About Me
Dave Clarke, writer of the Ramblings of a Bush Philosopher
The page created about early 2002, modified 2009/06/16
Contact: email daveclarkecb@yahoo.com
Since about 1985 I've been writing letters to the editors of
local, state, and Australian national newspapers. A good percentage
of the letters have been printed, so I suppose that means that the
editors considered the letters to be of interest to the public. Perhaps had
they not I would never have written these Internet pages.
|
My family and me
I am the one with the grey beard
|
|
|
|
| |
One of my hobbies is photography
|
|
There are a huge number of subjects about which I know very little.
I write about those few subjects of which I have some knowledge.
These pages serve me as a reference, I often look back at things
I've written to fill in some detail I had forgotten, or check on where the
information came from.
They have helped me,
by allowing me to put thoughts into writing, decide what I believe to be
right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable; and decide on 'my view of
the world'.
The fact that I rarely find that something I wrote years earlier does not
suit my current beliefs is interesting; this could mean that make few
mistakes, more likely it means that I am old and fixed in my ideas.
The structure of hypertext reference pages is ideal for filing ideas under
headings and linking them together, allowing ready information retreval.
My background
I was born in the mid 1940s near Adelaide in South Australia.
For eight years after leaving school at age 15 I worked on the family
dairy farm.
The life of a dairy farmer is hard and the hours are long – I got a job
with the Adelaide Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
After realising that working as a fireman suited me no better than
did dairy farming I lived
and worked in the bush in the mineral exploration industry for a while, finding
that a year in the Australian bush living under canvas can be a great learning
experience as well as very enjoyable. In this period I also did a seven week
stint studying geology
at a summer school in the University of Tasmania and travelled
overseas for eight months, returning from Europe by the overland rout via
Yugoslavia (as it was then), Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The last thirty years of my 'working' life was in the hydrogeology
(groundwater) field.
I do not have tertiary (university) qualifications, but have written two
books in Elsevier's
Developments in Groundwater Science series: "Microcomputer Programs
for Groundwater Studies" and "Groundwater Discharge Tests: Simulation
and Analysis"
Since 'retiring' most of my time is taken up with planting and looking after
native trees on the family property, Elysium,
and on roadsides, removing feral trees from
public lands, taking care of the family vineyard and olive orchard, reading,
writing to newspapers and politicians, and writing this and other Internet
sites.
My greatest concern
I believe that our civilization is quite
unsustainable and is heading toward a catastrophic
collapse due to climate
change or by one or a combination of those unsustainability
problems listed by Jared Diamond in his book Collapse and repeated
here.
Such a collapse would probably include terrible wars, mass migrations,
famines, and
losses to our culture; at worst I can imagine a fall back to barbarism.
Of course it is not only humanity that will suffer due to the
errors of humanity; climate change will cause the extinction of many species;
not, I suspect, including humanity.
If our civilisation does collapse, and we sink into barbarism, then
climbing back to a civilized state could be very arduous, because all
the easily mined fuels and mineral resources will have gone – they have
been mined out by our society.
On the other hand, if our civilisation does not collapse, climate change
will result in one of the greatest mass extinctions in palaentological
history.
|
The family property, 'Elysium', in the Clare Valley of 'Mid North' South
Australia has a total area of 46ha. It includes 2ha of shiraz wine-grape
vines, about 5ha of olive trees, several plantations of closely spaced
eucalypt hardwood trees, and a number of
fruit and nut trees.
My intention is to cover most of the remainder with open woodland
with at least one large tree for each 400m2, about
1000 trees in all.
When these trees mature they will begin to be sustainably harvested for
firewood, with planting continuing
so that there is always a range from seedlings to adult trees.
The area beneath and between the trees will be available for grazing
animals.
There are several photos of Elysium below.
Clare trees
is a page I have written detailing my efforts at tree growing on Elysium.
|
George Monbiot once wrote "Show me an environmentalist and I'll show you a
hypocrite". He had a point. A lot of those who preach about the environment
are responsible for releasing a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
For example, pop singers write songs about saving the world and then tour
the world in private jet planes singing their songs.
