John Seed and the Council of All Beings Part III
(Page 2 of 10)
May/June 1989
By Pat Stone
Seed: In 1979, while I was working in a meditation center in New South Wales, Australia's first environmental confrontation over forestry issues occurred not five miles from where I lived. I was shopping at the market when one of the locals appealed to people to come the next day and try to stop the Forestry Commission from logging Terania Creek, an area that contained some of the last subtropic rain forest in the country. I didn't want to get involved. I had never even been to Terania Creek. I was a Buddhistsomeone who just stayed cool and watched as things rose and passed away.
RELATED CONTENT
A Portable Environment, A Portable Environment, or...How To Survive The Ice Age, In Comfort! Januar...
A Plowboy Interview with William Ophuls whose 1973 Ph.D. dissertation was on the management of poli...
On October 15, blogs around the world are writing about environmental issues. We are, too!...
Energy & Environment October/November 2002
For cruising or commuting...
Building and installing an alternative energy solar panel on the roof of a house or pole, including...
I still can't remember what motivated me to go down there, but I did, and through the events that followed, my life totally changed. Two years later I had lost all interest in meditating and growing my own food and had become an activist going from one environmental dispute to another.
MOTHER: Was there a specific turning point?
Seed: We were involved in nonviolent direct action: standing in front of bulldozers, climbing up trees in the paths of loggers and so on. Somehow, when I got inside the rain forest in the heightened state of awareness that comes from being chased by police or in danger of my life, the rain forest got inside of me. It was able to become integrated with my puny intelligence and use me for its own protection. The experience was the warmest connection that I believe we human beings are able to have in this world.
MOTHER: Were your Terania Creek actions successful?
Seed:Yes, but all they saved was Terania
Creek. We had decided to try to protect the whole surrounding Nightcap Range. So in 1981 we went back up against the machinery. Several hundred of us were arrested. After we'd spent over two months camped up on Mount Nardi, conducting actions daily, public opinion polls showed that 70% of the people of New South Wales wanted an end to rain-forest logging. So the government created six parks, including a Nightcap one.
Then the Tasmanian Wilderness Society asked for our help. They had been trying for five years to stop the proposed Franklin Dam, a structure that would have flooded the heart of Tasmania's temperate rain-forest wilderness. About 12 of us went down and helped establish a blockade that went on to become the largest environmental confrontation in Australia's history. More than 3,000 people took part. This was just before the federal elections, and there was so much interest that Bob Hawke, the Labor Party candidate for prime minister, promised that if elected he would stop the dam.
So three weeks before the election, we fanned out to I I marginal electorates around the country and knocked on every door twice. We swung all 11 areas, the Labor Party was elected, and Bob Hawke's first words after the results were announced were, "The dam will not be built."
MOTHER: You all must have felt pretty powerful by then.
Page:
<< Previous 1 | 2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Next >>
