From Nick Anthony, co-founder SEEK

5 Mins.With Nick

Phukets 89.5FM Radio Newsletter interview March 2013

I have been doing business in Thailand since 1991 and Phuket based since 2001, I have always had an active interest in environmental issues and with Sean Panton, the car director at JW Marriott on Mai khao beach created an NGO called seek, which brings together the community, business sector and local government to initiate and implement long term sustainability to our island, which includes tough issues such as sustainable tourism, zero waste management and clean beach, all schools environmental education, our islands energy self sufficiency and critically the protection of our natural environment both on land and in the sea. We are very fortunate to have the full support and cooperation of the past three governors and are now completing a 2020 visioning document that will be a road map to ensure Phuket remains a beautiful place for future generations.
http://www.myseek.org/

 

What do you like to do most in your free time?
I am a Pisces and a water guy, I love the ocean, swimming, snorkeling, sailing and boating, and try to spend 60 to 90 days a year on the water. It helps that my family including our dog sausage and cat bling bean also love the ocean so is always a family trip…

Where on the island do you like going the most?
Koh Kai Nui, a tiny island off Phuket’s SE coast is our favorite, the chok d restaurant is fabulous and snorkeling often very very good.

What is your all time favorite movie?
Blade runner is certainly up there, it’s a 60 year ago take on the future that was produced in the 80s by Ridley Scott. The futuristic world is prescient in its vision and alarming in its manipulation of memories, sensory feelings and notion of conscience : both exciting and terrifying.

What is it you like about working in the radio station?
I really enjoy the music, which is hard to balance for a wide audience, Sam does a great job for a young guy that missed much of rocks formative years. The stations shows are always interesting, fun, funny and localized and you can tell its a station with a big heart by the support t gives to the community, charities and enabling local residents to do better things and be better people. The station helps to bring out your best…

What are the expectations from your show?
I try to provide a global aspect to environmentalism, but recognize that change needs to be localized and individual. I am not a preacher but a teacher, more enabler than lecturer and hope that by showing that change and environmentalism is a journey not a destination… A journey that we all must take to protect our island from degradation.

What do you love about this Island?
Despite 30 years of abuse our island, Phang nga bay and the Andaman sea are wonders of the natural world, and I feel a great empathy for the natural habitat that can’t protect itself… The old growth trees, the slow lorises that get paraded around for photos, the dolphins that so desperately try to survive and the turtles that swim in our garbage… It’s this wonderful, diverse natural habitat that we call home that Is so important to protect and enhance….

What inspires you to do what your doing now?
I have swum with whale sharks, played with dolphins, snorkeled with sea snakes, spoken with owls, squawked with baby eagles in the night and heard the lapping waves as I lay in the shallows….have smelt wild orchids, stopped traffic to let pythons cross the road and tried to help wild sea otters maintain their natural habitats…. What we have on our doorstep is something that we all should fight for, and it inspires me when people turn off their cars, go for walks, ride their bikes, take the slow life and appreciate our natural world, not be bundled up, isolated in an air con money making world where because mans foot is stronger than the natural world, that all others must bow down.

How would you like to see Phuket in a few years time?
Blade runners vision is not utopia but of a desecrated planet…. We are heading in that direction fast, and unless we all adapt and adopt new ways then we will run head first into a tourism brick wall, where the reefs are dead, seas are empty except for garbage, our mountains extracted, our waterways polluted and our air filled with the stench of traffic jams that snake around every road. Our future can be low density, low polluting, caring, sharing and co-operative, and takes the will of not just a few but of many, if not all. It takes the collective support of locals, tourists, businesses and government to vision our island, then enable all to make it a reality. The vision is energy self sufficient, low carbon, smart, futuristic but also back to basics… Less is more and an appreciation of the slow life.

 

EVOLUTION: Where from: Where To

Slave trade elimination was advocated in New England 1671 but not law there until 1808 and not US wide until 1865, nearly 200 years later.

Changes used to take time, but with facebook, twitter, live TV and the current reality of climate change that has been a wake up call

change must take place IMMEDIATELY.

 

1760-1830s

THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation and technology had a world changing effect on the population. Beginning in the UK the era spread to Europe and North America.

There was a dramatic shift away from use of draft animals towards the mechanization of initially the textiles companies and with the development of iron making techniques both in the 1780s, and the increase in use of refined coal. Improved roads, canals and railways further fuelled the industrial beast which kicked in with scale after 1820.

Population in the UK went from 8mn in 1800 to 30mn in 1900. Europe’s population went from 100mn in 1700 to 400mn in 1900.

1850s – 1914

SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

THE AGE OF SYNERGY, scientific based change

The advent of Steel, rediscovered (Song dynasty techniques were lost) in the 1850s for military use brought about a surge in the worlds growth. This revolution grew to include chemical industry development, the refinement of petroleum and distribution, the start of electrical industry and marked a transition of technological leadership from Britain to the USA and Germany.

By 1930 the population had risen to 2bn people

1945 – 1960

ATOMIC AGE

The first Atomic bomb in 1945 followed a month later by Hiroshima kicked off the atomic age. The subsequent powerful peace time rebuilding was an expansionist period set in. The atomic age failed to live up to expectations with Chernobyl, a near accident at 3 mile island and issues with plant de-commissioning. The nuclear age brought with it an arms race that took the world to the brink of WW3

1960 – 1970

THE SWINGING Sixties

With flower power and a call for peace not war the generation enjoyed a drugged out luddite attitude with moves to stop nuclear power, ban supersonic travel, oppose chemical use in food and agriculture and glimmers of a happier new global vision that crashed with Woodstock.

1970 -1980

ME Decade

Population increase, a new business cycle and the distractions of leisure brought about a new middle class, serious environmentalism started but was not mainstream. It was a GREEN decade as crops radically changed to be higher yielding and more productive. This radically increased nitrogen content in soil which increased coastal dead zones through algal blooms. Industrial nitrogens greatest environmental impact though is to increase the world’s population. By increasing food supply in Africa, India, China and the west as much as 40% of the world’s protein intake is from artificial nitrogen. The fix is in – had the natural worlds weather, droughts and population control taken its course our population would be half what it is.

1980 -1990

THE GOGO Decade

Greed was good, easy money and a take mentality, America’s expansion and “modernization” was the beacon that excited the wannabes. The world wanted their laissez fair throw away attitudes, no matter the cost. Cheaper production, more of it and short termism were the flag bearers of a generation.

1990 – 2000

THE NICE Decade

Non Inflationary Constant Expansion, as the world found the housing drug and again fast cash and ecosystem destruction with all the excitement of social connectivity through the internet. A new consumer drug that kept our attention away from global destruction. The nasty consequences of the NICE decade extend beyond the current downturn. The natural resources and processes – such as the climate, the soil, the nitrogen cycle and the biodiversity on which our health and economies depend were degraded faster than they can be replenished. We faced a global environmental crisis that will profoundly affect the lives of all of us and barely acknowledged it. Al Gore brought us climate change awareness but people didn’t change much.

 

By 2000 the population had risen to 6BN

2000-2010

THE NOUGHTIES Decade

Brought us Chinas last NICE gasp that inflated the world, however food inflation and their economic miracle tripped up their impending global takeover. Y2K, a computer meltdown widely expected that failed to materialize ushered in the internet as mainstream. This era brought peak debt and peak oil reality that now in 2011 are only just starting to reverberate around global economies and the era saw a celebration of resources as scarcity drove miners to expand their thirst and quest for the world’s oil, copper, coal and precious metals and rare earths resources. Al Gore brought us climate change awareness and the world starts to pay attention.

 

New to …

O…

Under …

Good at …

H…

T…

I…

Environmentally …

S…

 

Try fill in the blanks

 

By 2010 the population had risen to 7Bn

2010 -2020

THE HANGOVER Decade

With feast comes famine, with excess comes redress, with action comes reaction.

 

HELP, cries the world

ANGER, call the unemployed and disenfranchised by climate change

NOW, call the scientists and worlds protectors

GASP, go the inefficient manufacturers and polluters as they hang on to NICE memories

O my Golly, as the public collectively find a new faith in individual action

Virility drops as much as 30% through contaminants and population growth slows

Environmentally the world tips closer to breakdown

Responsibly and collectively our species grapple with change that will make 40% of all beings extinct in ONE GENERATION.

 

More than half of our population now lives in cities, nests for a super organism out of control. Consuming everything and anything, groupers, sharks fin, metals, fuels, building materials, money. These honey pots are mostly out of natural space, polluted in air, sea and soil, challenged by extreme temperatures and prone to disease strains such as H1N1 or bird flu.

 

2020 -2030

THE MEMORY decade

Man changes his tune and woke up from its hangover       
Earth still spins and the rain still falls, although its anything but business as usual
Money becomes scarce and even more concentrated
Overpopulation becomes governmental in control

Responsibility through technology connectivity keeps a still population

You and I get cancelled and us becomes the new collective as the world bands together to make a better world

 

2040-2100

??????????

Your actions today will make this paragraph.

Your actions are your voice. Find it and help write history

 

What should we do collectively, or individually?

get your small community motivated

1. form a community. get your friends together, start by living as communally as you can, transition to living in a rural area so you can grow your own food, build your own shelter, etc.

2. If you and your social group are determined to live in an urban setting, start community gardens, simple recycling operations to earn some cash, get the neighborhood focused on local, bootstrapping survival.

3. Give up on this whole ‘convince the masses’ idea. It’s time to focus on local and regional actions.

Get your family and friends focused on long term survival…

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