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The Forum > Article Comments > A hole in the greenie's holiness > Comments

A hole in the greenie's holiness : Comments

By Brian Holden, published 16/5/2013

Can any emotion be noble if it is has a role in our personal pursuit of happiness?

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Brian I share your passion for nature but! I feel you are being overly pessimistic. I was born just after the second world war. Britain was devastated, coal was universally used for home heating and industrial waste just went into the nearest waterway. Air and water pollution was dreadful but understandable. Now the air is not bad and the waterways are in very good condition. We can live in high rise and still have clean waterways.
We have to fight this silly zealotry that insists you cannot cut down trees. Sometimes it is necessary. Also reliance on scientists making a nice little earner on "Green" projects and denigrating anyone who has an opposing opinion as a Redneck is not helpful to your cause. Whatever that is?
Posted by JBowyer, Thursday, 16 May 2013 11:05:38 AM
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"A hole in the greenie's holiness" asks "Can any emotion be noble if it has a role in our pursuit of happiness?". Thomas Jefferson and his Constitution have much to answer for, with their concept of "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
I can 'pursue' housing, wealth, food, health, friendship. All contribute to my well-being and the loss of any of the above would contribute to my sadness and possible depression; immense sadness when my daughter with schizophrenia died from despair and suicide.But I still see 'happiness', if it can be defined at all, as an attitude to life and all it can throw at you. An attitudw which allows one eventually to resile from sadness and depression.
Enjoying a beautiful forest is a pleasure. Donating excess funds to a charity is a pleasure. Too often, we conflate pleasure and happiness, depression and unhappiness. "Happiness" is indefinable, metaphysical.
I am an octogenarian, retired, living alone. I fight for justice and human rights for the severely mentally ill; from the last twenty years experience, a hopeless cause. It is enough, I am happy!
Posted by carol83, Thursday, 16 May 2013 11:24:29 AM
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'All talk of saving the natural environment can never be any more than talk because man, the animal weak in tooth and claw, is now armed with the technology to destroy everything '

and yet we are living longer more comfortable lives thanks to a few trees being knocked down. Still seems to be thousands of beautiful places in Aussie alone to enjoy. Anyone been to the s/w WA or Maleny or Noosa in Qld or Great Barrier Reef or Esperance? Soon no one will be left in Tasmania anyway with the Greens destroting nearly all viable jobs. Worshipping nature and not seeing things clearly is often a result of belief in the idiotic evolution fantasy. Chill out Brian and smell the roses. If anything is going to destroy the planet its man's sinful corrupt nature, not cutting down a few trees to make our people warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. You might of noticed we need oil in order to enjoy these places unless of course you live there.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 16 May 2013 11:36:33 AM
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Careful there Brian, your prejudice is showing.

I'm prepared to bet that fool walking around the landscape, just like our brutish forbears did, is much more likely to have a red neck than our civilized gentleman driving around in his nice air conditioned Hummer. Your use of redneck is very telling.

You have an infatuation with trees. Good for you, but many of us don't. After a couple of years in the islands, particularly New Guinea & the Solomon's I developed a deep longing to look out across an open paddock, with sheep or cattle grazing on rich clover & improved pasture.

I was so sick of horrible thick jungle, I wanted to buy a bulldozer to "improve" the place.

I have planted more trees than most, because of their ability to reach down deep & pull up the nutrients washed too deep for grass & other vegetation & recycle it with their fallen leaves.

I make sure they don't get too thick though, for 3 reasons.

Too thick they become dominant weeds. A weed is any plant in the wrong place.

Too thick they crowd out all other growth, including fauna.

Too thick & I will become subject to the will of some greenie, with no rights to my property, who's agitating has caused fool laws about clearing, even what I have planted myself.

So go enjoy your trees, preferably on your own property, & keep your beady eyes off mine.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 16 May 2013 12:33:39 PM
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The leadbeaters possum is thriving mate. It nests in the old stags which the timber getters are made to leave behind. It feeds on the lush regrowth of the young trees which are replanted by the aforesaid timber getters, who leave adjacent areas into which other wild life may retreat while logging is taking place. After fifty years of regrowth you wouldn't be able to tell the difference whether it had been logged or had been destroyed by the inevitable wildfire through your pristine forest.
It is time you green people learned a bit about how the forest and its dwellers work.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Thursday, 16 May 2013 4:46:13 PM
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>>An avenue of old fig trees was marked for removal. The bureaucrat said that the trees were dangerous. The residents said that nobody had ever been injured by a falling branch. The bureaucrat responded with: "Council can't make a judgement on a negative result".>>

Trouble is with the prevailing "'elf and safety" culture I don't see what choice the Newcastle council had. Imagine the outpouring of media rage if a branch had fallen and caused irreversible brain damage to a child. Pundits from all across England would be castigating the councillors for their negligence. Photos of the child before and after would dominate the front pages of the press. TV would be filled with interviews of tearful residents screaming "they knew it was dangerous, their own experts told them, and they did nothing."

Here's how I think it should have been tackled. The council offers the residents the following deal:

(1) We put signs that warn, in big bold letters, that the trees on this avenue have been declared unsafe and that you enter at your own risk.

(2) You the residents sign an agreement acknowledging that you have been warned of the dangers and agree to indemnify the council for any loss to life, limb and property of yourselves and any minor children.

(3) We the council take out a policy through Lloyds to cover ourselves against any residual liability and you, the residents, pay the premiums.

(4) The agreement becomes part of the title deeds for every house so a new resident has to agree to the terms. Otherwise you cannot sell.

If you agree to these terms the trees stay.

Otherwise they go.

Agreement obviously has to be unanimous.

Would the residents have agreed to keep the trees if it was all at their own risk?

I wonder.
Posted by stevenlmeyer, Friday, 17 May 2013 10:09:45 AM
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