The Boomer Legacy ◊ Environment

Environment

Nature's Endless Bounty

We lived in an infinite world.

“Non-renewable” resources would, if given enough time, renew. Fresh water was limitlessly abundant; forests and coral reefs eventually grew back; ocean algae continuously bloomed and sunk into the abyss to replenish our oil. Even when stars burned through all their fuel and exploded, new and more glorious worlds would coalesce from their remains.

The climate has always changed. There were countless warm periods in the past. Even dinosaurs flourished for tens of millions of years in a world devoid of frost or snow or ice.

So we had nothing to worry about. We could do whatever we liked with a completely clear conscience. For the good Earth will abide forever.

Sample #4027 — A domain of wreaths (Sep 2015)

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Siri versus wild: Here's one of me tweeting that I uploaded an Instagram of myself taking a selfie while on holidays somewhere

The viewing platform of the Scenic Railway at Katoomba (Nov 2011)

Black bird: … singing in the dead of night

Freshly harvested pine logs awaiting export, Dunedin NZ (Dec 2017)

Views rooted in ecology: We peered through the bay-windows of our tastefully renovated homes, yet could not see the yachts for the trees

Vandalised Moreton Bay fig tree roots on Wunulla Road in Point Piper (Sep 2012)

Charting success: A million schemes for the world we were going to make

Recreating Quartermass and the Pit at Parramatta (Jan 2018)

Spontaneous regeneration: Weeds like droplets of sweat, where hopes of easy riches once lay

The empty upstairs rooms of a pool hall at Sussex Street in Sydney (Oct 2012)

Liens Den: The potential for redevelopment was endless

View from beneath the Western Distributor, at Darling Harbour (Jul 2017)

Rising above: We had endless views to match our ambitions

Eureka sky-deck, Melbourne (Apr 2019)

What mean these stones?: We were at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all we could talk about was money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth (Thundberg, 2019)

Iron slag at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow (Aug 2012)

The hikikomori archipelago: We built a matrix of ideology to optimise the rate of self-incarceration

“Sirius” public housing at The Rocks, Sydney (Sep 2016)

Gentrified slums: Our water-views, yachts and every possible dream came true

Melbourne Docklands (Apr 2019)

The signs were all there: The pressure kept increasing, but everything was still okay

Steam relief chimney, Dey Street NYC (Oct 2017)

Fire in the soul: We've got to be realists, if you're going to live with the butterflies then you're going to die with the butterflies (Joyce, 2017)

The aftermath of a deliberately lit bushfire in Katoomba (Nov 2011)

From the shore to the plateau: Every step towards each other just seemed to get more difficult

Garie North Head, Royal National Park (Jul 2019)

Bio solids: Paintings of whales and fish helped liven up our sludge

Aquatic murals at the Wollongong Sewage Works (Sep 2014)

City of glass: Sunrise among the canyons, where if you got up high enough then you could not hear the yelling far below

19th floor balcony, Adina Apartments Melbourne (Apr 2019)

Epic ruin porn: Jack and Jackie died a long time ago, Camelot became an abandoned car-yard

Leo Cushieri Quality Used Cars in Blacktown (Nov 2012)

Hidden externalities: A vivid matrix of inclusive spaces to encourage social cohesion

Centre Place lane-way, Melbourne (Apr 2019)

Less is more: A rectangular lattice to corral our team-building and inoffensive lives

Housing demolition on Gray Street, at Kogarah (Apr 2011)

Outwardness within: The world was only as small as you made it

Sightseeing at The Balconies, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2019)

Hedge city: O beautiful for spacious skies, to park our excess wealth

Central Park apartments, Broadway (Jul 2018)

The answer to everything was no: I direct council to amend its draft planning-scheme to remove any assumption about a theoretical projected sea level rise due to climate change (Seeney, 2014)

Hornby Lighthouse gun emplacement, South Head Sydney (Dec 2014)

Inside the tiger: We chased every rabbit down every hole

Coal Loader tunnel, Waverton (Jul 2017)

Build a better rookery: It was amazing how well creatures could adapt to being fed on the sixteenth floor

Rainbow lorikeets at the kitchen window, Harbourside Apartments (Jan 2019)

Grok the avenue: Why bother to shade suburbs when you can get the same effect from more profitable twenty-storey apartments?