Famous environmentalists continually fly
around the world giving talks on environmental responsibility. Of course we
must consider the point carefully - how much good do they do compared to how
much bad? Perhaps if they did not fly around the world so much they would
achieve much less?
My approach to the environment
First I should say that I owe more than I can ever repay to my wife, Denece,
for her never ending support and help.
Climate change is the greatest
disaster
Man has ever faced. Most Australians seem not to care enough to change their
greenhouse gas producing habits.
I must admit that in the past I have been content to do more about reducing
CO2 emissions than most other people; partly due to Monbiot's statement
mentioned above I have come to believe that being a little more responsible
than most is not enough, one should do as much as one can.
I would like the Earth of the future to be not greatly inferior to the one
that I know and Love.
The list below I compiled partly because I wanted to make a list for my
own interest, and partly in the hope that it might give others some ideas
that they may not have already thought of.
|
| |
Our solar photovoltaic panels and solar water heater at Crystal Brook
|
|
|
|
| |
A small car with occasional use of a trailer will produce less CO2 than a big
car. This Mazda 121 has only a 1300mL engine, can comfortably tow a trailer
with a 500kg load, and as of February 2006 has done about 160 000km and
is still going strong. Quality is more important than quantity!
|
|
|
|
| |
Revegetation we have done on one of many Crystal Brook roadsides
|
|
|
|
| |
Some of the native eucalypt trees that we have planted on our property,
'Elysium'.
|
|
|
|
| |
At Elysium our hot water comes from this solar panel in the warmer half of
the year and from the wood-fuelled heater in the background when the sun is
not shining; no fossil fuels needed.
|
|
|
|
| |
More of the eucalypts that we have planted at Elysium.
Self-sown leucoxylon in the foreground, behind those are camaldulensis,
cladocalyx, and globulus; in the background are Pinus radiata that
were on the property before we bought it.
|
|
|
|
| |
Wattle Point wind farm on Yorke Peninsula. Wind power is not 'the
answer' to greenhouse/climate change, it is 'a small part of the
answer'.
I do what I can to support
wind power.
|
|
My efforts to become a more environmentally responsible citizen
I have listed many actions that governments, industry, and individuals
can take to limit their greenhouse impact
here.
Of course I try to follow my own suggestions.
- Trees
Trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Trees on roadsides
With help from family and friends, I have planted trees on all
available roadsides within several kilometres of my home.
(Photo at right)
- Woodlot
I am planting trees on the family property, '
Elysium'
- Controlling feral plants I have killed most of the feral
pepper trees along the creek at
Bowman Park
and some other areas around Crystal Brook to allow native trees to recover.
- Cellar A project that I have in the planning stage (2006/02/19)
is building a cellar based on
a buried 12m shipping container. The earth over to top is to be supported by
a concrete vault that will be supported by the container while
the concrete sets. If
this is successful I will place the details on an Internet page so that others
may copy it. A cellar, at least in an area with a moderate climate, needs no
heating or cooling and thus can save a huge amount of energy and greenhouse
carbon dioxide in the long term.
- Transport
There are a number of things that can be done to
minimise ones greenhouse impact.
- Minimise car use
I try to only use a car when there
is no reasonable alternative and walk or ride a bicycle when I can.
- Use a small car rather than a big car
Use a trailer when the car is not big enough. (Photo at right)
- Use public transport
When walking or cycling is impractical and when available.
(There is very little public transport in my area.)
- Avoid flying My wife and I like travelling, we are
planning holidays in Vietnam in late 2006 and probably New Zealand in 2007.
We are not saints.
- Electricity
- Solar water heater
We have had a solar water heater on our house for about 30 years, and have
more recently installed one at Elysium. They have
not only saved lots of carbon dioxide, but have saved us a bucket of money.
(Photos at right)
- Solar photovoltaics
We have recently installed 1kW of panels at our home. (Photo at right)
- Green electricity We buy green 100% green electricity.
- Heating/cooling
-
Wood
fire heating We rarely use any other form of space heating.
