The 11th hour-


The canary is dead.



Aboriginal people talk about the library of the land. It is the storage place of knowledge and ways of doing things. They are very aware of the land and the ecosystems and their culture is based on connection to the land and respect. I think there is a lot to learn from their knowledge and experience in bush tucker and the environment.



There are also a lot of clever forward thinking farmers who are trying to survive and produce food and crops in an increasingly difficult environment. They are providing incredibly hi Tec and scientific approaches to soil management, organic growing methods, efficiency and better ways to do things, such as introducing wool free sheep breeds to avoid having to shear and to avoid all together practices like mulesing. I like watching Landline it is solutions based rather than just describing the problem.



The 11th hour is a valuable film that was needed to help shock Americans and other into recognising that the ecosystems everywhere are in trouble and that things need to change. Don’t get me wrong some Americans are very nice. I don’t like this style of film where it is all doom and gloom and shock for shock sake. I also hate emotional pornography where video images of actual people dying and children starving are callously strung together for effect and progenerate the exact insensitivity that they are supposedly fighting against. Having said that the participants interviewed were intelligent and passionate about first having an awareness of the parlous state of things - in particular climate change - and the need for immediate global action and individual action to help get things back on track.



There was nothing in the content that I disagree with, but also nothing that I didn’t already know.

I am doing Industrial Design because I want to make a difference and I think it is one of the main areas where you can contribute to addressing climate change and the other crises we face. This was one of the main motivators of my career change and clearly the biggest challenge facing us for the future.



Climate change is real and happening now and scientists agree on that. Human practices are negatively affecting the environment with drastic consequences. One of the worst things is the amount of CO2 that we pump into the atmosphere with the result the planet is warming. We could foreseeabley reach a point where the ice caps melt and even less sunlight is reflected with more temperature increase resulting in the top layers of the oceans dying and becoming stagnant pools, with even more temperature rising, sea levels rising, and crops and food production dying, and no more us or our friends the animals and plants.

Scary indeed.



This week the CSIRO and the Department of Meteorology make a dramatic statement for any public service organisation saying based on science and research and their 200 years of records in Australia and overseas science that “Climate change is real and happening now and 90% of scientists agree on it and that average temperatures in Australia have increased by 2%.” 2% is a massive increase and will have dramatic effects already we see the effects of drought in Australia and how traditional areas that used to get a lot of rain are not. The areas were we have traditionally grown crops may have to be radically changed.



Take that Tony Abbott and the rest of the redneck naysayers. There is a lot of power in denying things, or saying no to things and strangling things and restricting things, and standing in the way of positive change. There is a huge power in doing nothing. That is the greatest danger and greatest difficulty facing us in every endeavour and every crisis we face.



We are seeing catastrophic effects of abuse and neglect and financial abuse of the environment. We already see-: massive pollution of the oceans, the extinction of species, the dwindling of and growing prices of natural resources and their misuse, the illusion of us being somehow separate form nature, the exploitation and over reliance on fossil fuels, droughts and lack of rainfall and the lack of clean and regenerated drinking water, the destruction of 95% of the old growth forests and rainforests in particular and their place as natural lungs producing oxygen, dwindling protection from the sun and gamma rays, the abhorrent and unnecessary overuse of electricity, the dumbness of many Americans, 90% of big fish species lost, overfishing and by-catch destruction, soil degradation, salination, depletion of the aquifers without renewal, the power of large corporations, continuing male domination, social injustice, increased international instability, the myth of the economy and its dictatorship, lack of quality of life, increasing stress, consumption totally out of balance, greed, lack of ethics, weak ignorant politicians, and a lot of fucked up people in positions of power, the decreasing welfare of life, a lot of people living in terrible conditions, a lot of poor people worldwide ( including students) – to name just a few.



“Humans are the source of the problem we can be the foundation of the solution.”



“Contrast the way we make Kevlar versus the spider silently sitting at room temperature producing web that is stronger than steel.”



I have absolutely no doubt about the huge challenges facing us, nor any doubt that we have the potential to combat them. My imagination is more than capable of imagining the devastating consequences of what could come to me and my children if we don’t act now and act comprehensively. But I believe we have a fantastically potentially powerful arsenal that includes imagination, ingenuity, original creative thought and endeavour, innovation, technology, science, collaboration, the ability to communicate and the desire to influence the future positively and the ability to think about the future and to some extent predict it and test those predictions and find antidotes and solutions for them. Also I think there is a huge grass roots swell that wants to do whatever they can and do it now.



“Frugality = the wise use of resources. What we can do now”



There are many people who want to buy energy efficient and water wise products now, and to use solar power and clean power whenever possible. There are many off the shelf products available now such as energy safe fluoro light bulbs, and low flow toilets and showers. They could reduce energy use by 90% already. Insulation is still the best way to reduce home heating and cooling energy costs, not having air conditioning is the second. If you have your own sustainable home or business where you use solar and wind energy, produce little waste and reprocess it on site and grow your own vegetables – this can make an enormous savings in fossil fuel use, infrastructure, fuel use and make a huge difference in the urban areas, as building use a third of all energy and resources. If we all did tis now we’d use one tenth of resources we use now. Cradle to Cradle design is an amazing system to use form the beginning of a design. Small things can help too such as having your car tyres pumped up properly to reduce fuel use. We can choose not to buy much and choose not to buy things that are not going to last our lifetimes and work effectively and efficiently. We can choose not to have our identity and our meaning defined by what we buy. We can think about social justice and the welfare of all life in everything we do. We can reignite our passion for “place” our place where we live were we come from, where we are. There is a great opportunity for industrial designers in all these things.



“I know this sounds a bit hippy dippy but love is the force that makes us fully human “David Suzuki.