Bellingen area: air_conditioning

25.1.17

Cacti and Succulents of the Bellingen Area

On a walk through Bellingen one can encounter cacti and succulents in cafes, shops, markets and community gardens. The spiny exotic plants are everywhere. They seem to be an expression of the fashionable Bellingen lifestyle. They are trendy and convenient as they require no care.

Residents and businesses rejecting their local environment make a clear statement with their decor: Wish I was somewhere else - far away from here.

The must-have plants are easy to name as 'cactus' or 'spiky plant', even for the botanically naive person.

”The interiors world has gone crazy over cactus plants!” "Succulents and cactuses with weird and wonderful leaves are “curated” in eclectic collections of pots, and terrariums are a thing."

The pots grace the outdoor lounges of hipsters. For years now ‘spiky plants’ have showcased Sydney’s real estate. That Mediterranean-style feeling seems to sell. Interior gardens, green walls, rooftop/balconies and outdoor living rooms sprout a mono-culture of spiky things in planter rows. It is the botanic message of the ‘for sale sign’ or 'money dwells here'.

Dispersal by plant segment makes it a dream for the horticultural industry and customers. Once the thing has outgrown its pot it is time to 'set it free.' In the garden they become a serial drain blocker. On larger blocks the fossil fuel maintenance team tends to throw the cut offs into the edge of the bush.

Forgotten are the Prickly Pear Cacti hedges from South America that quickly overran many thousand acres of farmland. Today still mother of millions are poisoning cattle and succulents are poisoning children.

While some attempt to control weeds, others are disseminating invasive plants throughout the Valley. Limiting the trade in potentially invasive species is outright unthinkable.

Despite of being set in a rich Gumbaynggirr landscape of biodiversity both businesses and residents choose to populated the landscape with introduced and invasive cacti, succulents, agaves, bromeliads and bamboo, among other weeds.

While deforestation, rapid land clearing, shave the land of native vegetation and biodiversity, the Big Quarry exports more coal then ever before.

It almost seems that people have resigned themselves to climate inaction and are preparing their air conditioned dwellings for Death Valley like (56.7 °C) temperatures extremes. Ornamental flora from the desert of central Mexico or Arizona seems to be the appropriate setting for anticipating the climate catastrophe on the most arid continent.

Update:
"Bellingen registers its hottest day on record. Temperatures soared into the 40s as Bellingen went past its previous best to a top of 48.9 degrees just after 5pm according to Bellingen Weather’s station... in 60 years it has never been that hot." Bellingen Courier. 13.02.2017
NSW smashes February statewide heat records two days in a row SMH, 13.02.2017

17.1.15

2014 Earth's warmest year on record - but we are air conditioned

"The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for 2014 was the highest among all years since record keeping began in 1880." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA

Coal powered air conditioners rattle through suburbia, shops and malls. All doors are wide open to invite possible customers in. People and pets are advised to stay indoors in the land of the great outdoors. Livestock are precooked on treeless paddocks. Wildlife will have to manage somehow. The media disseminates images of beaches with jolly beach bodies cooling down before racing back to their ac suv to carry them to the next cool location.

Houses seem to be built for another geographical region, but not Australia. After 100s of years they have not come to terms with the climate, let alone unhinged catastrophic climate change.

" ..You see the same housing design from Hobart to Emerald to even Darwin, and that's madness... Australia's houses are poorly adapted to extremes of temperature. Houses with little shade, green space or surrounding trees, and with dark roofs and low ceilings, mean that the only way to cool them is to turn on the air-conditioning", Dr Hanna, Ecomagazine

Whatever the seemingly temporary dwelling is, just bang a legionnaires disease dripping air conditioner on it and 'she'll be right'. Should there be a blackout it is always handy to blame possum for dark malls and melting businesses where nothing goes without electronic gadgets.

Stay cool Bellingen

"Historically in Australia, more people die from heatwaves than they do from any other type of natural disaster," Professor Steffen

Leaving the habitable planet option behind, out of control fires rage over the country. While the climate is "getting out of control", Australia chooses to stick its head into the hot beach sand and tolerate the increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.

"About 10 per cent of fires are lit by children." Dr Janet Stanley, Monash University, abc