"Optimism like pessimism, feeds on itself."
- Bob Brown, Optimism
Despite my attachment to the notion of a hope-free existence, sometimes a little bit of optimism creeps in and catches me by surprise. This happened the other day when I took to the stage as Mistress of Ceremonies at the Rally for the Forests in Brisbane/Meanjin on Jagera/Turrbal land.
Organised by the Bob Brown Foundation it was one of twelve such rallies occurring simultaneously around the country in which 7,000 people came out to protest the ongoing destruction of our native forests. These forests are habitat for extraordinary creatures like the greater glider and koalas, and carbon sinks for all that CO2 up there in the atmosphere.
White settlers Brisbane built Brisbane up from an incredible forest of Hoop Pine
trees (Araucaria cunninghamii) or Kumbartcho as they are called in the local language. These extraordinary living beings can reach 60 metres high and live up to 450 years. They were around when Australia was part of the supercontinent Gondwana, 500–550 million years ago, and are still here today - actual living dinosaurs, not dissimilar to the fabulous Bunya Pine trees with their trunks like solid elephant legs.
Trees like these sequester carbon and help tackle the climate crisis we find ourselves in the thick of. We now have more CO2 in the atmosphere than we’ve had
in at least 2 million years, that's about 1.7 million years before modern humans
evolved. And yet we continue to chop them down for agriculture, housing estates and mining. It's at the point now where this practice is threatening our own existence.
We had some powerful advocates for forests at our rally including Kate Patterson from Rising Tide, President of the Environment Council of Central Queensland Christine Carlisle, Max Fulham from Save Deongwar State Forest, Nicky Moffat from the Queensland Conservation Council, Greens Senator Larissa Waters, Uncle Adrian Burragubba from the Wangan and Jagalingou mob, and 13 year-old conservationist Spencer Hichen from Save Sunrise Glossies.
Spencer recently met with the legendary Jane Goodall as part of her Roots and Shoots program and is a tireless champion for the Glossy Black Cockatoos who live in around his home near Noosa, or at least they did until their habitat was destroyed for housing.
It can all get pretty depressing but Spencer is an inspiring young man who started his activism when he was just six years old by joining the Noosa Parks Association and the Queensland Koala Crusaders. One of his heroes, Bob Brown also started his life of activism aged six when he refused to eat his spinach and was locked up in a cell as punishment by his policeman father.
Bob was locked up again in 1982 along with 500 other folk protesting the proposed damming of the Franklin River by the Tasmanian Hydro-electric Commission. He soon segued from prisoner to politician when he was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament as the Independent Member for Dennison. Then in 1996 he was elected to the Australian Senate as the leader of the Australian Greens. I wouldn't be surprised if Spencer's career follows a similar path.
Back in 2015 I had the very great pleasure of interviewing Bob Brown in front of a packed audience at the Hayes Theatre in Potts Point about his book Optimism - reflections on a life of action. His insights were inspiring and the memory of them has prompted me to return to the book in this time of mounting crises.
Nearly a decade has passed since then and Bob is now nudging 90 but his book is full of stories of his steadfast resistance and the cheeky humour he has whilst holding his ground.
Back in 2012, on the 40th anniversary of the world's first Greens meeting in Hobart Town Hall, he gave the Green Oration in which he referred to his audience as "Fellow Earthlings" and copped a lot of flack for it from conservative quarters.
In that speech, Bob called for a Global Democracy with an overarching ideal of one person, one vote, one value, one planet. That value included a new economic order and a new social pact that depends on our collective will, our character and our commitment.
"The denial of the unsustainability of our current gluttony is a perverse by-product of our need to deny mortality."
- Bob Brown, Optimism
When he wrote the book he pointed out that 120% of Earth's resources were being used in the name of materialism. Today it is much higher. Our global consumer class already needs another 1.7 planets like ours to sustain it. Popular physicist Brian Cox concedes that ours may be the only habitable one in many universes. But if we continue on the path we are on the world's rainforests will be gone by the end of the century.
We have the power to stop this self-destructive trajectory. All we have to do is stand up for forests, for wildlife, for clean oceans and air and a more compassionate way of living.
Can we do this? Can we hold off on exploiting all of nature so that some is left for future generations? Can we truly care for each other as equals, not just now but with the forward thinking that will save our species? Our survival and that of all other plants and animals depends on it.