Time to think about a different society

I suppose it is not amazing that many visitors to the Bays over the past 50 years have exclaimed at the beauty of this area.

Some of these visitors have then moved here and then, as we all do, set about transforming their blocks to their own desires.

Perhaps it is not until you reach retirement that you can find the time to consider just what it is that makes places like this so beautiful.

Surely it is the other myriad of animal species beavering away all the time that have something to do with it?

Over the years, we have noticed changes to our area.

Possums of all sorts used to be here in abundance, sometimes driving us mad as they danced on the roof at night but now they are rarely seen.

We no longer have water dragons basking in our garden, probably due to the dogs which roam freely.

It must be great to zip around the Bays on a motor boat but I wonder what effect this has on the marine animals and the sea grasses in the waters beneath those vessels?

People think that fish cannot hear because they have no ears but in fact their ears are within their heads and they use their acute hearing to find a mate or food, as do the other larger marine animals out in the ocean, where seismic testing is expected to begin soon.

Sea grasses are thought of as just weeds and yet they play a very large part in collecting CO2, much more than mangroves do.

They both help to combat climate change and help to provide us with our seafood, which is also diminishing in this area.

These plants are often illegally removed from our foreshores for a view, or a sandy beach.

Insects are an essential part of our eco system.

Do you remember when a car excursion resulted in a filthy windscreen full of insect bodies.

This no longer occurs and scientists are very concerned about this loss.

Termites are a nuisance to us if they get into our homes but they are important vacuum cleaners in the bush, even providing us with new soil, as do worms which provide us with fertilizer as well.

Trees are home to so many species as well as lowering the temperature that it is amazing to see so many being felled.

So how much of our planet is left as really wild?

I read recently that 65 per cent of the animals using the earth are domesticated animals that were invented to serve us.

Thirty-two per cent of the planet is taken by the human animal, which leaves just three per cent for really wild animals.

Most wild animals today are just logos which we use to sell things, like the jaguar or the polar bear.

Is it perhaps time for us to think about a different sort of society, for surely, we cannot go on as we are?

Capitalism is failing us with its constant cries to grow the economy, grow the population, grow the housing market etc.

This constant growth is bound for failure because we live on a finite planet.

I don't know what other system but surely we should start thinking about these matters.

We cannot keep on improving our standard of living - when do we know that we've "got there"? Where is there?

Consider our overflowing bins each week.

We cannot go on collecting stuff just to fill holes in the ground.

We are supposed to be intelligent, so let's start a discussion about our one and only planet.

What can we do to retain the remaining beauty around us?

Let's think before it all disappears and our descendants are left in the resulting chaos.

Email, 9 May 2019

Margaret Lund, Woy Woy Bay