grow. Because
the system is weighted against them their commodities fetch rock bottom
prices. Their land and their labour are undervalued so corporations move
in to make a killing. This is one of the main drivers of globalisation.
Although
Rowbotham did not spell it out, implicit throughout was the environmental
degradation caused by the situation. Countries where the population is
always undernourished have to devote much of their land to growing crops
for export. This puts pressure on land and water resources, causes chronic
ill health, increases the likelihood of infectious disease and creates
misery.
The export
of food increases the amount of transport with all its attendant pollution.
India exports three million tonnes of wheat each year and imports the
same quantity. There is something ludicrous in such a situation. In a
sane world local self sufficiency would be recognised as a good way to
curb greenhouse gas emissions.
In the developed
countries globalisation and the debt-based economy have made the production
of junk goods and the demand for ever more consumption and ‘growth’
inevitable. In turn this leads to over consumption of resources and to
mountains of waste.
What can
be done about third world debt? There are various ways of accounting it
out of existence - after all, it was never real money that was lent, just
numbers on a piece of paper or a screen. Anyway the poorer countries have
exported more that enough to pay off their debt; they owe no one anything.
It would be a good thing, in Michael Rowbotham’s view, if they just
repudiated the debts. Bankers would quickly find a way to cover their
paper loss and not let it impinge on their business.
Incidentally,
Michael studied economics because he is an environmentalist. He saw that
environmentalists were ignored, but economists were heeded, so he decided
to take them on at their own game.
A copy of Michael Rowbotham’s most recent book Goodbye America!
Globalisation, debt and the dollar empire and an audiotape of the
lecture 'People, planet and debt' are available for members to borrow
from our office.
Comment—
by Colin Samundsett
Congratulations to Nature and Society for initiating another excellent
forum topic, “People, Planet and Debt', as presented by Michael Rowbotham.
The people attending got good value for their time.
An hour was
all too short a time for Rowbotham to outline his subject. And the post-address
question time was frustratingly short; a full-blown conference could have
been devoted to the issues raised.
As a man
of compassion his concentration on third-world debt was understandable,
above globalisation and other problems, to which he said the debt was
inextricably linked. And as his theme developed, the quote he attributed
to Father Brian Gore: “The current third-world debt is a crime against
humanity” became readily believeable.
While his
introductory remark on the nature of money, that only about 4 percent
is held in hard currency, seemed reasonable I did have some difficulty
with his statement on the creation of it: The devolution of money creation
(or the bulk of it) from governments to private enterprise in the guise
of banks was straight forward, but do those institutions create money
in the process of making loans? It had been my understanding that money
was created by the charging of interest on such loans. Perhaps I did not
hear him properly.
A key point, for me, of the talk was his discourse on the setting-up of
the world trading framework for post-world war two at Bretton Woods in
the U.S.A.. It was a revelation to find that John Maynard Keynes had already
developed a trading structure in which there would be a balance of trade,
not debtors and creditors; and that this structure found no favour with
the U.S.A., which decreed the setting up of a quite different one. This
created the inevitability of the current humanitarian disaster which is
the shackles of third-world debt.
It was uncomfortable
to listen to the details, the litany, of impositions placed upon developing
nations by the developed ones, via the two institutions - the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund: The imposition of impossible conditions
on loans given; the inappropriate schemes decreed by the lenders; the
wrong advice for development enterprises; the fixed dollar value of loans
against the declining value of products exported to attempt repayment;
the decree of lowering all trade barriers by the loan recipients while
allowing such barriers to remain in place against them. And many more,
all readily verifiable. The World Bank and the IMF came to be viewed in
all of this as vehicles for the destructive aspects of the loans which
gave rise to the present debt, which will never be repayable, and which
can be argued from a more realistic economic viewpoint to not be a genuine
debt.
Although
it might have been outside the scope of the topic advertised, I consider
it unfortunate that time did not permit development of the part played
by environmental degradation in ensuring deeper entrapment of desperately
poor societies. Rowbotham's initial tertiary qualifications were in science
— as a zoologist, and he was aware of it. I was surprised at this
year’s Crawford Conference, when keynote speaker Johnson of the World
Bank recognised the deficiency of accounting systems which valued environmental
assets at zero; and that World Trade protestors should not be ignored,
for they had valid points to express.
A fundamental
matter impinging upon the third world is the gross deficiency of assistance
from the developed nations towards minimising unwanted pregnancies in
desperately poor nations such as sub-saharan Africa. Africa was mentioned
by Rowbotham as being of special concern to himself, with its woeful poverty.
It happens to be also the part of the world which is under the most pressure
from increasing numbers of people. The desperate poverty, the environmental
decline, and the population numbers and rate of increase are not just
coincidence. It is a pity that the developed nations are not contributing
adequate assistance regarding reproductive health rather than further
exacerbating the matters of debt.
