The Overview Effect | Bob Brown & Scott Jordan see a protected takayna rainforest
Usually I'm on Bundjalung country, but THIS episode was recorded on takayna land in lutruwita (otherwise known as Tasmania), and I'd like to pay respects to the takayna people, and all first nations people of beautiful lutruwita.
I have been here in Tasmania for the last 5 days and if you've been listening to recent episodes or following me on Instagram, you'll know that I was running the takayna ultramarathon. This is a 51km trail through the pristine Tarkine rainforest, the largest temperature rainforest in Australia; and it was AMAZING.
And brutal. The run was brutal. The course was super technical, with lots of really steep hills, climbing over and under fallen trees, bush bashing, heaps of rocks and mud, river crossings; it really was something else. But it was incredible, and I am so grateful to have experienced it, and I highly recommend anyone listening to come and do the run next year.
And that's not JUST because of the specular running experience, but because it was all for a cause. See were running to raise awareness and funds for the Bob Brown Foundation to protect this place, which is every day under threat of logging and mining.
The team and volunteers at the Bob Brown Foundation are truly amazing, and the passion and the community that they've been here around this cause is so special. I had the absolute pleasure of spending the day after race at their forest defenders camp meeting many of them and learning about their front line actions and seeing the devastation that they're trying to stop.
So this is what I'm sharing with you today.
I have two guests today: one of them is Scott Jordan who is a takayna campaigner, and we sat down in the rainforest at the defender's camp where he will take you through all of the details about what the forestry activities and doing to the landscape, the environmental impacts, the socio/political situation, the economics of the situation, and how this campaign is at the core of the politics in this country.
MOST importantly, he shares what you can do to help the fight. This is really important because it's not just a local issue. In fact, people outside Tasmania have a really key role to play in this fight so please listen in to what Scott has to say about hat.
But first, you'll hear someone to set the scene, and tell us about how special the Tarkine is, and the destructive societal mentality that is leading to these sorts of activities in the first place.
He is the grandfather of the environmental movement in Australia.
He led the successful blockade in the Franklin River in the early 80s.
He helped establish both the Wilderness Society and Bush Heritage Australia.
He co-founded the world's first Green political party, and held seats in various state and federal houses.
He really needs no other introduction, of course I'm talking of none other than the man himself, Dr Bob Brown
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