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 sank into the abyss to replenish our oil.

The climate has always been changing and there have been countless warm periods in the past. Even dinosaurs flourished for 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 clear conscience. For the good Earth will abide forever.

Sample #4047 — Markers of social progress (Jul 2017)

Topic Images

Click on for a map showing where the photograph was taken
Click on for details about the image

There are currently 99 photographs in this section.

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, 331kb)

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, 343kb)

Where even the windows wept: Our villages were filled with community and a common sense of purpose

Factory windows at Chester Lane, Zetland (Sep 2014, 414kb)

Markers of social progress: Signs were erected to reinforce things we already knew

Abandoned used-car dealership sign, Church Str Parramatta (Jul 2017, 127kb)

Inside the tiger: Every rabbit was chased down every hole

Coal Loader tunnel, Waverton (Jul 2017, 401kb)

Crosswalk puzzle: Waiting for the white man with the upraised orange palm

Pedestrian crossing at 37th and 5th, NYC (Oct 2017, 264kb)

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

Sandbridge pedestrian crossing, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 228kb)

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, 118kb)

Black poles: Our cities were criss-crossed with lethal intersections

Old Canterbury road pedestrian crossing, Lewisham (Sep 2015, 475kb)

Neo-Monogorod: To encourage immediate relaxation, new apartments promoted a sense of calm and well-being among their residents

Melbourne Docklands (Apr 2019, 356kb)

Tranquillity Bantustan: There was never quite enough time for the Eagle to land

Looking south from the base of Garie Head North, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2020, 360kb)

The wound that would not heal: Meanwhile, up in the stratosphere…
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, 113kb)

Stack trace: International trade agreements led to enormous economic benefits

The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack (Sep 2014, 349kb)

Memories of what's to come: The last thing we wanted to do was extirpate all the large vertebrates (WWF, 2018)

Deceased sulfur-crested cockatoo, Warrimoo (Dec 2017, 149kb)

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

The viewing platform of the Scenic Railway at Katoomba (Nov 2011, 561kb)

Re-imagine urban life: Traffic and cranes were used to measure our success

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park (Mar 2018, 327kb)

Game the system: Those with the best view won

Friday night on Sydney Harbour (Jan 2019, 190kb)

Permissive Occupancy: We, the legatees of adverse possession, hereupon swear 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, 393kb)

Multilevel regression with post-stratification: Cityscapes were created to uplift the soul

Liberty Place, Castlereagh Street Sydney (Jan 2019, 249kb)

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

Zetland redevelopment (Nov 2018, 279kb)

Liens Den: The potential for redevelopment was endless

View from beneath the Western Distributor, at Darling Harbour (Jul 2017, 59kb)

Rising above: Endless views to match our ambition

Eureka sky-deck, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 275kb)

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, 425kb)

Magnificent isolation: Many embraced the lockdowns because it finally gave them time to do all the things they always wanted

Waruda Street apartment stairwell, Kirribilli (Nov 2020, 42kb)

Less is more: A rectangular lattice to corral our inoffensive, committee-managed and risk-adverse lives

Housing demolition on Gray Street, at Kogarah (Apr 2011, 161kb)

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

Primary school mosaic in Sydenham Green, near Sydney Airport (Sep 2012, 397kb)

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, 284kb)

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, 411kb)

Terra nullius: Turn right at the cliff-edge and keep going

Rock ledge at The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2019, 505kb)

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, 364kb)

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, 209kb)

Black bird: … singing in the dead of night

Freshly harvested pine logs awaiting export, Dunedin NZ (Dec 2017, 344kb)

Wildfulness everywhere: Sometimes the bush was so wild that even the track markers got disoriented

Illawarra Escarpment Track, above Coalcliff NSW (Oct 2020, 505kb)

Under the waning gibbous moon: The goal was to squeeze as much as possible out of the status quo before everything collapsed

Recreating Quartermass and the Pit at Parramatta (Nov 2017, 843kb)

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, 485kb)

Unknown knowns: 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, 203kb)

Potential Harbour Views: Deceased Estate — First Time Offered in 37 Years. Lifestyle studio apartments with iconic Oprah House, Bridge and Harbour views. Ready to enjoy your renovating touches…

Real-estate hoarding miss-spelled blurb, Waruda Street Kirribilli (Nov 2020, 242kb)

