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• 1 2021-03-04T04:09:38-08:00 Chapter 5 Bush Fire: Scientific Concept –Photo and Comments 32 John W plain 2021-04-24T19:42:14-07:00 Chapter 5
  
  Bushfire – Photo and Scientific View
  ‘Marginal world’ may be interpreted, geographically, as a periphery away from where most people live. In Europe, as young people are leaving for the cities, large parts of the countryside – the periphery; marginal world – are abandoned. Old men and women are left to tender their gardens and till the lands. Death is not far away. But Europeans see this as an opportunity to rebuild. Wisely, they regenerate these forlorn farmlands back to wilder wetlands, greener forests, cleaner coasts and opener seas; re-populated them with eagles, bisons and wild bees; to restore its original biodiversity and turn them into eco-tourist hotspots, so that visitors can once again experience wildlife as their forebears once did. In this way, the marginal world regains its desirability.
  
  In Australia, internal human migration takes a different direction from that of Europe when COVID hits. Australians, resilient as always, undeterred by the apocalyptic 2019/20 bush fire, are moving to the countryside. But such moves need careful plannings in order to avoid another catastrophe and to minimise environmental footprints. 
  
  In a recently published natural science article, titled ‘Apocalypse now: Australian bushfires and the future of urban settlements,’ Barbara Norman et al argue that the catastrophic bushfires were caused by ‘… human civilization going beyond biophysical limits leading to collapse. The apocalypse has been a part of much global ecological concern with accelerating climate change and the transgression of planetary boundaries.’
  
  First, Norman’s group proposes that we should not indiscriminately continue with ‘hazard reduction burning,’ which is not conducive to biodiversity as well as risky to nearby settlements. Instead, we should adopt a fire management plan that is more nuanced and smaller in scale that is closer to indigenous techniques; including the regeneration of forests. 
  
  Other proposals include: retreat from fire-prone areas; rebuild with fire-resistant materials; zero carbon villages, townships and regional centres along major train lines; better regional amenities and services; local solar facilities and electric vehicle rechargers; water sensitive/recycling plants. Eventually, such innovations can flow back to major urban centres, rendering them more sustainable. 
  
  
  Work Cited
  Norman, B., Newman, P. & Steffen, W. “Apocalypse now: Australian bushfires and the future of urban settlements.” npj Urban Sustain, vol. 1, issue 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-020-00013-7
  
   
   
• 1 2018-10-18T00:53:05-07:00 Ashleigh- note 4 3 plain 2018-10-18T01:02:54-07:00 The designation of nature as a resource is to denote that its primary function is to be useful to humankind. This way of thinking is highly problematic, not only in its anthropocentrism, but also in that these ideas manifest in action (or, as the case may be, inaction), causing damaging effects. For example, a number of animal species are going (or have already gone) extinct without any sort of fuss, purely because we are apathetic since the existence of these species does not directly, or measurably, benefit us. Animals such as the Eastern Hare Wallaby and Desert Rat-Kangaroo have vanished in the last century without public-outcry, as species value is typically determined by how greatly we need or esteem them.
  Even in the case of highly-valued animals, such as elephants, their value is not inherently attributed, but earned by the economic benefits they provide, through tourism, and also their general popularity, which ensures their conservation is prioritised. Elephants are a keystone species that fulfil many necessary ecosystem functions, and yet their merit, like that of the majority of species, is fixed in association with the anthropocentric conception of worth. Particularly in the nineteenth century, animal were "grouped into useful and harmful ones. Protection... was only extended to the useful species. " (Gross, 2011).
  
  Fortunately, we are starting to modify our notions of value in relation to species. Current projects, such as the Re-wilding Europe project, are working to reintroduce natural processes to landscapes, and renew environmental appreciation. They seek to re-center nature as being valuable in its own right, without needing to have value attributed to it.
  They expose the interaction between biotic and abiotic environmental components, and situate humanity within this landscape, rather than in charge of it. These efforts, which shift traditional concepts of value-based species conservation, have the additional benefit of reducing the threat of species extinction by removing the detrimental narratives of conservation for the sake of utility.
  
  Gross, M. (2011). Valuing Nature. Cell Press 21(14):525-527
  [Video]
  Re-Wilding Europe (2016). Making Europe A Wilder Place. Sourced from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyir6xQsQr0