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Nature
and Society Forum Annual Report (September 19, 2001)
The present
year has been a busy one for the Nature and Society Forum (NSF). As last
year, a great deal of time and effort has been given up to the Australian
National Biocentre proposal. However, other important projects, including
the Metabolism project and the People and Nature (PAN) Program have made
good progress, and many interesting discussion meetings have been held.
Publications
This year
has seen the usual five issues of the Forum’s Journal Nature and
Society. Jenny Wanless has continued as editor, with invaluable help from
Gösta Lyngå. Sue Gilbert took over the task, formerly carried
out by Peter Farrelly, of laying out the Journal and preparing it for
the printer.
Two Occasional
Papers have been published:
- Inequality,
sustainability and revolution by Colin Butler
- Salt and
vinegar: education for sustainability in the Murray Darling Basin, 1983-1998
by David Eastburn.
The first
booklet in the Panperspectives series has been published:
- Bad Bugs
– People and Infectious Diseases - edited by Bryan Furnass and
Stephanie Haygarth (see PAN Program below).
The
Australian National Biocentre
A great deal
of time and effort has been devoted during the year to the ANB proposal.
The Kingston Foreshore is still the preferred site for the Biocentre.
A meeting was held with the Chief Minister in February on this issue,
but a written response from him is still awaited.
The ANB Interim
Planning Board appointed the following committees: Buildings and Technology
(Derek Wrigley, Convenor), the LINK Group (Alice Thompson, Convenor),
Displays and Exhibitions (Bryan Furnass, Convenor), Education (Val Brown/John
Harris, Convenors). The Landscape Committee (Eugene Herbert, Convenor)
is dormant until the ANB site is finalized.
The ANB Board
is still seeking funding from the Commonwealth Government for a comprehensive
feasibility study, which would include a Business Plan and Prospectus.
The
People and Nature (PAN) Program (Convener:
Stephen Boyden)
This Program
involves bringing together essential information on important ecological
and health themes, and making this information available in plain English
to interested members of the public, in Panperspectives booklets, and
information sheets. During this year work on the Program has included
the following activities
Bad
Bugs–People and Infectious Diseases (edited by Bryan Furnass
and Stephanie Haygarth)
In 1998,
as part of the PAN program, Stephen Boyden convened a multidisciplinary
conference on infectious disease in humans. The proceedings of this conference
have been condensed into a 68 page booklet, written in plain English to
make it accessible to non-professionals, including students. In keeping
with the Panperspectives guidelines, the publication summarises the evolution
of microbial infection and the body’s defence mechanisms, their impact
on human societies from our hunter-gatherer ancestors onwards and the
cultural adaptive changes made to combat them.
Food
for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet (Convener: Bryan Furnass)
Another PAN
initiative has been an internet conference on this theme held on the NSF
website from 9-15 September. The conference has provided a perspective
on the impact of food consumption on the health of humans and the impact
of food production on the health of the environment. While lacking the
benefits of personal interaction, the idea of an internet conference makes
information available to a wide audience at a lower cost and with little
intervention of fossil fuel combustion. It is planned to make the edited
proceedings available on our website and in hard copy as a Panperspectives
booklet early next year.
NSF acknowledges
the key role played by our Office Manager, Sue Gilbert, in the organisation
of this project and the coordination of the website design and various
documents.
Ecological
issues in a nutshell
Alice
Thompson has continued her work in bringing together information on key
ecological issues and preparing summaries on each issue for a Panperspectives
booklet. This material is also being used in the PAN Workshops (see below).
People and nature papersStephen
Boyden has prepared a series of information papers on ecological and health
themes for use in the PAN Workshops. It is hoped that one of these, People
and nature – the big picture, will be published as a Panperspectives
booklet.
People
and nature workshops
The
first series of PAN Workshops commenced in August 2001. They are organised
jointly by the Centre for Continuing Education at the ANU and NSF, and
involve 8 or more two-hourly meetings. They are attended by interested
members of the public, and facilitated by members of NSF. The workshops
involve three phases: (1) a Learning phase (2) a Practical evaluation
phase - appraisal of the practical meaning of information learned for
individuals, families, or society (3) a Follow-up phase in which participants
are encouraged to follow up their course with one of various forms of
action.
It is planned
to organise a series of PAN workshops annually in the future.
The Earth
Charter (Australian
Convener: Brendan Mackey)
After the
Rio Earth Summit in 1992, an Earth Charter Commission was established,
chaired by Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev. This Commission has led
to the creation of a new international document, the Earth Charter, which
articulates an ethical framework for a more sustainable way of living.