- Evaporative air conditioning We only use the more energy
consuming heat-pump (reverse cycle) air conditioning at the rare times when
humidity is too high for the evaporative air conditioning to work.
- Use natural heating/cooling
We try to minimise the need for home heating and cooling by opening and
closing windows. In winter we open the house at the warmest time of day; in
summer we open the house in the coolest time of day.
- Rain water We catch most of the rain that falls on our roof.
This saves a little water from the over-taxed Murray river.
- An effort to change the World
A citizen's participation in democracy should not be limited to voting.
I have heard advice that there is no use
worrying yourself over things that you cannot change; this is good advice, but
it should not stop you from trying to change those things that are very
difficult to change. If you want something done, do it yourself. If you
try you may fail, if you do not try you will certainly achieve nothing.
- Lots of letters to newspapers
- Lots of letters to politicians
- I have stood for parliament twice
- Maintaining several Internet sites largely devoted to environmental
matters
- Boiling water
When we make tea or coffee, we try to not boil any more water
than is needed.
- Refrigerator/freezer
We replaced an old refrigerator with a modern and more energy efficient
one. We are intending (early 2006) to similarly replace an old freezer.
I have used my
Greenhouse impact calculator to calculate how much CO2 I
expect my wife and I to be responsible for releasing into the atmosphere in
2006. This section was written in February 2006 and updated in August 2006.
I strongly recommend this exercise to everyone. I learned a lot from doing
it. (Most of the figures are at least to some extent estimates.)
| 2006
|
|---|
| Activity | kg CO2 |
|---|
| Holiday in Vietnam | Air travel
| 4600 |
|
| Internal travel | 1000
| Vietnam total 5600
|
| Holiday in Western Australia | Air travel
| 840 |
|
| Car travel | 720
| WA total 1560
|
| Use of cars | Toyota Corona
| 500 |
|
| Mazda 121 | 1800
| Vehicles total 2300
|
| Electricity consumption | At home
| 2900 |
|
| At Elysium | 1100
| Elec. consumption total 4000
|
| Building concrete cellar | Cement
| 4500 |
|
| Steel | 1000
| Cellar total 5500
|
| Miscellaneous | (Guess)
| 500
|
| Gross total |
19 460 |
|
|---|
| Renewable electricity credits
| Photovoltaic panels | -1825
|
|
| AGL green electricity | -3450
| Elec. credit total -5275
|
| Net total | 14 185 |
=14.2 tonnes
|
|---|
This table shows how much impact holidays involving air travel have on one's
greenhouse gas production. The holiday in Vietnam for two people,
at 5600kg of CO2, is 29% of our gross greenhouse gas production for 2006!
Note on the cellar, above. We built a large
cellar based on a buried
concrete tank in 2006. Producing the cement and steel for the cellar released
something like five and a half tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
My page on Wind Power in South Australia discusses the
CO2 implications of cement manufacture a bit more and contains some
references.
This is a big, one-off, boost to our greenhouse gas
production, but should cut our annual greenhouse production from now on by
reducing the need for air conditioning. It will also provide a large cool
storage space that will not require energy and therefore will not be
responsible for producing CO2 for many years.
There is more on this cellar at
Ramblings Australia.
| 2007
|
|---|
| Activity | kg CO2 |
|---|
| Use of cars | Honda Jazz
| 1800 |
|
| Mazda 121 | 600
| Vehicles total 2400
|
| Electricity consumption | At home
| 2900 |
|
| At Elysium | 1100
| Elec. consumption total 4000
|
| Miscellaneous | (Guess)
| 500
|
| Gross total |
6 900 |
|
|---|
| Renewable electricity credits
| Photovoltaic panels | -1800
|
|
| AGL green electricity | -3500
| Elec. credit total -5300
|
| Net total | 1 600 |
=1.6 tonnes |
|---|
Average annual CO2 production
|
|---|
| Who | How much CO2 released
(tonnes)
|
|---|
| Average global citizen | 1
|
| Average citizen if climate change is to be stopped | 0.3
|
| Average Australian household is directly responsible for | 14
|
| Per capita Australian CO2 including all sources, eg. mining,
manufacturing, office buildings, commercial transport, etc. | 27
|
| My wife and I (each) 2006 | 7
|
| My wife and I (each) 2007 | 0.8
|
I have read that the average global citizen is responsible for releasing
one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere each year (and that this must
be reduced to 0.3 tonnes if climate change is to be limited to a
acceptable level).
