Watched the first of Simon Reeve’s latest in a 3 series production on AUSTRALIA on BBC 2 last night. Beautifully filmed he started in the red centre then down to the wine region in South Australia. ( Hardy’s wine, which sells here for 10 pound or less in supermarkets and which takes 100s of litres of precious water per bottle to produce in the world’s driest continent ) to the herding, for slaughter for meat mainly, of the 1000s of feral and very healthy looking camels. Camels were first introduced to haul goods through-out the desert regions in the early days of white settlement. In the last few years their large numbers have been shot and left to die on the ground. This cattle rancher now makes money with their slaughter for human consumption. Irony is the cattle he was farming looked decidedly unhealthy compared to the robust camel. Environmentally both have equal negative impact in my view.
He followed on with interviewing a family from Hull, who migrated to Perth where the man is making extra good dollars which means he can buy a boat and enjoy a large house with swimming pool. To pay for this lifestyle he teaches any-one to drive the huge trucks that carry the rock and soil away, to expose the minerals that feed China and the extraordinary out-put of what ends up in most of the retail out-lets all over the world. The man and his family think they are in heaven.
Then a peak into a tuna research station ( secret location ) which is trying to replicate the tuna’s life cycle from the Java sea down the coast of Australia. Tuna is almost depleted in the wild and this effort is to advance the farming of them. Not easy it seems. Why don’t we just eat the small fry they feed the captive tuna with and leave whats left in the wild tuna alone ? The size of their pens reminded me of battery hens A4 size cages.
Reeves is a fair commentator in my view, gives a balanced assessment of human’s advancing their economic status, to the huge environmental impact on the countries very fragile ecology as we do so. To the ongoing tragedy of the ABORIGINAL people, marginalized on the edges of a massive third of a mile deep excavation. Rubbish strewn settlement environments with burnt out shells of cars dotted everywhere. London’s environment would be similar if there wasn’t 24 hour cleaning services. The amount of rubbish, vomit ect on the pavements after a friday or saturday night is a common sight around Clapham where I have been house and cat minding. Every morning the small front yard is strewn with takeaway food bags, polystyrene containers and cigarette butts. Simon thinks that as a country Australia still has not got a grip on the ABORIGINAL tragedy. And he says its every-ones problem, not just the governments. I think he is right but while mining, as in Canada, takes number one place in the economy there is little hope when the indigenous people lived off the entire land-scape.
Next episode he looks at the diminishing of the GREAT BARRIER REEF, which is being slowly destroyed from farmer’s artificial fertiliser and herbicide run off and the creation of deep water ports to anchor the huge ships carrying away the natural resources to keep the world happy in its consumer spending.
W/ell worth a viewing and although pessimistic at times, Reeve’s is always upbeat and thoughtful.
http://fightforthereef.org.au/take-action/?refer=AMCS
