Environment
Nature's Endless Bounty
We live in an infinite world.
Research suggests that “non-renewable” resources will, if given enough time, renew. Fresh water is limitlessly abundant; old-growth forests eventually grow back; ocean algae will continue to bloom and sink into the abyss to replenish our oil. Even if stars burn through all their fuel and explode, new and more glorious worlds will coalesce from their remains.
The climate always changes. There have been 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 there is nothing to worry about. We can keep doing whatever we like with a sparkling clear conscience. For the good Earth abides forever.
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There are currently 38 photographs in this section.
It was fun while it lasted: 90 888 831 barrels a day — the greatest achievement of our generation has been to make the deserts bloom
Ceiling streamers at the NSW Art Gallery (Apr 2014)
We are the memories we create: We reach into the future from the past, but how will people remember us?
Tree growing in the old Fosters brewery wall (since demolished), at Broadway in Sydney (Apr 2014)
A machine that makes the land pay: (Gilbert, 1905)
Flinders Road Industry lookout, Port Kembla BlueScope steelworks (Sep 2013)
Stack underflow: And then the chimneys went silent
The former Port Kembla Copper stack, from O'Donnell street (Sep 2013)
One day this will all be yours: May our descendants enjoy the hollowed-out legacy we saw fit to bequeath them
Iron slag at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow (Aug 2012)
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 Sewerage Works (Feb 2011)
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)
Stack trace: Among many other things, trade deals have brought us the benefits of de-industrialisation
The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack (Sep 2014)
If it isn't grown, it's mined: Diggers and drillers can draw heartfelt inspiration from the island paradise of Naru
The Port Kembla coal terminal (PKCT) (Sep 2014)
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)
The war on climate: 500-year events which happen every five years. Nine-month summers, super El Niños, category-five hurricanes, mega-droughts and wild-fires. Every decade, year and season the hottest on record… By the time we're done, we're going kill billions
Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney's east (Oct 2012)
Better living through banking: … where on a quiet night you can hear the money rustling
Pedestrian footbridge at Barangaroo (Apr 2016)
After Nature: A 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)
Epic ruin porn: Jack and Jackie died a long time ago, while Camelot has become an abandoned car-yard
Leo Cushieri Quality Used Cars in Blacktown (Nov 2012)
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)
Fubar City: Ruled over by distant and unresponsive leaders; where malinvestment, stagnation, discontent and lack of social cohesion are systematically ignored
Apartment towers surrounding Chatswood railway station (Feb 2016)
The albatross beneath our feet: Apartment blocks soar where agent-orange once brewed
The decontaminated site of the Union Carbide plant, at Rhodes (Jul 2013)
Situation normal: Everything was fine until it wasn't
Lawsons Auctions car-park, Moore Street Annandale (Sep 2015)
Sprawl is good: Sprawl is right, sprawl works. Sprawl clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit (Gekko, 1987)
Diamond Bay cliffs at Dover Heights, in Sydney (Feb 2014)
We travel in stylllleeee: You can fly carbon-neutral by offsetting your flight during the booking process
Primary school mosaic in Sydenham Green, near the Sydney Airport (Sep 2012)
A domain of wreaths: Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend (Mao Zedong, 1956)
Papered-over window display in Henry Str Lewisham (Sep 2015)
Creating the perfect city: To paraphrase Lewis Mumford: the apotheosis of cities is to funnel people from one checkout to the next
The M4 Western Distributor at Darling Harbour in Sydney (Jul 2012)
Build a better fish: We loaded the hydrosphere with so many heavy-metals that our marine life became indestructible
An environmentally themed storm-water grating at McCauley Lane in Alexandria (Jun 2015)
Where even the windows weep: We have created villages blessed with community, cohesion and a common sense of purpose
Factory windows at Chester Lane, Zetland (Sep 2014)
Urban planning: 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)
Laps around the Sun: An golden landscape of plenty, with better things yet to come
The Coal Loader tunnel, Waverton (Jul 2017)
A two-speed world: We reshaped the planet to reflect our social order
Lawrence Hargrave Drive ruins beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff (Dec 2016)
The answer to everything is 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)
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)
The great pile: 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 at O'Riordan Street (Daily Telegraph, 2014) (Aug 2014)
Unfortunate but it can'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)
Views rooted in ecology: We peer through the bay-windows of our tastefully renovated homes, yet cannot see the yachts for the trees
Vandalised Moreton Bay fig tree roots on Wunulla Road in Point Piper (Sep 2012)
Less is more: Lots of rectangles to corral our indexed, team-building and non-offensive lives
Housing demolition on Gray Street, at Kogarah (Apr 2011)
Our future lies in the past: The lucrative benefits of four decades of neo-liberalism are there for all to see
BP Site bund wall, Waverton (Jul 2017)
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)
A box of one's own: Apartment living is not only stylish, but helps foster a stronger sense of community
Soon to be demolished Sirius public housing at The Rocks, Sydney (Sep 2016)
Views not trees: The rules we live by are lies
Poisoned trees at Larkin Street, Waverton (Jul 2017)
Crimson and clover: The sky can be whatever you want it to be
The final blast-furnace at BlueScope Steel, in Port Kembla (Sep 2014)