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Are we at war with nature? The language of leadership at the tipping point
By Lorraine Gordon
The closer we get to tipping points of runaway biodiversity collapse, soil degradation and climate change, the more we need to accept that we’re part of a complex ecological system beyond our control. Our path to ecological reconciliation will be paved not only by the way we farm, but in the stories we tell and the language we use, writes Lorraine Gordon.
systems. Without significant change in the way the population operates, including how we conduct agri- culture, human activities will continue to destabilise our planet. Over 50 years ago, the term ‘Regenerative’ was developed by systems theorist Charles Krone in the US to describe a radically different paradigm of ap- proaching human and systems development. Leading Academic Agronomists agree that, Agricul- ture is in crisis. Soil health is collapsing. Biodiversity faces its sixth mass extinction. Crop yields are pla- teauing. Against this crisis narrative swells a clarion call for regenerative agriculture” (Giller, Hijbeek, An- dersso, & Sumberg, 2021). Over 50 years ago, the term ‘Regenerative’ was de- veloped by systems theorist Charles Krone in the US to describe a radically different paradigm of approach- ing human and systems development. Agriculture occupies 38 per cent of the planet’s total landmass. It is therefore a significant influencer on our planetary systems. Firstly, agriculture has tipped bio- geochemical flows through overuse of phosphorus and nitrogen. It has also risked biosphere integrity by decreasing genetic diversity within species. Other impacts are felt around land-systems change, freshwater use and climate change. We need to invite resilience back into agriculture if we are to survive in an increasingly hostile and fragile environment.
Off the back of the toughest drought in Australian history, November 2019 saw my family farm simul- taneously 'smashed' between two major fires in NSW – the Ebor fire at one end and the East Cattai fire at the other. This took out approximately 20 kilometres of boundary fence and $700,000 in infrastructure. In a few hours, these catastrophic fires completely devastated our landscape. Come March 2020, our entire operation was shut down for much of the re- maining year. Flood conditions caused a series of avalanches on the mountain to our farm, which re- sulted in road closures and cut us off from staff and contractors for nearly 6 weeks. Everyone was forced to drive three hours to get around this disaster and come to work. Such double-barrelled crises are now familiar for many Australians, particularly farmers who so often bear the inordinate brunt of climate and economic instability. As a community, we will continue to feel the worsening brunt of these extreme weather condi- tions as we face the reality of climate change. Planetary boundaries is a concept involving Earth system processes that contain environmental bound- aries. The framework is based on scientific evidence that human actions since the Industrial Revolution have become the main driver of global environmental change (see Figure 1). Planetary Boundaries are currently unravelling and causing us to rocket away from the stability of the Holocene; climate change is only one of these
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