Letter to the City of Banyule, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia re proposed alienation of part of the precious Banyule Wetlands.
Dear Banyule City Councillors,
I strongly oppose the proposal to alienate this unspoiled part of the Banyule Wetlands in the interests of a commercial “adventure” operation. The arguments are succinctly presented below.
(1). Stop the land-alienating rot - once it is gone it is gone forever. I have lived in Banyule for nearly 50 years but to date the biggest changes have been the beneficial Banksia Street diversion (easing traffic congestion) and beneficial residential towers near the Ivanhoe and Heidelberg railways stations (rational residential building upwards rather than land-alienating building outwards for which Australian cities are is notorious). However “They” who evidently won’t be satisfied until all of Australia is concreted over are now set to violate Banyule on a gigantic scale with the A$16 billion North East Link perversion [1]. The fight is on and we must fight to prevent any alienation of Banyule public land. Once it is gone it is gone forever.
(2). When in doubt leave it alone e.g. Rosanna Parklands violation. About 10 years ago there was a huge furore about the Banyule Council adding wide paths for bikes and powered wheel chairs to the beautiful Ellis Stone-designed Rosanna Parklands. The local residents lost that battle and the Council splurged about $0.7 million “improving” the parklands. In the event, from my observation bike use has been minimal and motorised wheel chair use almost non-existent.
(3). The area is sacred to the memory of the famed Heidelberg Impressionist School. The disputed area adjoins areas in which Council has provided modest installations illustrating famous Heidelberg School paintings of the area. This is another powerful reason not to alienate this area.
(4). The proposal violates the Eltham to Fairfield and thence Fairfield to Melbourne CBD walking track. Melbourne has lovely urban walking tracks e.g. the Darebin Trail and the Cherry Street grasslands reserve (cared for by the civilized Darebin Council), the lovely Fairfield to Collingwood walking tracks, and the lovely Merri Creek Trail. The proposal violates a central part of the Eltham to Melbourne CBD walking track.
(5). So many of us exercise by peaceful walking that does not impact others. Exercise is good and many of us peacefully exercise by walking in what is left of wild nature in Melbourne without impacting others. Older people in particular exercise by quiet walking that is good for the soul as well as the body.
(6). Threat to endangered species. The Banyule Flats is a vital repository for iconic trees [2] and endangered plants and animals e.g. the Studley Park hybrid gum (a fertile hybrid of the Red Gum and the Swamp Gum), the Powerful Owl and the swift parrot. Further land alienation in this area further threatens endangered plants and animals.
(7). The alienation will add to the huge contiguous NEL violation of Banyule. The related and contiguous NEL Project will destroy 25,000 trees including iconic trees such as the wonderful old Red Gum on Manningham Road/Banksia Street near the proposed alienation [2]. In March 2020 I published an article overseas on the NEL monstrosity that stated in part: “ Beautiful Melbourne (capital of Victoria), that vies with Vancouver and Vienna for being the most liveable city in the world, is threatened with a fiscally, morally and environmentally perverse $16 billion super-highway North East Link (NEL) project that is set to carve a swathe through its beautiful , tree-rich City of Banyule (aka Heidelberg), the former home of the famed Heidelberg School of Australian Impressionist painters, with 25,000 trees to be felled including an ancient River Red Gum that I adore [see [2]]. Although local government councils of the adjacent Cities of Banyule, Whitehorse, Boroondara and Manningham, have taken legal action in an attempt to constrain the NEL project, this super-highway project is supported at both the State and Federal level by the 2 major political groupings, namely the conservative Liberal Party-National Party Coalition (in opposition in the state of Victoria, but in government Federally) and the centrist Labor Party (in government in Victoria but in opposition Federally). Accordingly, this monolithic monstrosity seems unstoppable and indeed the Labor Government of the state of Victoria has announced that works are set to start in 2021… (1). Cost – A$16 billion for a dirty and deadly super-highway versus 5,246 new hospital beds... (2). Cost – A$16 billion for a dirty and deadly super-highway versus trying to save 85,000 annual preventable deaths in Australia… (3). Cost – A$16 billion for a dirty and deadly super-highway versus sorely needed funding for free child education... (4). The A$16 billion NEL cost adds a one-off A$8 billion to Australia’s horrendous and inescapable Carbon Debt of US$5 trillion (A$7.7 trillion) that is increasing at US$0.7 trillion per year… (5). An extra 50 annual air pollution deaths from the NEL project… (6). Pollution deaths aside, rail transport can be 10 times more energy efficient than the private car, ergo 100% renewable energy powered rail and not roads… (7). 25,000 trees are planned to be removed or at risk of being removed by the NEL project… (8). Steel and concrete use is hard to avoid for tall buildings – but potentially avoidable with green steel and green cement alternatives and readily avoidable by scrapping a climate criminal super-highway… (9). How necessary are these daily 100,000 vehicle trips on the proposed NEL? Numerous alternatives from using trains and staggered use of highways to staying home and reading a book [the bicentennial advice of Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White] [1].