It contains values and principles that can be used to guide the behaviour
of individuals, organisations and governments in ways that promote a more
environmentally sustainable, equitable and peaceful world.
NSF has become
the host organisation for the Australian National Committee for the Earth
Charter.
Scientists
and engineers network for a sustainable environment
(SENSE) (Convener: Moss Cass)
Two papers
have been written and are currently being circulated for members of the
network for comment: one dealing with Salinity and the other with the
concept of Eco-effectiveness. The Convener of SENSE has been overseas
recently and a strategy for launching these papers is being developed.
The Metabolism
Project (Conveners:
Janis Birkeland and John Schoonenvelt)
NSF has been
trying to interest funding bodies in a proposal for a study on the metabolism
of Canberra for many years, but it seems both the concept and the terminology
did not work for them. This year we have used alternative descriptors
such as “materials flow analysis” and “sustainability auditing”
and we immediately attracted two small grants, one with the University
of Canberra and the other with Land and Water Australia. We were also
awarded a consultancy with the ACT Government’s “Planning and
Land Management” unit (PALM). All three projects are linked insofar
as they use the same methodology, but they apply to different areas and
involve the mapping of stocks and flows of different materials.
Staff for
the project are being drawn from different areas: post graduate students
who are able to link their own research with our work and some of our
members.
Sustainability
Science
Encouraged
by these developments, a proposal has been put forward for a new NSF project.
This project would bring these activities together to provide a research
capability that reflects our members’ interests, and that would link
with existing research establishments that do not have our flexibility
and low overheads.
We have decided
to call this Sustainability Science, which is seen as a process of using
science to bring about reconciliation between human activities and the
natural world.
Website
The Office
Manager, Sue Gilbert, has been responsible for major improvements in NSF’s
Website (www.natsoc.org.au) in recent weeks.
Administration
and finance highlights
There are
97 current financial members. This figure was around 120 this time last
year. In the meantime we report that, during the last financial year,
our turnover exceeded $70,000 the highest on record.
As a result
of a generous donation from one of our members, we have been able to employ
an Office Manager for the first time and this has made an enormous difference
to our operations, particularly in the area of marketing activities (see
new web site and food program) and publishing generally.
During the
year we moved offices from one end of the Weston Laboratories to the other.
We lost our air conditioning but gained more space and after a bit of
furniture juggling, we now have a very comfortable office arrangement.
We have also purchased two new computers and, with the assistance of a
new volunteer, Paul Wallace, we have been able to network all our computers
and configure them in a more ‘user-friendly’ way.
Stephen Boyden
Co-ordinator
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Ape
Man: the story of human evolution
Author: Robin
McKie
Publisher: BBC 2000
Reviewed
by Keith Thomas
I have been
reading Ape Man: the story of human evolution published in the
UK last year by the BBC. The author is Robin McKie, science editor of
the Observer, so it should be good. And it is.
In this review
I will share with you some of McKie’s information because he brings
out some useful evidence relevant to current debates, including the perennial
ones of whether our “natural” diet is vegetarian or omnivorous,
whether the same physical fitness criteria apply to women as to men and
what sort of physical exercise we can do which captures the essence of
our evolutionary heritage. McKie also touches on the sort of mental and
emotional qualities which led to survival through the rigours of the evolutionary
period. (Devise your own mental exercises to complement your physical
exercises!)
The page
references below are to McKie’s book which I urge you to read if
you are at all interested in human evolution but not already a graduate
in this area. Needless to say, I take full responsibility for the following
interpretation. I am not a scientist and a more expert reader of McKie’s
book and the numerous sources he cites might lead to a different, more
sophisticated interpretation than that which follows. I add the caution
that I have ignored the usual conventions concerning quotations and ellipses
where they would impede the flow of my text. Please check McKie’s
book for the precise words and the context.
In terms
of diet, the story is that our pre-Homo ancestors were herbivorous and
our digestive system is basically unchanged since that time. However,
there were immense advantages in our ancestors also consuming meat - indeed,
without consuming meat we might still be the australopithecine species
which preceded Homo and flourished up to 2m years ago.
The jumping-off
point is that climate change gave our ancestors the stark alternative:
adapt or perish. Some of our ancestors adapted, becoming tool makers and
omnivores rather than herbivores. They also survived.
McKie quotes
Richard Potts: “About 2.5m years ago, hominids encountered great
fluctuations in the climate. At the same time we see the appearance of
stone tools. That is no coincidence. They indicate that at least one species
of hominid was responding to these changes by becoming even more adaptable,
rather than becoming specialized in the way that robustus and bosei did.