At seven tonnes each in 2006 my wife and I, like most Westerners, are
way ahead of the average, and we consider ourselves to be careful!
The average Australian household is directly responsible for about
14 tonnes per year, but I believe that if each person's share of
the CO2 from things, like manufacturing and mining, etc. was included,
the total would be around 27 tonnes per Australian per year.
I have only considered the CO2 that my wife and I are more
directly responsible for here.
I have used my
Greenhouse impact calculator to calculate the abatement from the tree
plantings on our family property, Elysium. This calculation was done in
February 2006.
| Plantation | No. trees | Ave. mass |
Annual % increase | kg CO2 |
|---|
| Bore | 150 | 100
| 40 | 5500
|
| One Hectare | 600 | 40
| 40 | 8800
|
| Bog | 100 | 60
| 40 | 2200
|
| Dam paddock | 150 | 5
| 200 | 1375
|
| 25
| 300 | 40 | 2750
|
| New paddock | 300 | 1
| 250 | 690
|
| Open Woodland | 400
| 1 | 250 | 920
|
| 80 | 300
| 40 | 8800
|
| Totals | 1805 | | |
31 035 |
|---|
Notes on the table
|
I have calculated that the native eucalypts that I have planted increase in
mass by about 200% per year from the end of the first year to about year 5,
then increase by about 100% per year to year 10. Where I have used the
relatively low 40% annual increase rate the trees are close enough together
to compete fairly heavily.
These figures are obviously approximations.
These calculation do not include trees and shrubs that I have planted on
roadsides; nor the feral pepper trees that I have killed (they will
release CO2 to the atmosphere as they rot, but then they will eventually be
replaced by native trees).
The CO2 absorbed by the 'Open Woodland' planting will increase quickly as more
trees are planted and their average mass increases. These trees are spread
over about 35ha.
|
What I have learned out of this exercise
|
It has surprised me that the 1800 trees I have planted at Elysium are
probably only taking twice as much CO2 from the atmosphere as my wife and
I will be putting into the atmosphere in 2006.
A lot of land, time and expense has been devoted to these trees.
This shows how hard it can be
to balance one's greenhouse gas impact and convinces me more than ever that
our society should be taking greenhouse/climate change much more seriously.
I have also been surprised at how much my personal greenhouse
impact was reduced by subscribing to green electricity. Buying 630kWh
of electricity (at Elysium, from AGL) at 5.5c/hWh, a total of $34.65,
reduces my annual CO2 production by 700kg. This would have
to be by far the cheapest reduction that I have managed.
|
Of course I cannot list all those people who have influenced me, but some,
in no particular order, are:
- My parents
- My father and mother instilled in me a basic feel for justice, good,
decency, honesty, etc.
My mother tried to make me religious (Methodist), it didn't work; but
my parents tempered their religion with ethics.
I was fortunate in having parents who always, at least so it seems to me
now, considered my interests and needs at least on a par with their own.
- My wife Denece, my son Ken, and daughter Julia
- I owe Denece more than I can say.
Ken is one of the few people I feel I can argue a moral, scientific or
philosophical issue with.
Julia helps to keep me in touch with some big sections of society and ways
of thinking that I might otherwise neglect.
- Socrates, Plato, the ancient Greek philosophers in general
- The first recorded reasoned thoughts about ethics.
Every thinking person in the West is influenced by these people, I was
especially impressed by an early reading of Plato's Republic.
When I went back to Plato later in life I saw flaws in his logic.
- Sandy Dodds
- A friend with whom I have had many interesting discusions on ethics,
general philosophy, science, government, and other subjects.
