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A small rural community in Australia is presently fighting the soul-less multinationals in a battle that crosses many issues. This small sugar growing community in North Queensland finds itself at the forefront of a three way global battle for supremacy.
In the past 100 years this community has cleared most of the worlds oldest rainforest for agriculture, choosing to grow the previously valuable sugar cane crop. Now with the rise of synthetic sweeteners being incrementally used to substitute the more nutritious organic alternative, and with a global sugar market destroyed by US subsidies, the local farmers, who once held out hopes for an ethanol industry are now ceasing production and instead are subdividing the last of their rainforest property holdings for residential development. With crippling debts mounting after years of trying to stay in business the local owners have no choice but to sell to the developers. Their children have been driven from the land through years of zero net income and now the consumer will ultimately pay. Synthetic percentages are increasing and with a drop in sugar production the synthetic percentage will be forced to increase. The future of clean bio organic fuels will be eliminated before the world realizes that clean energy is a pre requisite to a clean atmosphere, and the last of the worlds oldest rainforest (presently reduced to 15% of its size just 3 generations ago) will be forced to become a residential sub-division to pay for mounting debt levels.
One must ask where the cycle starts in this situation. Is it the multi national American corporations who developed fake sugar 30,000 times stronger than the organic variety ? Is it the American owned soft-drink, biscuit and food manufacturers who choose to increase profitability by substituting for the real thing? Is it the American oil and petrol companies who would rather continue the rise of pollutants ahead of aiming for a zero net environmental impact situation or is it the consumer who allows himself to be conned into believing they are better off without an organic sugar or biofuels industry that the worlds oldest rainforest is now in such a state of disrepair. Believing that its not worth saving anyway and that there is nothing we can do about rising CO2 right now…so live with it.
This is a community that has decided if the world does not want to pay a fair price for real sugar then it will stop making it. If the world does not want clean fuels as a replacement, it will eliminate the possibility, and if nobody wants to act to keep the worlds oldest flowers and songbirds, it will get rid of them to end the argument about whether they should be saved or not. The ban on the development of the Daintree is due to be lifted in 8 weeks, and the last sugar harvest will be completed in 2 months time. The world will then be able to come and see wonderful new houses in the centre of the world heritage area. This must surely be what it wants for it seems happy to progress in that direction.
It should take less than 12 months for one or more of the species with multiple symbiotic connections to become extinct, taking with it all those that it is connected to. With more than 200,000 different life forms in this forest, it will be interesting to study the rate of decay. Who will take responsibility for the destruction? My bet is that it will be no one. Who will take up the challenge of its preservation ? No one. No one will be responsible or to blame. It will just happen as if it is some divine wish of the devil to see it all destroyed, with all of us as mere observers to the process not willing to engage in the challenge for fear of failure or ridicule. Shame on us then for letting our world slip away without even trying to save it!
We are all to blame for not defining our ideals and measuring the actions of our elected others against them.
I am guessing not one person here has an ideal way to save a rainforest, or an ideal plan to alter the course of the world. If you are waiting for the second coming then I suggest you develop a fall back position because if I were Him and I arrived here to find not one single person prepared to commit to the challenge of saving the world, I’d say “forget it. It is not worth doing.” For as long as money is more important than anything else, everything else will continue to be sold off and we will sell out our own future. Come see the worlds oldest rainforest and see for yourself what the world has come to.
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Daryl
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