Ocean Blue and Seagrass Green - carbon sink loss

Seagrass is also a habitat for small fish

When most people think of oxygen production and carbon storage, most of the time trees and forests are the first items that come to mind - but in fact the single greatest source of oxygen on the planet is the ocean. Similarly the ocean is the single greatest resource for carbon capture on the planet mainly through seagrass which is estimated to capture around 27.4 million tonnes of carbon each year. Unlike forests which only hold carbon for approximately 60 years, seagrass is holding carbon stored in the soil below it from the last ice age.

The startling results from research carried out on 946 seagrass meadows worldwide by the University of Western Australia has revealed that these critical resources are disappearing at a rate of 1.5% per annum due to water pollution, dredging for construction and effects of warmer temperatures due to climate change. This means that the carbon stored beneath the plants is being released back into the atmosphere and with an estimated 19.9 billion tonnes of carbon stored beneath seagrass, the scenario of a widespread release of carbon cannot be discounted. If large areas of seagrass die that is likely to be in excess of 299 million tonnes per year.

National Agreement on Coal Seam Gas Mining

The recent agreement between the Australian Government and State Governments in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia under the umbrella of the Council of Australian Governments  (COAG) recognises and underscores the level of community unease about this form of mining and its potential negative impacts - whether on the community, the environment and in particular, water resources. The National Partnership Agreement on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development cites the various possible risks and emphasises the need for greater research as a matter of urgency with a strong emphasis on the protection of water resources from the effects of CSG mining.

Of note, local government authorities across several Australian states remain concerned with CSG mining citing the effects on farmland, food security, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), tourism, local economies and local community health.

A copy of the National Partnership Agreement can be obtained by clicking here.

Accounting and the environment

One of the most pronounced weaknesses identified with the current economic system worldwide has been the lack of measuring or attempting to measure, the externalities of environmental assets required for the production of goods and services. Two newer schools of thought in the economics profession which have evolved, now attempt to address this situation - environmental economics and ecological economics specifically are concerned with including these 'externalities' vis the environmental goods and services (rivers and water, forests, arrable land, and other natural resources) on which we all depend.

Without these externalities, the economics system would collapse and yet, until recent years, Neoclassical, Keynesian and later schools never included these finite resources in their models, so the environment was left to be plundered and exhausted with little recognition of its actual true worth (known in environmental circles as the 'Tragedy of the Commons'). But change has come with the United Nations and some Member States, including the European Union, adopting the 'System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA). This has occured only this year and Australia has followed suit. SEEA has four types of accounts in its framework and in summary these are:

Physical flow accounts record flows of natural inputs from the environment to the economy, flows of products within the economy and flows of residuals generated by the economy. These flows include water and energy used in production (e.g. of agricultural commodities) and waste flows to the environment (e.g. solid waste to landfill).

Functional accounts for environmental transactions record the many transactions between different economic units (i.e. industries, households, governments) that concern the environment. The relevant transactions are identified by first defining the set of environmental activities - i.e. those activities that reduce or eliminate pressures on the environment and that aim to make more efficient use of natural resources. Examples include investing in technologies designed to prevent or reduce pollution, restoring the environment after it has been polluted, recycling, conservation and resource management. Environmental activities are classified as being either environmental protection activities or resource management activities.

Asset accounts in physical and monetary terms measure the natural resources available and changes in the amount available. Asset accounts focus on the key individual components of the environment: mineral and energy resources; timber resources; fish/aquatic resources; other biological resources; soil resources; water resources; and land. They include measures of the stock of each environmental asset at the beginning and end of an accounting period and record the various changes in the stock due to extraction, natural growth, discovery, catastrophic loss or other reasons.

Ecosystem accounts are a developing area and not yet part of the international statistical standard. Ecosystems are areas containing a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. Ecosystem accounts are structured to summarise information about these areas, their changing capacity to operate as a functional unit and their delivery of benefits to humanity.

