ENVIRONMENT
cycling and organic food... just sayin’). Over five years have passed since that incredible time in my life. And in spite of all the rich, life-transforming amazingness that came from it, and all the wonderful friends who are still rolling along, fighting the good fight, I guess maybe I lost the passion for it somewhere. I still attend the big rallies and do the odd volunteer event here and there, but nothing like before. In that time I’ve had a major change in
career trajectory – a ‘career sea-change’ I sometimes call it… from government enviro data analyst to owner/operator of a Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage therapy business. You can see the link… right?
and utterly selfish teenage hooligans, mindlessly trashing the place left, right and centre and endangering ALL species’ futures. On top of the very real threat to future (and current) generations, learning that my own species is solely responsible for creating the sixth major species extinction event ever to occur on this planet was… Really. Not. Ok. I imagine it was not entirely dissimilar to the tech guy in Terminator 2 who gets told he’s responsible for a future army of robots that devastate the planet, who said something like “I think I’m gonna throw up”. As the implications swept over me I
realised that I couldn’t just stand idly by and watch this global human-induced slow motion car crash unfold. It shook me to my core in an existential kind of way that little else has come close to, save for the revelation that a couple of daily glasses of red wine are NOT, in actual fact, significantly beneficial for my health. (I know, right!) So with this realisation and my newly ignited passion for justice (and the hope of maybe impressing a cute female friend), I threw myself into the grassroots climate movement.
FAST FORWARD TO LATE 2011 After getting in amongst it with university groups, community groups, NGOs and government for almost six years, I found two things. 1. My life is infinitely richer and more meaningful for having contributed, along with many other beautiful, compassionate souls, to a cause far greater than myself. And
8 JUNE 2017
2. I was burnt out. Apparently you need to be sustainable in your to approach to sustainability activism… who knew?! Though I realised that I had to
take a serious step back/out of the movement, the experience had been quite extraordinary. I found amazing, grounded, salt-of-the-earth-type new friends. An array of extensive new skills in facilitation, marketing, organising, community engagement, and media communication were picked up along the way. I found the confidence to speak in front of large groups of people, on the radio and in front of TV cameras (not something I want to do again), as well as run meetings, do media releases, spearhead community-government engagement meetings and more. At one point I was even organising
activist stunts and speaking out in the media against the state government’s stance on enviro issues while simultaneously working as a government sustainability officer… good times!
ALL THE PERKS The benefits of my time volunteering and working as an activist in the enviro field don’t end there. My new friends showed me the empty, pointlessness of materialism and the rat race, the value of op shopping and having a veggie garden, the beauty of more mindful, frugal living and the rich joy of being more connected to self, others and nature. (Also, FYI, if you’re single, greenies are usually a pretty caring, passionate and fit bunch. Probably from all that meditation,
OUR LOCAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNITY Re-skilling and starting up that biz has been exciting and has kept me pretty busy. But whatever we like to tell ourselves, I think “being too busy” is a choice. If we say we’re too busy for this or that, what we’re often really saying is that we’re not willing to prioritise it. It’s amazing the time we can suddenly find in our busy lives to help a loved one in dire need. Or even just to watch all that TV (when the hell is GoT starting up again, anyhow?). I don’t believe in coasting through
life and just taking what I can from it. I like the idea that we all have an opportunity to contribute, a civic role to play, as members of the local and global community. Especially in a society as privileged as ours. But I guess, post- burn out, I just haven’t felt a strong enough pull to return to the fray; to return to the movement, to again stand up – like Luke Skywalker, for what I believe in, fighting for something greater than myself… that is, not until now. Not until Adani.
THE SPECTRE OF ADANI Adani, if you haven’t heard, is an Indian-based multinational coal mining giant (evil space empire?) preparing, as I’m writing this, to try and develop one of the largest coal mines on the planet. Located in our beautiful Galilee Basin in Queensland, it’s known as the Carmichael megamine.
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