Thoughtful piece.

We are moving too far away from nature. Will future generation's only contact with nature be digital - linked only to movies like Avatar and computer games. Probably won't get that far - we are all becoming aware of this phenomonen and many people are moving back to the earth even if it is only in their backyard vegie patches. There is a resurgence of interest on TV about alternative lifestyles, organics, biodynamics and home grown or locally produced food.

Some kids in American cities don't even know milk comes from a cow. IMO we are too focussed on growing a Big Australia we will have to keep knocking down wilderness to accommodate the needs of growing populations.

You don't have to necessarily think in terms of the noble savage or aspire to isolation like Thoreau to realise that we are moving away from nature and in the way humans are not only part of the natural environment but have great influence over it - not all of it good.

Good on you Brian. This was obviously heart felt. I think you're a romantic is the Wordsworth tradition. No problem there.

I think you could be right re less contact with nature but because there are more of us, and each one of us still has some contact with nature, making in total, more contact with nature than we've ever had before.

You're quite right though Brian. There are people who are living an Avatar life. They think they can play guitar like Hendrix by playing Guitar Hero on a video game. Many kids see nature as 'something to overcome' - which isn't the right attitude.

Philosophically, I’m with Brian. However, Curmudgeon makes a valid point.

The fact is that the average Australian is not connected to the land, despite all the myths; the material life, not nature, is the be all and end all for most Australians. We are materialists, pure and simple.

If we really cared about Australia, the environment and wilderness, we would not be voting for the same politicians that we do. Both major parties are big population proponents; they are in the grip of developers whose greed will never be satisfied. They would have housing and shopping centres on every scrap of land available if they could. The quietly disappearing minor parties no longer worry about the environment as they desperately try to stay relevant to the mainstream, having lost the battle for the environment. We need to start looking for an entirely new political/voting system.

There was a TV program last night advising that we ‘had to’ prepare for a further 20 million people this century; and some money-grubber had come up with a low priced, boxy house totally unsuited to the Australian climate. I have no problem with reasonably priced housing for existing Australians, but the cargo cult attitude of building them to attract more people is lunacy.

We do not ‘have to’ import another 20 million people to a country which is mostly uninhabitable because of its harsh climate. We do not “have to’ get more people because of that old chestnut, ‘ageing population’. There was chuntering on the above-mentioned TV program about a rising birth rate. Rubbish! The crazy increase in population is down to completely and utterly suicidal immigration. Immigration has gone berserk.

brian you come from the city and long for isolation and spirits or whatever, I came from a tiny community completely isolated - phone calls were difficult and expensive, the "plane" came once a day, when we were lucky, radio was relayed, badly from "down south". Living on an island in the South Pacific sounds idyllic, till you learn the Beatles music has come and almost gone when you hear of it, scant medical services, no new books at the library.

By the time I was in my teens I was completely fed up with being disconnected with the world, everything took so long to do, no conveniences at all.

I love the city, would not live anywhere else, it is all so connected and everything is available - it is wonderful and rich with life and culture.

I don't feel like I miss anything, I go talk tot he fig tree, the lemon, and lime trees and the Bay tree in the garden, and they reward my attention, with fruits - nature for the city person.

I imagine those girls would not have been in a nirvana, they would have been stressed about not coming back with enough food, of damaging the food before they got it back. About how others would treat them regardless of what they brought back. They would have been filthy, stunk of sweat and smoke, they had no culture of bathing in fresh water, soap was unknown to them and they would have been alive with parasites.

Try going out and living like that, it is a dream you admire, not reality.

Look, some of us are very very happy where we live and revel in civilization and its bounty.

I was thinking about Brian's piece and how Leigh has used it for an anti-population rant. Many of these quite beautiful articles are dragged through the sludge by the anti-people, anti-immigration, anti-capitalist, anti-humanist, anti-fun, Unsustainable UnPeople Depopulation lobby. I'm calling the anti-pops the 'Ants' from now on.

Cheryl,

Whatever you disagree with is not necessarily a 'rant'. You obviously don't read any of my posts as you call me anti-capitalist. How many times do I have to support capitalism to get through your thick head?

You can call "the anti-pops the 'Ants' from now on". I'm calling you an idiot! Your seem to be the sort of capitalist who doesn't have the brains to survive without a big population and tax payer aid.