Tree lined suburban streets at Bondi Junction & Wolli Creek (Dec 2018)

Stack trace: International trade agreements led to enormous economic benefits

The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack (Sep 2014)

Room to grow: Get in on the ground floor for the next big thing

Domain car parking station (Jul 2018)

The albatross beneath our feet: Rows of apartment blocks where agent-orange once brewed

The decontaminated site of the Union Carbide plant, at Rhodes (Jul 2013)

Golden sunlit uplands: Import alien species to remind you of home, then watch helplessly as they escape into the environment

The invasive plant species Common Gorse spreads along the Taieri Gorge, NZ (Dec 2017)

Multinational style: Curtain walls of glass and steel as far as money could stretch

6th Avenue office buildings, NYC (Oct 2017)

Build a better fish: We loaded up the hydrosphere with enough heavy-metals to make our marine-life indestructible

Storm-water grating at McCauley Lane in Alexandria (Mar 2018)

The wound that would not heal: O₂ + (UV) → 2 O•
O₂ + O• → O₃
O₃ + (UV) → O₂ + O•
CCl₂F₂ + (UV) → CClF₂• + Cl•
Cl• + O₃ → ClO• + O₂
ClO• + O• → O₂ + Cl•
2 ClO• + (UV) → O₂ + 2 Cl•

Sunburst above the Wollongong Sewage Works (Feb 2011)

User funnelling: To paraphrase Lewis Mumford: the apotheosis of cities was to channel people from one checkout to the next

The M4 Western Distributor at Darling Harbour in Sydney (Jul 2012)

It's all about being a global city: All the construction was evidence of our economic vitality and enthusiastic internationalism

Parammatta Square construction site (Jul 2018)

Permissive Occupancy: We, the legatees of adverse possession, swore to lobby and plead and flatter and appeal and threaten and randomly proclaim significant heritage values in order to enjoy our rightful seaside retreats deep inside a public national park

RNP shack at Little Garie, NSW (Jul 2019)

500 ppm or bust: Nine-month summers, super El Niños, megadroughts, gigafloods, category-five hurricanes, wild-fires, methane fumaroles, km² of eutrophication and rivers awash with dead fish. 500-year events every five years. Every decade and season the hottest on record. The sixth mass extinction event. Aim low for +2°C and completely miss.

Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney's east (Oct 2012)

Reinforced bulwark: We found the oceans an ideal place to dump all our stuff

Concrete erosion blocks, South Wollongong beach (Sep 2014)

Ledge fund: Turn right at the rock-face and keep going

Rock ledge at The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2019)

Sprawl was good: Sprawl was right, sprawl worked. Sprawl clarified, cut through, and captured the essence of the evolutionary spirit

Diamond Bay cliffs at Dover Heights, in Sydney (Feb 2014)

Re-imagine urban life: We used traffic and cranes to measure our success

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park (Mar 2018)

Where even the windows wept: We created villages filled with community, cohesion and a common sense of purpose

Factory windows at Chester Lane, Zetland (Sep 2014)

It was fun while it lasted: 82 256 493 barrels a day — the greatest achievement of our generation was to make the deserts bloom

Nike Savvas installation at the Art Gallery of NSW (Apr 2014)

The men in the high castle: The benefits of forty years of neo-liberalism were there for all to see

BP Site bund wall, Waverton (Jul 2017)

Life in the roaring forties: Just one summer in western Sydney:
2017-12-14 +43.5°C, 2017-12-19 +44.1°C, 2017-12-20 +43.6°C, 2017-12-24 +42.1°C, 2017-12-29 +40.4°C, 2018-01-06 +42.3°C, 2018-01-07 +47.3°C, 2018-01-08 +42.5°C, 2018-01-19 +40.5°C, 2018-01-20 +40.2°C, 2018-01-21 +40.3°C, 2018-01-22 +43.2°C, 2018-02-14 +40.0°C, 2018-02-24 +40.0°C (Aust BOM, 2018)

117°F in the shade, the hottest Sydney temperature since 1939 (ABC News, 2018) (Jan 2018)

Situation normal: Everything was fine until it wasn't

Lawsons Auctions car-park, Moore Street Annandale (Sep 2015)

After Nature: An all-new Pliocene with mass-produced gastropods in a concrete sea

The front yard of an abandoned spare-parts dealer at Tempe in Sydney (Sep 2012)

Scenes from Planet B: Almost fifty years to the day, and we were still only a warm bubble in the cold dark void

North Era camp-site before dawn, Royal National Park NSW (Jul 2019)

Tubular gongs: Consumption for symbolic, signalling and cultural reasons

New apartments from old flour mills, Lewisham (Sep 2015)

Stack underflow: And then the chimneys fell silent

The former Port Kembla Copper stack, from O'Donnell street (Sep 2013)

Plague's progress: Down from the trees and into the meat (Karlen, 2001)

82nd street apartment entrance, NYC (Oct 2017)

Troglodyte world: Going underground to dodge the consequences

Underground escalators at Macquarie University railway station, Sydney (Feb 2016)

Unfortunate but it couldn't be helped: We built our prosperity upon the wealth of future generations

Olympian Rock walkway after a deliberately lit bushfire in Leura (Oct 2011)

Past escarpment: We often forgot just how dramatic the landscape could be

The view south from Thelma Head, Royal National Park NSW (Jul 2019)