Rebooting the PETM: Nine-month summers, super El Niños, millennium-droughts & floods, category-five hurricanes, mega-fires, bushfire survival plans, methane fumaroles, low-pH rain, cubic-kilometres of eutrophication and rivers awash with millions of dead fish. 500-year events every five years. Every decade and season among the hottest on record. The sixth mass extinction. Aim low for ≤2°C and completely miss

Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney's east (Oct 2012, 95kb)

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

Parramatta Square construction site (Jan 2018, 124kb)

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

Olympian Rock walkway after a deliberately lit bushfire in Leura (Oct 2011, 351kb)

Bright shining billions: The Great Architect stood with his hands on his hips and proclaimed “You too shall have a bone-yard”

The Westfield World Trade Center atrium, NYC (Oct 2017, 201kb)

Made by We: The four seasons of positive climate reform

Blue mountains seasons (Dec 2019, 467kb)

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

Parammatta Square construction site (Jul 2018, 139kb)

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

Steam relief chimney, Dey Street NYC (Oct 2017, 142kb)

Untapped potential: Sustainable development opportunities stretched far as the eye could see

Florabella Pass walking track, Blue Mountains (May 2019, 707kb)

Harbourside living: Uninterrupted vistas for our tax-shelter investment properties

Harbourside Serviced Apartments, McMahons Point (Sep 2018, 240kb)

The curated home: Redesign your nest with hygge cosiness

Sutherland Crescent, Darling point (Jan 2017, 184kb)

Day-tripping: The greater our impact on nature, the more we wanted to see it

The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2019, 411kb)

From the shore to the plateau: Our every step toward each other just seemed to get more impossible

Garie North Head, Royal National Park (Jul 2019, 481kb)

More days on the beach: The IPCC reports that global average temperatures are projected to rise +2 degrees by 2050 Yeah well, that's debatable. This “climate crisis” stuff is really just a cover for global communism. 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. Cities are becoming heat-islands, with inland suburbs predicted to have average summertime temperatures at 40°C or higher Easily solved — people should choose better-paying jobs so they can move closer to the coast. There will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees The entire point of establishing a rules-based international order was to enable the free movement of capital and people. More people will die of heat-stroke And fewer will succumb to frostbite, pneumonia or hypothermia. There will be more category-5 storms Which will lead to more foreign aid, reconstruction jobs and growing GDP. Most of our arable land will be destroyed by decade-long megadroughts But vast tracks of Alaskan & Siberian wasteland will be unlocked for development, mining and agriculture. If the Himalayan glaciers melt, then Pakistan, India and China could go to war over water Why worry about something that might happen in the distant future long after we are all dead? So do nothing at all to address climate-driven ecological collapse? On the contrary, we will continue to act responsibly on climate change and take a balanced and tactile approach to avoid harming the economy, by using future technologies and not tax. But aren't you concerned about creating a world without snow or ice or even winters? No, how good is being able to jet-ski all year round!

Blackheath Oval snowman, Blue Mountains (Aug 2019, 471kb)

Reinforced bulwark: The oceans were an ideal place to dump all our stuff

Concrete erosion blocks, South Wollongong beach (Sep 2014, 397kb)

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

Sunrise over Bourke Street, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 57kb)

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

Backyard firewood at Blackheath NSW (Aug 2019, 443kb)

This brown and angry land: City dwellers still had a lot of trouble adjusting to the alien chaos of the Bush

Scribbly gum moth trails, Illawarra Escarpment track (Oct 2020, 306kb)

Volunteer sacrifice: According to former fire chiefs, relying on large numbers of volunteers to fight bushfires was not necessarily a sign of inadequate funding, but possibly the best way to fight bushfires (SBS, 2019)

Waterfall Bushfire Volunteers Memorial, commemorating the death of five volunteers in Nov 1980 (Sep 2020, 748kb)

Snafu City: Ruled over by self-elected and unresponsive leaders; where distrust, stagnation, corruption and absence of social cohesion were systematically ignored

Apartment towers surrounding Chatswood railway station (Feb 2016, 254kb)

Rocks & Crops: Diggers and drillers drew heartfelt inspiration from the island paradise of Naru

The Port Kembla coal terminal (PKCT) (Sep 2014, 251kb)

The hikikomori archipelago: A matrix of domestic ideology was created to expand the rate of self-incarceration

