paved paradise

I’m probably what you’d describe as a lukewarm activist. Never one for crowds, slogans and rallies, I prefer to let my consumer persona do the talking. I have steadily imposed a personal boycott on so many unethical and/or environmentally damaging brands over the last 20 years that there are some supermarket aisles I no longer even bother with. Then there’s my attempts to live life ‘plastic lite’. Not owning many gadgets. Trying to support small businesses. Cleaning up beaches. Buying a lot of goods secondhand. Donating to environmental groups. Writing letters. Getting three degrees in environmental science…that kind of thing.

Still, I’ve always tried to bring a scientific balance to my inner hippie that likes to commune with nature and eternally wonders where ‘everything else’ is meant to live. I try to consider the reality of development in the face of a growing global population as well as recognizing the mineral, petroleum and energy resources that, as a citizen of a developed country, I use every day.

But every now and then I hear of a proposal so idiotic that even I have to haul butt out to a demonstration. In the last 3 months I’ve joined in on two rallies, the first was a demand for increased investment in solar and a move away from the frightening  and recent increase in fracking, while today’s outing was in response to what must be the most insane development idea I’ve heard since London’s mayor Boris Johnson thought a third airport terminal in the middle of the Thames could be a goer.

Nightcliff Island

An idea so unconventional that many people initially thought it was a joke on the part of our town’s notoriously ridiculous quasi-tabloid newspaper. A sprawling development proposed for the middle of the Nightcliff/Coconut Grove mudflats, surrounded by mangroves, in a storm surge zone. In a part of the world where cyclones occasionally visit.

Part of today’s protest invited residents to take part in a short walk around the mangroves to help people appreciate first hand the kind of amazing habitat we have around our foreshore. By Darwin standards it was a massive turnout, several hundred people turned up to voice their concerns and opposition to the project, as well as the complete lack of consultation with the public that has been a feature of this process to date.

That said, I do have serious doubts such a project would ever go ahead. Though some idiots locals are for the idea, I think that the majority of residents in the area would be strongly opposed if it ever got green-lighted. The increasing rapid pace of development around our harbour is already a concern for many, particularly since the approval of a major gas pipeline operation a couple of years ago. These types of projects are not only putting increasing pressure on our prized local fisheries but also threaten many of our region’s endangered species such as dugongs and turtles. Although there have already been accusations from those in government of opponents being ‘anti jobs’ (*cough* Darwin’s current unemployment rate is less than 2%), it’s not the idea of developing Darwin that is a concern, but the scope, pace and sustainability of these plans. Currently one of Australia’s most ecologically healthy capital cities, this paradise is on a fast track to being paved over.