- Zac Sibenaler, Don Armstrong, Bob Read and Mike Cobb
- I was privileged to work with these honest, intellegent, ethical and
kind men.
At one time or another they were all my bosses.
They didn't go very high in the public service because they held loyalty
to the people below them more important than sycophancy and ambition.
- Richard Dawkins
- Through his books, The God Delusion and The Blind Watchmaker.
- Christoper Hitchens
- Through his book, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
- Bertrand Russell
- Mainly through his book, A history of Western philosophy, but also
though humanitarianism and his example in pacifism
- Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma 'Great-Souled')
- Through his example, his 'civil disobedience' and peaceful protest,
his way of achieving great things without hurting anyone.
If only politicians tried to follow Gandhi's example in getting things
changed without blood-shed.
- Peter Singer
- Through his books: Animal rights, How ethical is Australia, How are we to
live?, One World: the ethics of globalisation
- The Dalia Lama, Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho
- Through his book, The Art of Happiness. He seems to have thoroughly
developed the Buddhist art of dispassionate analysis of life.
- Le Cao Dai
- Through his book: 'Memoirs of War: The Central Highlands, A North
Vietnamese Journal of Life on the Ho Chi Minh Trail 1965 - 1973';
(which I would highly recommend to anyone wanting a glimpse into the Vietnam
War from 'the other side'.)
- Jared Diamond
- Through his books: 'Guns, germs and steel' and Collapse
- Jesus
- His philosophy was weak but he had some great ideas. Anyone raised as a
Christian in a predominantly Christian country cannot help being
influenced by Jesus.
- Saint Francis of Assisi
- For his early (for the West) realisation that other animals are our
brothers
- Catherine Ingram
- In her book, 'In the Footsteps of Gandhi', which discusses a number of
people who have adopted Gandhi's methods of non-violence to bring about
change.
- The great early scientists, and science in general
- Too many to name; where would we be without them, and it?
- Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha, Buddhism)
- Like all the great religions, Buddhism includes a lot that is nonsensical,
however there is a lot that is admirable in Buddhism.
- Terry Lane
- An exceptionally insightful, well informed, and intelligent
ABC radio interviewer; now retired
- George Monbiot
- A journalist dedicated to honesty, truth and a future for the Earth.
Writes for the UK Bulletin and keeps an excellent Internet site.
- Hitler, Stalin, George W. Bush, John Winston Howard
- Negative influences;
twisted men who believed/believe that power and wealth are sufficient for
greatness, that war can be good, that governments can limit freedom of speech
and the press when they choose, that people can be locked up indefinitely
without trial if that is convenient, that immoral means can be justified
by the end (which may never be achieved), and that the only value of the
environment is the wealth that can be got from it. They were/are willing
to damage the world for what they see as
the short term 'good' of their nations.
|
|
Many of the books that have influenced my way of thinking are noted above
under Influences; others are below...
- Ethics in Practice: An Anthology
- Edited by Hugh LaFollette, Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies
- His Dark Materials
- A trilogy novel written by Philip Pullman: apart from being a very good
read, it gives a fascinating and novel interpretation of the
Judeo-Christian mythology.
It is the only story I've ever come across that explored the possibilities in
the concept of the overthrowing of God.
Published by Scholastic Children's Books.
(Had it been written about
Islam rather than Judeo-Christianity it
would probably have resulted in the burning of many embasies.)
|
About 1988 I started planting native trees along roadsides around my home
town, Crystal Brook.
Crystal Brook area
|
| |
Trees along Binney Road, Crystal Brook
|
|
|
|
| |
Bowman Park. Most of the lower trees on the left are feral pepper trees
|
|
The first road I planted was Binney Road west of Frith Road, photo at right.
I was not the first to plant native trees along this section of Binney Road,
the trees on the south side near Frith Road were already there. I don't know
who planted them.
Other roads
planted were Frith Road, Darbon Terrace, (and the two apparently unnamed
roads on the western
side of town that run between Binney and Darbon), parts of Bowman Park
Road, the main road to Adelaide (extension of Gadd Avenue), and the track
that runs along the creek near the Motocross track.