“Sirius” public housing at The Rocks, Sydney (Sep 2016, 173kb)

Troglodyte world: Going underground to dodge the consequences

Underground escalators at Macquarie University railway station, Sydney (Feb 2016, 306kb)

From lives to livelihoods: Consumption for symbolic, signalling and cultural reasons

New apartments from old flour mills, Lewisham (Sep 2015, 163kb)

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, 118kb)

Views not trees: The rules we lived by were lies

Poisoned trees at Larkin Street, Waverton (Jul 2017, 244kb)

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

The invasive plant species Common Gorse spreads along the Taieri Gorge, NZ (Dec 2017, 708kb)

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

Central Park apartments, Broadway (Jul 2018, 350kb)

Buckley's chance: Going nowhere is better than going backwards […] We cannot 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, 535kb)

Frame your reference: Cranes & crosses punctuated our existence

Elm tree memorial at Lewisham building site (Sep 2015, 99kb)

Down from the trees and into the meat: It was almost as if we knew the plague was coming

82nd street apartment entrance, NYC (Oct 2017, 361kb)

Surf's up: Sandy beaches became problematic in a world of rising sea levels

Fairy Bower rocks, Manly (Jan 2021, 649kb)

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

Royal Coastal Track, near Wattamolla (Aug 2020, 804kb)

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, 436kb)

This fatal shore: A remote and hostile continent where the detritus of the northern hemisphere were sent to be forgotten

The boulder-strewn shoreline on the way to Figure 8 Pool, Royal National Park (Oct 2019, 323kb)

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). The following summer on 2019-01-04 there was a new record of +48.9°C (Jan 2018, 65kb)

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, 99kb)

Sunset industry: The party had to end some time

Construction cranes at Barangaroo, Sydney (Jan 2020, 114kb)

Late for the sky: The air was eaten, promise crammed

The final blast-furnace at BlueScope Steel, in Port Kembla (Sep 2014, 97kb)

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

North Era camp-site before dawn, Royal National Park NSW (Jul 2019, 204kb)

A two-speed world: The landscape was redeveloped to better reflect our social order

The remains of Lawrence Hargrave Drive beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff (Dec 2016, 639kb)

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

Vandalised Moreton Bay fig tree roots on Wunulla Road in Point Piper (Sep 2012, 612kb)

Well-hidden symmetries: Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity was everywhere (Salingaros, 2000)

Southbank lighting store, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 611kb)

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

Leo Cushieri Quality Used Cars in Blacktown (Dec 2012, 192kb)

A machine to make the land pay: (Gilbert, 1905)

Flinders Road Industry lookout, Port Kembla BlueScope steelworks (Sep 2013, 241kb)

111 false dawns: Escape from lockdown was yearned for, but many realised the alternatives were far worse

Sunrise over the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 91kb)

Build a better fish: The hydrosphere was loaded with enough heavy-metals to make our marine-life indestructible

Storm-water grating at McCauley Lane in Alexandria (Mar 2018, 434kb)

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

Centre Place lane-way, Melbourne (Apr 2019, 475kb)

Nature always wins: The town did tend to get dangerous after nightfall

Hickson Road, Dawes Point Sydney Cove (Jan 2020, 846kb)

Jab into the blue: Synthetic opiates washed through our cities to help make life more liveable

Kent Street pyramid and A4 overpass, Millers Point (Jan 2014, 130kb)

Outwardness within: The world was only as small as you wanted it to be

Sightseeing at The Balconies, Royal National Park NSW (Aug 2019, 491kb)

Cars with grunt: Politicians fought hard to ensure tradies could keep their utes (SMH, 2019)

Penrith Station car park (Oct 2019, 344kb)

Intelligent design: 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, 534kb)

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

Domain car parking station (Jul 2018, 201kb)

The big smoke: Bushfire smoke pushed Sydney's air quality index rating to 2,552. That's 11 times higher than the level considered hazardous. And it's well below air quality index readings in cities in China, India, and other places known as hotbeds of air pollution. (Gizmodo, 2019)

Weeks of bushfire smoke in Sydney (Jan 2020, 171kb)

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

UTS construction site, Broadway (Jul 2018, 336kb)

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, 552kb)

Captive audience: Cruise liners, nursing homes, daycare centres and schools proved to be ideal ways to disseminate contagious disease (Sepkowitz, 2014)