Garth Dutton

What Future For Iraq – A Poem

Here is another piece to stimulate thought.

What Future For Iraq
By Garth Dutton

The famous Czech novelist
Milan Kundera said that
events succeed each other
so quickly these days
people soon forget…

Forgotten now is the Iraq Hostage Crisis
that preceded the first Gulf War.
As soon as the last hostage was released,
forty days & nights
of saturation bombing began.

Forgotten too
is the hotshot American pilot
who ‘blew away’ the leading British tanks
as they swept unopposed through the desert
in an arc towards the Euphrates,
intending to cut off the entire Iraqi army in Kuwait.
Instead of achieving
the greatest tactical victory in military history,
the British Army ‘downed tools’
at even the concept of ‘friendly fire’,
so allowing the entire Republican Guard
to escape with all their tanks.
Saddam Hussein remained in power
till overthrown twelve years later
in the second Gulf War.
A war that is still going on in November 2008.

And do you remember the Iran/Iraq war?
Iraq still stands
between the Mullahs of Tehran
and Mecca, the holiest place in Islam.
The Mullahs regard the Saudi Royal Family
as one of the most corrupt regimes
the world has ever known,
and it is charge of Mecca.
An Iranian student at high school here
once said to me,
“Iran’s Shi’ites have the clergy,
so they should run Mecca.”

In Iraq at the moment,
relations between Shi’ites and Sunnis
are rather like relations were
between Protestant and Catholic
in Northern Ireland
till quite recent times.

Is there no end to the turmoil in Iraq?

Is there no end indeed…

Tags: garth dutton, iraq, poem, Poetry

“Old Growth Forest” Is A Flawed Term

As mentioned in my first post, some things I write can be read as controversial and confrontational to some. This next article is no exception. It’s my hope that it raises a few questions which lead to a lot of answers.

“Old Growth Forest” Is A Flawed Term
© Garth Dutton B.A. Hons. (Geography), 2007

I have an Honours Degree in Geography from the University of Adelaide. In theoretical and computer ‘models’ of the environment used in Geography, every piece of terminology used must give an exact, and correct, mental picture. The use of even one piece of inappropriate terminology can give a completely false picture of reality.

I believe the term ‘old growth forest’, as it is currently used, to be a particularly inappropriate piece of terminology, because in Australia we actually have such a thing as a genuine old growth forest, namely a Mallee forest that has been continuously grazed by sheep over a long period of time.

In such a forest, there are no young trees at all, as all the seedlings have been eaten by sheep. All the trees are old, and eventually the forest will simply die of old age.

But the term ‘old growth forest’ is currently used to describe a ‘full age range’ forest, which is only ‘old’ in the sense that it has been on a particular site for a long time, perhaps for millennia. Such a forest contains everything from mature trees many hundreds of years old to day old seedlings, and the forest has been there for a long time because it is continually renewing itself. It also contains its full compliment of all the birds, animals and insects that live there.

It follows that a forest that has been selectively logged of its mature trees is a ‘reduced age range forest’, and re-growth or a plantation is a ‘single age range forest’. And an ‘old growth forest’ is like the grazed Mallee forest referred to earlier.

The Canadian environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki, said to me in a letter a couple of years ago, that the problem is that the term “old growth forest’ is currently being used inappropriately, but its present usage is so entrenched in the literature and psyche of both science and the environmental movement that it seems unchangeable.

He is trying to get a better term ‘ancient forest’ adopted in Canada, with some success.

In its present usage, the term ‘old growth forest’ has given paper producers, and loggers worldwide, a quite ‘false picture’ of what they are actually doing. They say they are cutting down ‘old forests’ and will in time replace them with ‘new forests’.

What they are actually doing is cutting down ‘full age range forests’ and replacing them, if at all, with ‘single age range forests’. And they seem to see no difference between a living tree and its dead remains in a woodchip, because they regard both as inanimate.

Someone has got to get the terminology changed, or the cutting down of the world’s forests will be unstoppable.

Tags: ancient forest, david suzuki, Environment, garth dutton, old growth forest

The First Post (Of Many)

My name is Garth Dutton and I’m a writer, musician and avid environmentalist. This site is my attempt to share my thoughts, feelings and experiences and to network with other like minded individuals from around the world.

I write songs, poetry, haiku, short stories and novels. However, I also love writing about the environment. Sometimes what I write is pretty straight-forward while other things are controversial and confronting for some.

Welcome to my website and feel free to contact me about anything you find. I love a good conversation.

Tags: Environment, Garth, garth dutton, haiku, Music, Poetry, Prose, songwriter, songwriting, writer, Writing