I’ve been fortunate to be living in Tasmania for about 5 years. During this time, I’ve become so much more aware of the environment. I moved to the East Coast and more specifically to beautiful Freycinet on arrival in Tassie and started chasing auroras being an avid amateur photographer. One evening when the stars aligned for a beautiful aurora, I noticed some waves hitting the rocks and saw the most outstanding colours in the water. This neon blue was splashing about and then it all made sense to me when people posted things about bioluminescence on social media. Whilst it looks amazing, there are many bioluminescent algae species that are toxic and harmful to ocean life and certainly to humans too. The next day I walked about the Coles Bay jetty and noticed all this ‘pink stuff’ floating around near the rocks and that was the algae I had seen the previous day.
We need to tread very carefully and look at the impact we are having on the planet. Tasmania seems to pride itself on being the ‘green state’ in Australia. Yet deforestation and the emissions released from logging native forests are increasing unchecked at unprecedented rates. In April of this year, I was privileged to go out with a couple who are into forest conservation and got hoisted about 55 metres high up into the tree canopy in Lonnavale.
One with Nature (Credit: Adi Munshi)
Did you know that Tasmania has the tallest flowering plant in the world? We are also home to the second tallest trees in the world or as some call them the “Giants”. Mountain ash, eucalyptus regnans, and Huon pines are some of treasures of our beautiful state.
Some of these trees have survived age-old bush fires and live on for hundreds of years. These trees are important for a number of reasons including being home to our native biodiversity, carbon storage (very relevant in today’s world of changing climate) and also are one of the primary reasons why we have tourism in Tasmania. Visitors come here to experience nature which gives us even more reason to protect the trees. Yet there are some who do not see the value.
I very recently attended a climate change workshop and we were fortunate to have an aboriginal speaker who shared some stories of how for millenia the aboriginal people cared for the land by living in nature and considering themselves as part of nature and not ‘above’ the rest of the natural world as currently we consider ourselves to be. They carried out cool burns which prevent the spread of large bush fires. When it was the ‘dry season’ which we currently refer to as ‘drought’ they simply adapted their diet and ate more sea food.
An important takeaway for me personally was that the indigenous live an eco-centric life, living among nature, recognising that we are all part of the same circle and are interdependent. We are not above nor below but part of this natural world. We cannot continue with an ego-centric attitude as we are already witnessing the power of nature through destructive storms, floods, and bushfires. The 1.5C limit set by the Paris Agreement which was agreed to by all countries is something we are about to breach and whilst it doesn’t look great – there is still hope and we can all start with small steps of protecting the natural world around us and watch our own consumption habits living consciously and ‘leave the planet better than we found it’.
I feel privileged to live in such a beautiful part of the world and will constantly do my bit, spreading awareness and taking small steps to reduce my impact so future generations can enjoy the smaller things in life like a wilderness trek, birdwatching or simply being mindful and watching a platypus in the wild.
Adi Munshi - Manager
Tasmanian Travel & Information Centre