living within our means

These ancient granite boulders are the hallmark for the Furneaux Islands and part of the East Coast of Tasmania. With their time-worn rounded appearance, and in coastal positions vibrant orange and pastel green lichens. These lichens live within a very narrow ecosystem, an extremely challenging environment just above high water mark, drenched by waves or salt spray, baked by ferocious sun and ultraviolet light in summer and often encrusted in salt crystals. In winter they are lashed by the icy waters of Bass Strait and savage gales. They live in a very narrow margin, just above the hig water mark in an intertidal zone very hostile to life. Lichens are a truly ancient life form, a very simple organism but extremely hardy. This brilliant orange is almost iconic to these islands and naturally provides a brilliant contrast to the the aquamarine and turquoise blues of the sea.

The brilliant lichens scream at me of the delicate balance of nature, of how we must endeavor to live with our own means and in harmony within the greater environment that we are a part of. The effects of global warming and rising sea levels even by a few centimetres, could wipe these organisms away, or force them to higher ground. Many of the Furneaux Islands are low lying and any change in mean sea level will have a very marked effect with shallow seas and low lying land. This can be seen in times of severe gales with rogue waves penetrating the dunes or over washing over some islands. As humans today, we live in a increasingly frantic world driven by consumerism. We have a quenchless thirst for energy, minerals, land and indeed the habitat and livelihood of many of the organisms that we share the planet with, and intern help to sustain us. When will we, like the orange lichen learn to live sustainably within our means?