By making tools, dietary choices became even greater. Not only could people
skin the large dead and doubtless smelly carcasses they occasionally found,
they could crack open their bones for marrow. In addition tools would
have helped pound and break down vegetables and nuts that could otherwise
only have been eaten by animals with specialized dentures, and also helped
dig up tubers which are rich in protein and calories. Just as australopithecines
responded to oscillating climates by walking, by becoming more versatile
movers, so did the first members of the Homo line 2 million years later.
They made tools and became more versatile eaters” [66f]. The richer
diet led to bigger brains, bigger brains led to intellectual growth and
intellectual growth led to: (1) improved memory (including mental resource
maps of the terrain and the seasons), (2) the ability to co-operate and
take advantage of social complexity, (3) the ability to solve problems
which led to the ability to create and use tools. These benefits in turn
led to a more reliable diet which was also richer [114]. “We became
less tethered to our habitats... Our ancestors’ behaviour was becoming
increasingly diverse, our menus more adventurous. Mankind was on the move.”
[67] Meat eaters were more free to migrate so they could flourish and
survive, herbivores being more limited to the spread of their familiar
staple plants [96]. The complexity of societies, the importance of memory
and skills led to adults having a benefit beyond their reproductive age
- they had knowledge and culture (wisdom) to pass on, not just physical
genes[115].
The second
point concerns the evolution of human society and the biological basis
of differentiation of male and female roles.
Humans had
a small pelvic gap for the birth canal, yet a more intelligent species
would have a large head to accommodate the large brain. A larger head
could not fit through the small pelvic gap. The evolutionary response
was twofold: (a) for humans to be born while their brain was still relatively
small. This means that mothers need to provide intensive care (suckling,
comfort, nurturing, warmth) while the brain develops. If mothers are devoting
themselves to this nurturing, they need the reliable and sustained support
of others - the “family” or “tribe” [88]. The second
response was (b) for women to evolve wider hips. This development survives
today: women are less efficient bipedalists than men. Men were, therefore,
comparatively better shaped than women for many of the activities of being
the provider [89]. Because human brains take years to develop, there is
a need for sustained social bonds to support the maturing human for the
duration of its immaturity (i.e., its childhood).
The third
point concerns the physical activities of our ancestors. “As well
as the caring nature of Neanderthal society, the numerous injuries on
their skeletons pointed to a dangerous, perhaps violent, side to their
lives. Trinkaus ... analyzed the bones of 17 Neanderthals - individuals
who had a staggering total of 27 traumatic wounds. They were mostly injured
to the head and upper body, almost no lower limb injuries. I got a statistical
fit with rodeo riders; they get thrown off their animals a lot. In other
words, it looked like Neanderthals were being flung around and badly hurt
by the creatures that they hunted. Not for them the low- risk, careful
business of stalking and spearing. They went in for the kill and paid
the consequences... These were people who had evolved a robust response
to the rigours of survival, creatures with physical prowess beyond the
aspirations of even the best Olympic athletes [157f].”
The fourth
point concerns the use of fire. This is important for us as the historical
timing of its regular use can guide us to decide whether our paleo diet
can - for scientific rather than aesthetic reasons - validly include cooked
meat. Although there is some evidence of the use of fire as a defence
against predators 1.3 - 1.4m years ago, this is contentious. Some hearths
and the remains of burnt bones have been found in China from 300,000 to
400,000 years ago. Other sites 500,000 years old have no signs of fire.
Fireplaces do not appear regularly until about 40,000 years ago [160],
just 1700 generations, not long in evolutionary terms.
The fifth
point concerns mental and emotional skills, apart from the animal-like
quick reactions and coordination. McKie’s account indicates that
people who were tenacious and innovative were survivors. More than that,
it was those who had social skills - who trusted others and were trusted
in return, who showed compassion [90, 154, 156-7], who sustained long-term
relationships of trust [80f] (and love?), who contributed to the group
who survived best of all. People with good memories and who organized
their thoughts in a way that could be communicated effectively (a) for
immediate practical purposes [124] and (b) down the generations, were
also at a premium. Remember, the oral tradition was the only tradition.
One could, on the evidence of McKie’s book, make an argument for
monogamy. I won’t do that but will go so far as to say that the qualities
I have just listed appear to be those that both sustained people in periods
of negligible change and enabled them to adapt and survive when change
was forced upon them.
There is
much more in McKie’s book to fascinate and inform. For me the underlying
message is that our modern pre-occupations with weight loss and body sculpting
trivialize the most wonderful story in the world. We can get far more
out of this story than a reduction in cellulite. Our challenge is to apply
evolutionary theory to the scientific evidence and so map out the essential
features of paleo life. We can then decide whether our 21st century, Western
prejudices, predilections and constraints rule out for us certain features
of the full paleo repertoire and how we apply to our lives those features
that we do not rule out.
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