Sunny upside: The IPCC reports that global average temperatures are projected to rise +2 degrees by 2050 Yeah well, that's debatable. The polar and Greenland ice-caps are melting at unprecedented rates Only millionaires can afford to go there, they'll just have to holiday somewhere else. Greta Thundberg said … Now stop right there — since when does a whiny teenager earn the right to impart moral instruction? Cities are becoming heat-islands, with inland suburbs predicted to have summertime temperatures in the high 40s That's easily solved — people who live there should get better-paying jobs and move closer to the coast. There will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees Good — the entire point of establishing an international rules-based order was to enable the free movement of people. More people will die of heat-stroke And fewer will succumb to pneumonia or hypothermia. There will be more category-5 storms Which will lead to more foreign aid and reconstruction jobs. Most of our arable land will be destroyed by decade-long megadroughts And vast tracks of Alaskan & Siberian taiga will be unlocked for development and agriculture. If the Himalayan glaciers melt, then Pakistan, India and China could go to war over water We'll all be dead by then, so why worry? But aren't you concerned about creating a world without snow or ice or even winters? Nah, how good is more days at the beach!

Blackheath Oval snowman, Blue Mountains (Aug 2019)

Moving the millions: So many opportunities in a city full of strangers

72nd Street subway station entrance, NYC (Oct 2017)

We travelled in stylllleeee: You could fly carbon-neutral by offsetting your flight during the booking process

Primary school mosaic in Sydenham Green, near the Sydney Airport (Sep 2012)

A two-speed world: Historical data was of little use to a market which always looked forward

The remains of Lawrence Hargrave Drive beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff (Dec 2016)

Bright shining billions: Oculus made it possible to experience anything, anywhere through the power of shopping

The atrium of the Westfield World Trade Center, NYC (Oct 2017)

Through an augmented sky: All the atmospheric particulates guaranteed a golden hour for everyone

Sunrise over Bourke Street, Melbourne (Apr 2019)

Out with the old: Sawtooth factories made way for luxury apartments

Zetland redevelopment (Nov 2018)

We were the memories we created: How and why will people remember us?

Tree growing in the old Fosters brewery wall (since demolished), at Broadway in Sydney (Apr 2014)

Outlier Nation: Founded on penal servitude, maintained by the dispossessed, for the benefit of the super-rich

Sugar cane digester spheres in Waterfront Park, at Jacksons Landing (Jan 2013)

Dam the Franklin: An early example of environmental activism, to prevent the construction of dams in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the planet

Protesting the building of dams on the Franklin River in Tasmania (Feb 1983)

Buckley's chance: Going nowhere is better than going backwards […] We can't continue to think each generation will be better off than the previous one (Melbourne University professor Mark Wooden, Aug 2019)

Coastal track upgrading works at the Royal National Park, NSW (Jul 2019)

This tun of treasure: We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives (Criswell, 1959)

The Green Square Waste garbage facility (since demolished) at O'Riordan Street (Daily Telegraph, 2014) (Aug 2014)

Ready-made solutions: Our “developers” were given a blank cheque to do whatever they felt was necessary

Sandbridge pedestrian crossing, Melbourne (Apr 2019)

Captive audience: Hotels, cruise liners, schools and all-you-can-eat buffets proved to be ideal norovirus incubators

Cruise liner berthed at Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal (Dec 2014)

A domain of wreaths: Ideally, we should live as free people. Sensibly, we must live under guard (Daily Telegraph, 2018)

Papered-over window display in Henry Str Lewisham (Sep 2015)

Frame your reference: Crosses & cranes punctuated our beliefs

Elm tree memorial at Lewisham building site (Sep 2015)

Fringe season: Work commenced to identify and implement the next wave of positive reforms

Backyard firewood at Blackheath NSW (Aug 2019)

Virgin lands: Architects don't merely design – they create environments, inside and out, and spaces that function well, to mediate the dialogue between the boundaries of architecture and design, exterior and interior realms, structure and detail

The remains of the Jonley Australia plastics factory in Meadowbank (Jan 2014)

My variegated village: Machines of extraction between funds and their intended recipients

UTS construction site, Broadway (Jul 2018)

We were here: Passing paths that climb halfway into the void (Yes, 1972)

Royal Coastal Track, near Wattamolla (Jul 2019)

City lights: Clarity by design, simplicity by omission

Southbank lighting store, Melbourne (Apr 2019)

Markers of social progress: We erected signs to reinforce things we already knew

Abandoned used-car dealership sign, Church Str Parramatta (Jul 2017)

Views not trees: The rules we lived by were lies

Poisoned trees at Larkin Street, Waverton (Jul 2017)

Cocooning by order: Decorate your world with comfy hygge cosiness

Sutherland Crescent, Darling point (Jan 2017)

Fubar City: We ruled as distant and unresponsive leaders; where distrust, stagnation, corruption and lack of social cohesion were systematically ignored