(8). Air pollution kills 9 million people each year including 10,000 Australians – with the NEL this will become a highly polluted spot. The huge air pollution from the NEL tunnel will be deposited over the Banyule Wetland and what with an adjoining 6-lane Banksia Street /Manningham Road highway this will make the proposed area a high air pollution zone. Air pollution kills 9 million people each year including about 10,000 Londoners, 10,000 Australians and 75,000 people world-wide due to the long-term effects of toxic pollutants from the burning of Australia’s world-leading coal exports [3, 4]. This area is unfit for the vigorous exercise contemplated.
(9). Banyule City Council must do due diligence over potential massive liabilities from the proposed project and park alienation. Item #8 air pollution concerns in particular, and the risks associated with “adventure tree scaling” indicate massive potential liabilities for the Banyule City Council and hence ratepayers.
(10). The fundamental “foot in the door” argument re downhill progression to degradation. The proposed alienation of precious park land may seem modest but there are powerful, fundamental “foot in the door” arguments against any alienation i.e the alienation may be small but bigger alienations may well follow. Indeed the disastrous consequences of the vastly greater but contiguous NEL super-highway project well illustrate this Gadarene progression [1]. After the initial alienation occurs, the resultant further degradation provides a more compelling argument for further alienation and degradation. Thus, for example, economic pragmatists argue that all countries use the resources with which they are endowed, and that Australia should be able to exploit its huge coal , gas and iron ore resources. Unfortunately such exploitation doesn’t stop there, and Australia is among world leaders in 16 areas of environmental vandalism and climate criminality, namely Australia is among world leaders for the following 16 climate criminal activities or parameters: (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports, (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing, deforestation and ecocide, (7) speciescide or species extinction], (8) coral reef destruction , (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming impacting on krill stocks , (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance, (11) per capita Carbon Debt, (12) ultimately GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, (14) climate genocide and approach towards omnicide and terracide, (15) increasing Domestic GHG pollution despite Paris commitments to lower GHG pollution, and (16) complicity in 9 million annual air pollution deaths from burning carbon fuels, Australia’s share being 75,000 overseas and 10,000 Domestically. Australia with 0.33% of the world’s population contributes 5.4% of global GHG pollution (including that due to the burning of Australia’s world leading gas and coal exports) [1, 5].
(11). Banyule City Council should live up to its declaration of a Climate Emergency and implicit environmental protection. Banyule City Council has laudably joined a large number of local governments around the world in declaring a Climate Emergency. However despite mounting some legal resistance it has failed to stop the gross environmental vandalism of the NEL, presumably because it is too big physically and politically. Will the Banyule City Council fail to stop the present environment-alienating proposal because it is perceived as too small to matter? Banyule City Council should live up to its declaration of a Climate Emergency, and the implicit support for environmental protection, by rejecting the proposal.
(12). Bottom line: you cannot destroy what you cannot replace. After reading Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” [6] about 60 years ago as a science student at university I was immediately converted to preservation of the Biosphere, of species and ecosystems. The fundamental moral conclusion was “you cannot destroy what you cannot replace”. All species and ecosystems are priceless. Any speciescide or ecocide is intolerable – already the species extinction rate is 100-1,000 times greater than normal. Unfortunately the Gadarene and neoliberal “They” are in charge and remorselessly increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. This means to me as a scientist that a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise is effectively unavoidable. However we are obliged to do everything we can to make the future “less bad” for our children, grandchildren and future generations. We must save the remnant Banyule Flats from any further alienation.
I would respectfully urge the Banyule City Council to oppose the proposed alienation, and indeed to oppose any alienation of the Banyule Flats.
References.
[1]. Gideon Polya, “Melbourne’s North East Link Super-Highway Project – environmental vandalism & Australian-killing perversion”, Countercurrents, 9 March 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/melbournes-north-east-link-super-highway-project-environmental-vandalism-australian-killing-perversion/ .
[2]. “Victorian Tree of the Year”, National Trust, 2019: https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/treeoftheyear/ .
[3]. “Nearly 9,500 deaths a year – study reveals impact of air pollution”, Urbs.London, 15 July 2015: http://urbs.london/nearly-9500-deaths-a-year-study-reveals-impact-of-air-pollution/ .
[4]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Methane leakage makes Australia a world leading per capita greenhouse gas polluter”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/methane-leakage-makes-australia-a-world-leading-per-capita-greenhouse-gas-polluter .
[6]. Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring”, Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya [contact details; 9 December 2020].
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: https://countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see the BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ). He has recently published Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2020; Søren Roest Korsgaard, Jerry Day, Paul Craig Roberts, James Corbett, Gideon Polya, John Remington Graham, and Reiner Fuellmich, “The Most Dangerous Book Ever Published: Deadly Deception Exposed!”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, October 2020; and Gideon Polya, "Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions", Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2021. When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .