I am not a curious person, ladies and gentlemen, so it is well that I ended up sharing my life with my True Love and that we had two lovely, inquisitive boys.  It is a truism, but without them, I would be the lesser.

mating dragon flies

There is much to be learnt from the curiosity of children.

the kids

There was a time when those two boys would chastise their father and me if we stepped on an ant.

ant

We encouraged this interest in the environment and environmental conservation.  For one of our young men, this encouragement has lead to his pursuing studies and employment (career might be too strong a word) in environmental management, even though employment prospects do not look bright in this field.

swamp hens

Australia subsidises fossil-fuel industries for the employment that generates.  Perhaps there is another way of spending those subsidies?  I have a vision for the future that services to the environment will be a growth industry.  There is much to be done to protect our native wildlife and flora, including from our own destructive industry and land-use policies.

wombat
Many wombats suffer from mange that they catch from foxes.  New treatments are being trialed but re-infection is a significant problem, as is funding for mite treatment programs.

We hope our young man will eventually get a job.  At the moment, he is working for free while he finishes his studies.  Of course, it is not only regions where rich men want to put in coal mines or the like, that have an unemployment problem.  However, you wouldn’t guess that from the current political narrative.

ginini

Think about it, ladies and gentlemen.  Free enterprise is often not free.

This is my response to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge — Future and the Ragtag Daily Challenge —  Most Desirable.  In addition, because it is Friday in Australia, it is also time for my Friday song day.  I’ll spare you the song about the children being our future.  Our future depends on all of us.  Let’s not stuff it up.

Kind Regards.
Tracy

(All photos, apart from the wombat, were taken by my True Love.)

 

50 thoughts on “The Future Is Ours”

    1. Thank you, Dawn.
      The wombats are not as ubiquitous as they once were. The one in the photo was emaciated and sickly, and not long for this earth. The mange does unfortunately kill them. There was a mange eradication program underway in that area, but it did not seem to be working for that poor wombat.

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  3. The future depends on all of us, yes, but there is some more of hope when our children turn out to be interested in nature. Much depending on their parents, encouragement and a good school with good friends. Well done.

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  4. Really lovely images. How sad employment is not bright for you son seeking environmental opportunities…I suspect it is a disheartening time to be in this field. An area that I think should be placed on high priority right even if the power structures disagree with me.

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    1. It can be disheartening, but environmental science and conservation is full of passionate people. Thank goodness for that. My son has volunteered with some wonderful people who have been such terrific mentors. Still, cracking that first paying job is not easy.

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  9. Beautiful photos, Tracy! So encouraging to hear that young generation paying attention to environment and love nature. I agree with everyone here that you have done a great job raising your kids.

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  10. I like your choice of D’Nour as your Friday musical selection. He is new to me but is much celebrated world wide. The Green Economy is growing and its expansion will be employing more people in the future. Canada is facing a labour shortage as are many countries in the world as the transition to greener economy advances.

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      1. I see positions sometimes mentioned on Twitter. If you let me know what his field of interest and study is I’d keep my eye open – perhaps email me, let me know what he’d be interested in?

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  13. My brother majored in environmental studies and has had a fantastic and very lucrative career. His first job was working for an environmental waste management company which led to senior management of an electric company and finally to a CEO position leading the fight to eradicate asbestos in the workplace. Don’t give up hope for your son OR for the future of his career choice. There is much opportunity as the world turns its focus toward cleaning up its mistakes!

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  14. Your boys sound like very fine young men. I understand how disheartening it must be to be near graduation without good job prospects (my son has begun questioning his future after uni), but I am hopeful that our societies will recognise the very real need for the skills and talents of your son and his colleagues.

    Thanks for the song. I just looked at the cover for the album it’s on and realised I’ve been listening to this for 25 years, and I still love it.

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    1. We are hopeful our young man will eventually get a job. Most people don’t get a job in the field that they trained for. Who really knows what the jobs of the future are, right? We can only hope that the skills learnt can be employed in all types of new situations.
      I might have to branch out and choose a song from this century next time. 🙂

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      1. I did a search on jobs in environmental management in NZ and quite a few seemed to come up (surely some would be appropriate to his skills and interests, right?)
        Would he consider a move across the pond?
        I think you’re right about the jobs we do being different to our training, and I worry about the narrow specialised degrees that seem so common these days. They don’t seem to teach as many transferable skills as a good old fashioned BA. I may be biased of course since my first degree was in sociology and politics.

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      2. I’m sure all possibilities will be considered when his degree is done and dusted, Su. At the moment, the dreaded first year mandatory chemistry looms the largest on his horizon. Funny how the first year units are the real killers.

        I’m all for the BA too, Su. It was my first degree. It was uncharitably known as Marriage 1, which I thought was rather unfair. I did have to study economics after that though so I could speak the prevailing policy lingo, but pure economics always seemed rather disconnected from reality.

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  16. Wishing your boys lots of luck with finding a job that they’ve actually trained for, Tracy! Like you said, that has become an increasingly difficult thing these days (I don’t have a job I’ve trained for either 😯). And so sorry about the poor wombats suffering from mange, I haven’t heard of it before. How awful that reinfection is such a severe problem and that funding for programs that help are in trouble. 😦

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  18. That word “free” is so misleading. Nothing is really free, everything has implication for the rest of the world, we all owe, we are all obligated. Yet so many people are willing to spend money on lottery tickets, almost never recouped, (do they do this in Australia?) but complain about taxes that subsidize our life styles, our kids’ educations, our scientific research, our mutually shared futures. Good for you and True Love for raising children eager to participate positively in the future of their world.

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    1. Yep, people always complain about how much tax they pay. Except if you have reached retirement age. (65?), then you pay very little tax at all. It is quite unfair for younger people. If I had my way, I would get rid of most federal taxes and allow states to raise their own taxes, including income tax, for them to deliver services to the people. I suppose there are issues with that, including possibly some constitutional ones. I haven’t looked into it.

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      1. What really gets to me is the enormous amount of money paid into lotteries and other gambling enterprises, (horse racing, sports outcomes, etc.) the endless bitching about the cost of genuine labor, and the griping about how other people should obey “your” laws while scofflawing the ones in place. Racing through red lights, stealing items from stores, cheating on tests, starting rumors about innocent people, claiming credit others have earned. Then these are the same folks who complain about how high their taxes are, and aren’t we paying too much for services we “don’t want.” If we would all live with industry and integrity, the world would be so much more fair for everyone. Dontcha think?

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