A nice summation of our plight.....I do get that it is serious change afoot which is going to be 'exciting'.....and I had overlooked the plastics.
But to brighten things up the Wattles are just starting to flower!! Pedal on and safely. John & Lynn

Jackie, perenties are cuddly. Cora and I watched one for ages while it was trying to stay awake. It just needed a cuddle and a pillow!

John, good hearing from you. I accept your point that Sydney was filthy in the 1960s. But, those days were largely pre-plastic. Indeed, I remember my dad taking me to a plastic exhibition in 1969.
So, Australia's garbage back then was stuff like paper, bottles, steel cans, etc. Sure, it's garbage and garbage is ugly, but paper composts, steel cans rust away and bottles are made from sand. Bottles left in the ocean give beautiful glass! As you know, if you found a large coke bottle back in those days you got 5c. And what did a Paddle Pop cost? 5c!
So, even in the 1980s a lot of food and drink in Asia came wrapped in banana leaves or in bamboo - stuff to throw on the ground and walk away. The plastic garbage now will be here forever. It will break down to microscopic particles that will be part of many life-forms. It may spend a vacation in the Pacific Garbage Patch, a 1.6 million km2 ecosystem. Yes, various organisms are colonizing it!!!
Another difference is that the world's population has more than doubled since the 1960s. Atmospheric CO2 concentration was 320 ppm in 1965 and is now 420 ppm, concentrations not seen for 3 million years. June was the world's hottest month on record. Last week was the hottest week but may be beaten this week. The ocean surface temperatures are the highest ever and the volume of antarctic ice the lowest. This is without thinking about species extinctions. I'd love to be positive but....I think the Titanic is close to the iceberg and those on the bow are saying "holy......" Ian

Hi Jackie, when I learned that Indonesia has 18,110 islands and islets, and about 6,000 of them are inhabited, I thought I’d need to check my savings account. :)

I knew that you had reached another island, because Graham had made another donation to your fundraising page. Thanks you Graham and Thank you Ian!!

Makes our perenties look positively cuddly. So please that you yaking time for yourself and loving the posts.

Reading your recent scornful summary of humanity’s outlook in response to the crap everywhere does evoke similar feelings in your neighbours …. who have only to return their thoughts to time spent in Lao to feel as you do. But as others rightly point out things will improve ….. just takes time and perhaps even more waste until the real lessons of existence are learned. My evidence…. You are riding through what equates to some parts I remember of Sydney of the 1960’s. Marvellous blog…… thanks.

Graham, I don't have the answer. There's a lot of reading to be done to get there. One would say the same about Komodo being much different than Flores. There's volcanic activity everywhere and the valley soils in Sumbawa are deep chocolate.

Why so different to Flores? Is it in a rain shadow? More clearing? Poorer soil?

Thanks, Daisy. It's a member of Solanaceae, so related to tomatoes, etc. But, it's not surprising it's poisonous because the family also contains many toxic plants, such as deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna.

It is Solanum mammosum (terong susu). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36689773/

Daisy, so it is; thanks for the correction. Ian

It is a rice mill, for removing rice husk.

(Just noticed I spelled ‘quite’ incorrectly and I can’t find an edit function.)

I’ll add that communicators and writers like Rachel Carson had an enormous positive impact. Education and public awareness, supported by increased individual wealth and freedom, drove real change.

The USA’s adoption of improved environmental legislation & enforcement actions happened much faster than the had happened before in UK & Europe after their decades of ecological misery caused by the holy cow of industrialisation.

My hope (perhaps forlorn) is that Asia will make that transition even faster than North America did. China despite it numerous faults, seems to be taking environmental reforms seriously, as their now huge middle class becomes less willing to suffer foul air and water.

Graham, great post. Seriously, cycling is the easy bit and I don't think it gets much harder than Flores. The garbage and the noise are the two things I find hardest to manage. Both are much worse in Sumbawa. At least the boy racers on two strokes don't wear helmets! Ian