I have just finished reading Alexander von Humboldt’s biography. A celebrated German scientist known worldwide through his voluminous publications, he inspired Darwin’s travels and his Origin of the Species ,as well as the work of numerous significant naturalists and scientists who followed.
Witnessing the impacts of settlements and farming techniques in continents of the New World, as early as 1801 he warned that, ‘actions of humankind across the globe… could affect future generations’. He was the ‘first to explain the fundamental functions of the forest for the ecosystem and climate’.
Now, 220 years later, it seems that our federal government and their conservative voters continue to ignore the need to dramatically change our practices. They seem to believe that the world is primarily made for man to exploit and that much of nature’s ecosystems are expendable.
‘… and God said unto (Adam and Eve), “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”’ Genesis 1.28.
With increasing impacts of extreme weather events in Australia and worldwide, we need to consider the huge social and economic costs of continued inaction. Better late than never!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
