The Wooleen Way

Author: David Pollock
Publisher: Scribe Us
ISBN: 9781925849257
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A remarkable memoir detailing a heroic and unswerving commitment to renew the severely degraded land on Wooleen, a massive pastoral property in Western Australia's southern rangelands. The outback conjures many images that the Australian psyche is built upon. Its grand vistas of sweeping dusty plains and its evocation of a tough pioneering spirit form the foundation of our prosperous culture. But these romantic visions often hide the stark environmental, economic, and social problems that have inadvertently been left in the wake of our collective past. Through retelling the struggle of his family amid droughts, financial ruin, depression, and death, David Pollock exposes the modern-day realities of managing a remote outback station. Forced by a sense of moral responsibility, he set out on an uncharted course to restore the 153,000 hectares of degraded leasehold land that he felt he was obliged to manage on behalf of the Australian people. Then, just at the point when that course seemed certain to fail, the project was saved by the generosity and faith of everyday Australians. This is an urgent story of political irresponsibility, bureaucratic obstinacy, industrial monopolization, and, above all, ecological illiteracy in a vast segment of the Australian continent. It is a familiar story of overexploitation. Yet it is also a story of the extraordinary ability of the natural environment to repair itself, given the chance. After over a decade of his hard-won insights, Pollock outlines in The Wooleen Way a specific and comprehensive plan to reverse the ecological damage done to the pastoral resource since European colonization. He also emphasizes the economic and social necessity of carrying it out, and of curbing the conquering human spirit so that it aligns with the subtle power of the natural landscape.

Climate Code Red

Author: David Spratt
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1921753021
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
This meticulously documented call-to-action reveals extensive scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is far worse than officially indicated — and that we’re almost at the point of no return. Serious climate-change impacts are already happening: large ice-sheets are disintegrating, sea-level rises will reach 5 metres this century, and we are seeing devastating species loss. It is no longer a case of how much more we can ‘safely’ emit, but whether we can stop emissions and produce a deliberate cooling before the Earth’s climate system reaches a point beyond any hope of human restoration. These imperatives are incompatible with ‘politics as usual’ and ‘business as usual’ — we face a sustainability emergency that urgently requires a clear break from the politics of failure-inducing compromise.

Fallout from Fukushima

Author: Richard Broinowski
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1922070165
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
On 11 March 2011, a force-9 earthquake jolted the seabed 66 kilometres due east of Japan. Within 20 minutes, a black tsunami wave 14 metres high rolled in from above the epicentre. While struggling with the unfolding destruction, Japan had to cope with a third calamity -- the malfunctioning of a nuclear-power complex near the town of Fukushima.

Soil

Author: Matthew Evans
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1761062255
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Book Description
'A love letter to Mother Earth and entertaining must-read that goes to the heart of our survival' Charles Massy. 'A love letter to Mother Earth and entertaining must-read that goes to the heart of our survival' Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler. Perfect for fans of Wilding by Isabella Tree. What we do to the soil, we do to ourselves. Soil is the unlikely story of our most maligned resource as swashbuckling hero. A saga of bombs, ice ages and civilisations falling. Of ancient hunger, modern sicknesses and gastronomic delight. It features poison gas, climate collapse and a mind-blowing explanation of how rain is formed. For too long, we've not only neglected the land beneath us, we've squandered and debased it, by over-clearing, over-grazing and over-ploughing. But if we want our food to nourish us, and to ensure our planet's long-term health, we need to understand how soil works - how it's made, how it's lost, and how it can be repaired. In this ode to the thin veneer of Earth that gifts us life, commentator and farmer Matthew Evans shows us that what we do in our backyards, on our farms, and what we put on our dinner tables really matters, and can be a source of hope. Isn't it time we stopped treating the ground beneath our feet like dirt?

Breaking the Sheep's Back

Author: Charles Massy
Publisher: Univ. of Queensland Press
ISBN: 0702246832
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
The 10-billion-dollar collapse of the wool industry is considered one of Australia's biggest business disasters, and for the first time, the shocking true story behind this colossal collapse is revealed. Spanning 170 years from the birth of the industry in 1840 and its boom during the 1950s through its unraveling from 1980 to 1991, this is a searing account of greed, political corruption, and heavy-handed protectionism. As it uncovers the never-before-seen archival sources, government and board papers, and private correspondence and shares exclusive interviews with key whistle blowers, this narrative unveils the gripping true story of government corruption in a seemingly untouchable industry.

Black Saturday at Steels Creek

Author: Peter Stanley
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1922070335
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
The Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people - wreaking a greater human toll than any other fire in Australia's history. Ten of those people died in Steels Creek, a small community on Melbourne's outskirts. It was a beautiful place, which its residents had long treasured and loved. By the evening of 7 February 2009, it looked like a battlefield.Prize-winning historian Peter Stanley tells the dramatic stories of this small town on that one terrifying evening - of epic fights to save houses, of escapes, and of deaths. But Black Saturday at Steels Creek also tells the tale of a community - of people's attachments to the valley and to each other - and how, over the weeks and years that followed, they lived with the aftermath of the fire.The most detailed account of any one community to emerge from the fire, Black Saturday at Steels Creek shows what Black Saturday means not only for Steels Creek, but also for Australia as a whole.'The most significant topic in this warming world of ours. An important and deeply moving book.' Adrian Hyland, Author of Kinglake-350'Insightful and comprehensive ... what sets it apart is the coverage of the diverse range of experiences.' Dr Kevin Tolhurst, Senior Bushfire Researcher

Rewilding

Author: Nathalie Pettorelli
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472672
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Book Description
Discusses the benefits and risks, as well as the economic and socio-political realities, of rewilding as a novel conservation tool.

Ecoagriculture for a Sustainable Food Future

Author: Nicole Y. Chalmer
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 1486313434
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Global food security is dependent on ecologically viable production systems, but current agricultural practices are often at odds with environmental sustainability. Resolving this disparity is a huge task, but there is much that can be learned from traditional food production systems that persisted for thousands of years. Ecoagriculture for a Sustainable Food Future describes the ecological history of food production systems in Australia, showing how Aboriginal food systems collapsed when European farming methods were imposed on bushlands. The industrialised agricultural systems that are now prevalent across the world require constant input of finite resources, and continue to cause destructive environmental change. This book explores the damage that has arisen from farming systems unsuited to their environment, and presents compelling evidence that producing food is an ecological process that needs to be rethought in order to ensure resilient food production into the future. Cultural sensitivity Readers are warned that there may be words, descriptions and terms used in this book that are culturally sensitive, and which might not normally be used in certain public or community contexts. While this information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided by the author in a historical context.

Call of the Reed Warbler

Author: Charles Massy
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603588140
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence." --Paul Hawken In Call of the Reed Warbler, Charles Massy explores regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is the story of how a grassroots revolution—a true underground insurgency—can save the planet, help reduce and reverse climate change, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food. Using his personal experience as a touchstone—from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health—Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. With evocative stories, he shows how other innovative and courageous farmers are finding a new way. At stake is not only a revolution in human health and in our communities, but the very survival of the planet. For farmers, backyard gardeners, food buyers, health workers, policy makers, and public leaders alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward and a powerful and moving paean of hope. It’s not too late to regenerate the earth. Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our planet, and our health.

Wandi

Author: Favel Parrett
Publisher: Lothian Children's Books
ISBN: 9780734420633
Category : Children's stories
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human, and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred. A children's literary classic in-the-making from one of Australia's most-loved authors.