These days it seems everyone (or every company with a social media presence) is jumping aboard the environmental train. It’s hard not to get cynical about how much these companies actually care, and how much difference is being made by supporting an “environmentally-friendly” company. We are hit from left, right and centre with heart-wrenching images of starving polar bears, lost orangutans and turtles suffocating on plastic straws.
But there’s something in Australia’s history that we could really learn from about social media:
The one image that has made its mark on the Australian national psyche and which is immediately recognisable even today, nearly forty years later:
This famous image is widely recognised as the factor that saved the Franklin River from the proposed Franklin River Dam in 1982. The dam was a hydroelectricity dam that would have impacted the Franklin River in the pristine wilderness of south-west Tasmania. The Wilderness Society ran full-page ads in national newspapers featuring the photo, with the caption, “Could you vote for a party that will destroy this?”
In 1981 a referendum was held as the Tasmanian State Labor government sought to compromise over the issue, giving the voters the option of a Gordon-below-Franklin dam or a Gordon-above-Olga dam. The option of no dam was withdrawn from the referendum, however 44% of the electorate cast an informal vote by writing ‘No Dams’ across their ballot form.
The following describes the events following the referendum:
Following these protests, the federal election ensured the safety of the river’s future. It’s argued that the photo “swung the 1983 federal election and the new government scrapped the plans for the dam.” Peter Dombrovski was a social influencer before the term even existed and before social media was even a twinkle in someone’s eye. He was an avid bushwalker and used “photography to try and encourage Australians to recognise the value of the natural world around them.” During the anti-dam campaign, UNESCO registered both the Franklin and Gordon Rivers as World Heritage Areas. Today these rivers are both still completely wild. The anti-dam movement galvanised by the photo became the basis of a huge conservation movement in Australia.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal #15, Life on Land, aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably“. A key point raised in this goal is that “protecting important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity is vital for ensuring long-term and sustainable use of terrestrial and freshwater natural resources.”
In fact, the success of the No Dam movement is a reflection of the SDGs #16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and #17 (Partnerships for the Goals), where the federal justice system ruled in support of the people who had come together in partnerships to achieve the conservation of a precious natural resource.
Would Peter’s photo have the same effect today? Have we become desensitised to these issues precisely because of images such as this that are prolific today on any social media site? Or was this image of the Franklin River so powerful because it wasn’t sensationalised at all, just a pure truthful view of the natural beauty of the area?
Perhaps in moving to innovative wastewater treatment systems to reduce water usage and increase water reuse, we could learn from Australia’s history and use social media without sensationalising or exaggerating, and so win over the support of an over-saturated society. If there was a clear image in people’s minds of the benefits of a sustainable wastewater treatment system perhaps they would be more willing to accept changes to the system. One last lesson from the Franklin Dam controversy is that the people really do hold the power and that if we want to make a difference, all we need to go is get together and go out and do it.
Ecomate 