In the first year I planted Australian native trees that were mainly
endemic to Western Australia; after that I only planted species that were
endemic to the local area.
Feral pepper trees
Starting about 2002 I began trying to remove feral pepper trees along
the Crystal Brook. At first I cut and swabbed trees upstream of Lions Park,
not very successfully. Someone else later did more work on these trees.
In August 2003 I started killing pepper trees along the Crystal Brook at
Bowman Park. I kept the local council (Port Pirie Regional Council) fully
informed of what I was doing. To say the least, Council has not been
supportive, although they have agreed that the pepper trees should be
removed. I have discussed this in
my blog. I intend to continue this project until all the pepper trees
along the creek in Bowman Park are dead.
When the pepper trees are gone the native red gums (Eucalyptus
camaldulensis) will be able to take their place. Many red gums along
the Crystal Brook have suffered greatly from a lack of water in recent years.
Killing the pepper trees will make many thousands of litres of groundwater
available to the gum trees each year.
The method I have used to kill the pepper trees is drilling and
injecting
with Garlon. This is done by drilling 6mm diameter holes at least to the
cambium layer at about 5cm spacing around the trunk of the tree and then
immediately filling the holes with neat Garlon. The holes should slope
downward and should be as close to the base of the tree as possible.
I have been informed that glyphosate is just as effective as Garlon, but
have not yet tested this.
Clare area
| |
Getting ready to ringbark one of the larger of the aleppo pines in Spring
Gully Conservation Park
|
|
About 2000 my son Ken and I killed all the feral aleppo pines (Pinus
halepensis) in the section of Spring Gully Conservation Park near the
spring.
In early 2005 I got permission from the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council to
begin removing feral trees and revegetating with natives along a length of
the Clare to Blyth road. The section I am working on runs from the top of
the hill overlooking Blyth (Lat. S33.84039, Long. E138.55978) about a
kilometre down the hill (to Lat. S33.83981, Long. E138.54965).
Blyth Road east of this point is crowded with ferrel trees, mainly aleppo
pines, but also olive trees and others; there is very little native roadside
vegetation remaining between Scobie Road and the top of the hill.
There is a lot of native vegetation remaining along the section that I'm
working on, but there is also many ferrels: mainly aleppo pines, olives and
briars.
As of April 2006 I have killed most of the aleppo pines. They are easy to
kill. The smallest are easiest handled by pulling them out, larger ones can
be cut off at ground level, and the biggest can be ring-barked.
Olive trees are much harder to kill. Again, the smallest ones can be pulled
out, slightly larger ones can be dug out with a pick. Cutting larger
trees and immediately swabbing the stump with glyphosate might kill them.
I am intending to experiment with drilling an injecting (as used against
pepper trees, above) in future.
|
My wishes regarding the tail end of my life might as well be recorded here
as elsewhere.
If I ever mentally deteriorate, or suffer an injury which causes loss of
mental function, to the point that I am no longer recognisably the same
person, I want to be euthanised.
If that is not legal, I do not want to be kept alive by any means whatever;
if I am not capable of feeding and looking after myself, I want to be allowed
to die.
On death I would like my body, which will have ceased to be me in any
meaningful sense, to be treated and disposed of in the most environmentally
responsible manner possible.
I do not want to be injected with any preservatives (no embalming).
I would like to be buried in a shroud only; I consider a coffin to be an
entirely pointless waste of resources.
I do not want any show about my funeral and I'd prefer it to be attended
only by close family;
if it can be made into an enjoyable occasion, so much the better.
I certainly do not want any religious drivel spoken at any ceremony that
there might be.
I believe the my wife, Denece, feels the same way on these points.
Funeral Instructions, apologies to Martin Jabez Leese -
"No fuss or bother.
Above all, minimal cost.
If you can get away with digging a shallow hole in the garden at Elysium
then do so, I might do the plants some good.
Alternatively, have me stuffed and placed in your living room as a
conversation piece. (If I am holding a tray, people can put things on me.)"
From Pithy
sayings; there is great wisdom on that page.
|