The benefits received by humanity are known as ecosystem services. They are delivered in different forms and are grouped into three broad categories. The first category of ecosystem services is provisioning services. These are the benefits received from the natural inputs provided by the environment such as water, timber, fish and energy resources. The second category is regulatory services. These include the benefits provided when an ecosystem operates as a sink for emissions and other residuals, when an ecosystem provides flood mitigation services or when an ecosystem provides pollination services to agriculture. The third category is cultural services. These are the benefits provided when an ecosystem such as a forest, provides recreational, spiritual or other benefits to people.

These measures are long overdue but whether Governments and private industry take heed and utilise the data produced is another question. 

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Monsieur Lazhar

Fellag as Monsieur Lazhar

French Canadian director, Philip Falardeau's Academy Award nominated film brings to the screen a story filled with compassion, empathy and humour but without falling into maudlin sentimentality. The storyline follows an Algerian refugee, Bachir Lazhar, who obtains a teaching post in a Montreal Primary School following the untimely death of one of the teachers by suicide which has left her class of children badly shaken. Lazhar has his own trauma to overcome through the loss of his family in Algeria during the internal war and his precarious situation as his refugee status is being reviewed by the Quebec Authorities. Two of his young charges, Alice and Simon who witnessed the death of their teacher are profoundly affected and Lazhar is drawn to assist them as far as possible while struggling with his own  tragedy. This is an uplifting film with many humourous points despite its sad premise and has been adapted very successfully from a one person stage play by Philip Falardeau. Of trivia interest, the lead actor, Fellag, actually works as a comedian in France and he is of Algerian origin.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - On the Road

On the Road - Sam Riley (l) and Garrett Hedlund (r)

Film director, Walter Salles has brought Jack Kerouac's prominent novel to the screen with an excellent period piece set in America during the immediate years following World War II.  The story centres around aspiring New York writer Sal Paradise (actor Sam Riley) who meets and is befriended by the overly charming and beguiling ex-con Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedund). Together with Dean's young wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart) they embark on a series of adventures to experience the world, other people and ultimately discover themselves. The format for the film is a well established 'road' movie with a recognised 'coming of age' tale. The character of Dean is one of ultimate narcissism and he uses, abuses and betrays all of his friends, lovers and associates including Sal. Prominent cast members include contemporary female acting favourites Kirsten Dunst and Kristen Stewart with the lead male roles expertly handled by Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund. Although hard to follow at times due to constant location changes (are they arriving or leaving a place?), its a competent film although not to the same standard as Walter Salles other road film, The Motorcycle Diaries.   

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Amour

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva

Amour provided Austrian Director, Michael Haneke, with a second and back-to-back Palme d'Or at Cannes for this insightful and sensitive film on old age and the end-of-life. The story revolves around an elderly couple, Georges and Anne, retired music teachers living in their twilight years. Cultivated and dedicated to each other, their relationship is tested when Anne suffers a stroke and Georges decides to care for her at home rather than rely on hospitals and aged care institutions. Their daughter, also a musician lives abroad with her family but returns on learning of her mothers plight. Georges is portrayed by veteran French actor, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Anne by Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Hubbbert is their daughter. This is quite a confronting, tell-it-as-it-is film but captures a couple's lifelong commitment to each other in an ultimate love story and finally the moment when it's time to say goodbye. A French language film with English subtitles.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Rampart

Woody Harrelson - Still shot from 'Rampart'

Rampart features a quite violent story about veteran LAPD patrolman, Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson) caught on tape brutally beating a road accident suspect. Under investigation for the incident and already a suspect in an earlier murder of a felon, Dave Brown's life spirals out of control. The film suffers from an exceptionally narrow base for although the title refers to the actual police division ('Rampart') the focus is almost entirely on this single police officer operating in isolation to the rest of his colleagues. The Rampart police command in Los Angeles, California was the subject of extensive investigations in the 1990s for a variety of serious offenses committed by 70 serving police officers but forms only a vague background being cursarily mentioned in the film. Essentially there is little to find attractive or interesting about the lead character, his descent into illicit drug taking, alcohol abuse, narcissism, the two former wives and his two daughters.

