Jacqueline and I were out in Theford Forest fairly early this morning, brainstorming video content, book ideas and more.
The road we followed seemed to have no other travellers and seemed to have a perpetual, gentle leftward curve to it:
Beside us, the forest was seeking to regenerate itself in a way that seemed natural, exciting and hopeful:
Time amongst trees is never wasted.
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I’m always amazed at nature’s regenerative capabilities and it has always given me hope when all else around seems to be falling apart
It is hopeful that the most effective rewilding is just leaving Mother Earth alone so she can repair herself.
Reforestation is a far better form of carbon capture and storage than anything our technology has managed. Some scientists suggest a population peak as soon as 2030[1] with a steep decline thereafter, an phenomenon Ugo Bardi calls the Seneca cliff[2]. Hopefully we can mitigate the suffering inherent to such a rapid adjustment but ultimately it will benefit the rest of the biosphere massively.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437125000640
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_effect
A test comment to go to the queue
It’s the first day of Spring here in Tasmania and along with the prospect of cute (avian) chicks appearing in our garden, along with all the blossom on the trees and more weeds than I can shake a tractor/mower at, this lunchtime’s episode of ABC Radio National’s The World Today (equivalent to Radio 4’s World At One) included an interview with Dr Matthew Crocker from Deakin University regarding Australia’s national debt, which has just hit 1 Trillion $AUD.
Rather than the standard nonsense we’re all used to, Dr Crocker pointed out all the things that Richard would have said! The govt issues money and can always do so, bond interest will always get paid (the law says it must be paid and nobody can easily change that), this level of debt (50% of GDP) is easily managed and not actually a problem.
When asked about the ‘debt ceiling’ and how the USA has periods of not paying it’s employees, he pointed out that this limit on debt is simply a choice and that whereas the USA has to get the agreement of congress to increase it, in Australia there is a limit but it is simply set by the Treasurer who invariably raises it as required. It’s currently $1.2T.
He also said that when the govt were running surpluses at the turn of the century the banking system actually asked the government to issue bonds to help them operate.
I had a look a Dr Crocker’s web page at Deakin and also watched an 8 minute video of him explaining about governments and money (links below). The format of the video is interesting, he answers question nominally written on cards which works well.
So there is hope!
https://experts.deakin.edu.au/71977-matthew-crocker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqsMGUH8Phk
Very good.
Thanks!
Interesting. He has just finished a PhD on the history of money in Australia.
https://experts.deakin.edu.au/71977-matthew-crocker
Here is his article from 2024 on the Australian central bank paying interest on the ballooning amount held on central bank reserve accounts, with the amount out paid increasing as the base rate rises, and asking if that money is could be feeding inflation by pumping cash into the economy.
https://theconversation.com/what-if-the-reserve-bank-itself-has-been-feeding-inflation-an-economist-explains-219107
I like the sound of his thinking.
Oh, and in Australia, they are worried that their s0-called “national debt” has reached the dizzy height of A$1 trillion, or 50% of GDP. Just a few more arbitrary figures to worry about unnecessarily.
https://theconversation.com/australias-government-now-has-1-trillion-in-debt-four-charts-on-how-we-got-here-and-its-cost-290443
Agreed
It seems he was a masters student of Stephanie Kelton at Adelaide.
Perhaps some evidence of a new generation of students coming through having heard more coherent macroeconomic analysis that the usual neoliberal dogmas.
The alternative would be to carry on doing the same old things and expecting a different result.
Thanks, Andrew.
No other travellers? Didn’t you look behind you to see the merry throng of the likeminded? 🙂
There were none…
This is a poem I wrote during lockdown in 2020
The Tree
I grew from a seed
I flourished in this place
My roots entwined with
My father, my mother,
Sisters and brothers
I am entangled with neighbours
From here I reached out
Drawing light from the sun
Sustained in this place
My branches entwined
With friends far away
Through love
We are one
I like it
And what I was reflecting on when looking at these self-sown trees yesterday
I wrote it after a walk through a wood.
https://youtu.be/m1xkabQDpIA?si=ICM8dK5rZisG3h7L
I thought you might like this short video version of the poem.
Very good.
It’s weird how much many people admire nature.
And at the same time don’t care about it at all.
Recently I’ve read 2 articles about cruise ships.
One was about a weird trend, that people seemingly try to hide little rubber ducks everywhere on those ships and making a photo of them.
The organizers of those cruises are worried about “the environmental pollution” the disposal of these rubber ducks are causing.
The second one was about a very remote set of islands in the pacific, the Marquesas.
The description sounds really beautiful and the photos were also very nice.
And in NONE of these articles I’ve found a single word criticizing the pollution these cruises are causing, that endangers this beauty of nature.
I really don’t know why people think they have the god-given right to go anywhere they like for merely some days of fun / relaxation while massively polluting the thing they are going there for.
A good taxation sure could help there a lot already if not a ban would be even better.
And as your pictures point out, you often really don’t have to go far at all to see magical / romantic things. 🙂
Much to agree with