The Greening of Australia

Good evening fellow students and welcome to my Lesson 41 of Radio here at the Max Rowley Media Academy. My name is Stefan Sojka, and today is the 10th of April 2001. I’ve got a great show lined up for you tonight because we’ll be discussing the very important issue of the Environment in this 2MR special – The Greening of Australia.

I’ll be interviewing four special guests and trying to find out a bit more about where our planet is heading – towards a long-term sustainable future, or towards total annihilation? Sometimes it seems like it could go either way any day now. The forces of good and evil are certainly battling it out in the boardrooms, court rooms, rain forest remnant patches, conference centers and parliament houses around the globe, with wildly divergent outcomes. But what of the greater battle for planet earth? The big picture?

Will good win, like every Hollywood script, and create a world where we all tread lightly on the earth, appreciate our place within the fragile ecosystem and experience wealth and abundance and a quality of life that until now only the super rich, self-funded retirees and feral hippies have experienced?

Or will the industrial military complex and its warmongering overlords conspire to destroy every last shred of beauty and wonder, unraveling the web of life into a mere pile of mutant DNA strands weaving an ever-imploding hellish orgy of toxic bacteria, flesh eating viruses, and savage and soul-less quasi-human freaks, plagues of carnivorous gerbils, gnashing their teeth as they sink into a bottomless burning pit of crude oil, woodchips and the boiling blood of 10 billion babies? Let’s find out shall we?

EDGECRUSHER

Welcome back to The Greening of Australia. Stefan Sojka here and with me in the studio to discuss all things environmental is _________________________

MIDNIGHT OIL – Blue Sky Mine

My next guest is ________________________________

EMAGICA 7m 00sec

Joining us this evening to discuss the Greening of Australia is _____________________

DAVID BOWIE – SPACE ODDITY

My last guest this evening is _____________________________

ELVIS PRESLEY

Elvis Presley there with All Shook Up. Why did I play Elvis – well there is a reason. The song I played earlier was of course by David Bowie. David Bowie and Elvis share the same Birthday, the same occupation and pretty much the same level of success. But their lives have taken two completely different paths. Elvis basked in his success, wallowed in the wealth, the adulation and the luxury as our country and the entire Western World is now doing. His Collars got bigger and bigger, like our skyscrapers and industrial centers, he enjoyed the fruits of his labour as we now do, with our drinking binges, weekend getaways and drug and gambling addictions. He downed countless hamburgers, bought countless cars, TV’s and gizmos, and slowly descended into a vortex of fix after fix after fix until his system just couldn’t sustain him and he died a sad, pathetic shadow of his former self.

David Bowie, on the other hand, achieved fame and fortune, and sure indulged in the pleasures of the world, but he always had a vision for his future. He created and recreated himself time and time again using technology and imagination. As we now need to do. He fixed is crooked teeth, he cleansed his system, he exercised, he married a supermodel, he set up his own bank, he floated himself on the stock exchange and he hasn’t stopped yet. Bottom line is – Bowie’s lifestyle is and was sustainable, whereas Elvis was most definitely not. Bowie used his brains to create a future for himself, while Elvis was ruled by his own greed, insecurity and primal desires.

We are faced with this same choice. Do we want to enjoy every moment as if it was our last, until it actually becomes our last? Or do we choose to live sustainably, directing our energies towards creating a better future, using technology not to maximize profit, but to minimize the impact our lives have on the environment?

With all the success and wealth we have now, how happy are we? How willing are we to be open to new ways of doing things? Like Elvis and Bowie, each and every one of us has a choice, to contribute positively to this world, or to ignore the facts and pursue a life of narcissistic apathy. Just remember whatever you decide could tip the grand scale one way or another – towards death and destruction, or towards a sustainable future. The choice is ultimately yours, but no matter what you decide, you can know that every living thing on this planet will know you choice. We’re all in this thing together, baby .

I’d like to thank my guests tonight

For their enlightened viewpoints and for giving us all food for thought in this important issue. Next week, lesson 42. I’ll be presenting a Pot Pourri show. Until then, thank you all for listening, this is Stefan Sojka, saying goodnight until next week!

Technology – save us or destroy us?

Woodchips? Like harvesting humans for their calcium or iron. Ignoring everything else about that person but their bulk weight and how much it costs to process them.

How do you feel about the environment?

What do you do to help the situation? Is Australia doing enough as a country?

What is the most important environmental issue?

Bio Diversity?
Global Warming?
Habitat Destruction?
Energy Consumption?
Pollution?
Genetic Manipulation?
Sustainability?

Do you read newspapers?

Who’s ultimately responsible? Governments? Business? The People?

ELVIS TRACK 9 ALL SHOOK UP

Elvis Presley there with his version of All Shook Up. Elvis Presley is the ideal metaphor for Our civilization and our environment. He rapidly rose to material success