The storyline in fact has elements of similar films such as 'Bad Lieutenant' (Harvey Keitel was the lead role) where rogue police officers fall off-the-rails and descend into a 'Leaving Las Vegas' scenario of drugs, alcohol and personal damnation. There is a good female supporting cast with Sigourney Weaver as the investigating Assistant District Attorney, Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon (as the two ex-wives, who are also cast as sisters) and Robin Wright as a lawyer representing some of Brown's targets. Also in the cast are Steve Buscemi and Ice Cube. The film has several strengths in terms of scene setting and context however its limited focus is disappointing.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Lore

Lore - Saskia Rosendahl

Australian film director, Cate Shortland directed and produced this joint Australian-German production  based on a book of fiction by Rachel Seiffert titled 'The Dark Room'. The storyline revolves around a group of German children at the conclusion of World War II who are attempting to cross the Allied occupied Germany from their home in the Black Forest (Southern Germany) to reach their Aunt's home in Hamburg (Northern Germany). Their father, an SS Officer, has been interned by the Allies and their mother has left to join him in captivity leaving their eldest daughter 'Lore' with instructions to lead the children to safety. The film is essentially a 'road movie' following the children's journey through the deserted countryside, abandoned farmhouses, an occasional corpse and rare encounters with patrolling  US soldiers. Along the way, the children are befriended and assisted by a young Jewish man, Thomas, also making his way across the country and it is the interaction between Lore and this man which is the thematic core of the film. Ostensibly  the film narrative is a coming of age story, however the film's director, Cate Shortland also saw the film as demonstrating the conflict between the children of the oppressors (with their latent racial ideology) and the oppressed (being the young Jewish man, Thomas). This film has numerous flaws which undermine its quality at various points. The most glaring is  the original premise of the film which is undermined by the plot structure itself -  the realisation by the children towards the conclusion of the film, that Thomas whom they thought was Jewish was in fact carrying identity papers which were not his own. He may not have been Jewish at all. The protagonist interaction therefore is based on a false premise and Thomas far from being offended by anti-Jewish comments, would have welcomed them as a reinforcement of his identity at a time when it gave him an advantage. He shows little sign of being perturbed by Lore's outbursts but more the children's lack of common sense in the lawless countryside.

On another level, the very possibility of children of an SS Officer being befriended by a Jewish survivor, however mutually convenient for survival, in 1945 was remote if not ludicrous. Technically the film spends inordinate periods of time with scene atmospherics - clouds, countryside, forest, hills - and Lore's face - and almost loses continuity with the emphasis on sensual cinematographic settings.  In 1945, Germany was in chaos and severely damaged from the air bombing campaigns and the ground warfare, yet little of this is apparent in the film with a few damaged buildings and a pristine countryside. With WWII dramas there is a threshold of believability which needs to be achieved and Lore does not manage to reach that measure despite its best intentions.    

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan could be best be described as being as lost as the desolate Anatolian landscape in which it was shot. Wide panoramic landscapes, sweeping continuous takes, use of other atmospheric devices and some initial light-hearted dialogue for the principal characters, does not subsequently salvage a film which has a sparse and threadbare storyline. The film is centred on a group of men searching for the corpse of a murder victim in the Anatolian countryside. The group includes the Chief of Police, the Prosecutor, a court doctor, police officers, grave diggers and the alleged suspects being held in custody (who have ageed to lead the group to the location of the body). Almost half of the film covers the group's travels across the countryside mostly in the darkness of night. The is no doubt as to the guilt of the perpetrators so this is not a thriller or 'whodunnit' murder investigation. A mystifying element of the film is the abrupt switch from the group and its key leaders to an almost exclusive and narrow focus on the doctor alone with no indication or clues given for this change. Many minutes are spent with the doctor's brooding, contemplative face on screen without any dialogue. This creates a disjointed narrative without adding anything to the overall understanding of the story, such as it is. Perhaps more mystifying is the fact this film won the Grand Prix at Cannes.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Hushpuppy

Beasts of the Southern Wild is not an easily classifiable film but rather carries a number of elements of storytelling, metaphor and messages. The film is set in the marshy, swamp Bayou country somewhere around Louisiana in the Southern United States within a small self-sufficient community who live defiantly away from mainstream society. The story is focussed on six-year-old Hushpuppy who lives with her father, Wink, in "The Bathtub", the swampy marshland where the community lives and which is under threat due to storms, rising water levels and the levees which protect the rest of society. Wink periodically disappears leaving Hushpuppy to fend for herself amongst the semi-domestic animals they keep. The community's children are taught in school about natural selection in evolution, global warming and the ecological shifts underway thorugh the melting of the icecaps. A massive storm comes, the icecaps melt, destructive prehistoric beasts are released and 'the Bathtub' is threatened with extinction. Wink is also terminally ill and this story about community is as much about the underlying powerful relationship between a father and his daughter. Benh Zeitlin's film is, at times, slow moving  and occasionally a bit baffling (with the appearance of prehistoric creatures) nonetheless it captures a community's fierce independence in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Moonrise Kingdom

L to R - Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton,  Bruce Willis and Edward Norton

Wes Anderson's latest film offering, 'Moonrise Kingdom' opened the Cannes Film Festival this year and has a strong cast with Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand. Harvey Keitel also appears in a number of scenes. The storyline is set on an island in New England in the Summer of 1965 and centres on two twelve year olds, Suzy (Kara Hayward) the daughter of two lawyers, and Sam (Jared Gilman) an oprhaned Khaki Scout who fall in love and run off together into the wilderness of the island. When their disappearance is discovered they are hotly pursued by Suzy's parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), the local Sheriff (Bruce Willis), the Scout Master (Edward Norton) and the entire squad of Scout Troop 55. The film is a mixture of satire, parody, slapstick humour and sharp dialogue including somewhat introspective and unlikely statements by the teenage cast. Its a light humoured film overall but the mix of style elements, misplaced contradictory genre and bizarre situations, does not always gell and the film is more of an oddity than a completely easy-on-the mind comedy or a intuitive parody. Wes Anderson is the director, screenwriter (with Roman Coppola) and producer of the film with previous credits for The Royal Tannenbaums, Fantastic Mr Fox, and Rushmore.

Australia and international military conflict

1919 North Russia - 45th Battalion (Australian Company) Royal Fusiliers

Global strategy and intelligence consultancy, Stratfor has produced a recent brief on Australia analysing the historically large number of international military conflicts in which Austalia has been engaged - its worth noting Stratfor is a US based company but does have Australian clients including major media outlets and defence. Not all the conflicts Australia has been involved-in are mentioned (such as the Malaysian Emergency) nor is the timeframe fully encompassing as Australian's military history extends back to the Sudan in 1885 and arguably the Crimea War. Stratfor's perspective is that ideology does not explain the phenomena but rather its a question of having an ally which is a major martime power and can keep the sea lanes open to Australia. Perhaps but, in fact, Australia's involvement not only in wars but military peacekeeping operations points to a 'world view' where Australia seeks to influence global affairs and 'bat above its weight' as an international citizen. Australia still does participate in wars as a partner of a much more powerful maritime power (Great Britain and now the United States), but equally it has evolved a foreign policy to choose its own conflicts, for good or for worse. An abridged version of Stratfor's analysis follows:

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Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, ranked in the top 10 in gross domestic product per capita. It is one of the most isolated major countries in the world; it occupies an entire united continent, is difficult to invade and rarely is threatened. Normally, we would not expect a relatively well-off and isolated country to have been involved in many wars. This has not been the case for Australia and, more interesting, it has persistently not been the case, even under a variety of governments. Ideology does not explain the phenomenon in this instance.

Since 1900, Australia has engaged in several wars and other military or security interventions (including the Boer War, World War I, World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq) lasting about 40 years total. Put another way, Australia has been at war for more than one-third of the time since the Commonwealth of Australia was established in 1901. In only one of these wars, World War II, was its national security directly threatened, and even then a great deal of its fighting was done in places such as Greece and North Africa rather than in direct defense of Australia. This leaves us to wonder why a country as wealthy and seemingly secure as Australia would have participated in so many conflicts.

The Australian strategy therefore involves alignment with the leading maritime power, first Britain and then the United States, and participation in their wars. We began by asking why a country as wealthy and secure as Australia would be involved in so many wars. The answer is that its wealth is not as secure as it seems. 

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