The Other Crocodile Hunter
September 27th 2006 00:34
No, it's not Bindi. (Does anyone else think the Bindi Irwin media juggernaut is a form of psychological child abuse?)
I mean this woman.
Dr Jill Bowling Schlaepfer, former Director of Consevation for the World Wildlife Fund UK, who died in a helicopter crash in Nepal on Saturday, along with six other WWF staff, diplomats and members of the media.
Dr Bowling is to pandas (and the World Wildlife Fund) as Steve Irwin is to crocodiles, only she didn't call herself the Panda Hunter, nor repeatedly throw herself on pandas, wrestle them down, tie them up and take grinning photos with trussed panicky animals.
So... are we offering her a state funeral too, considering she also died performing conservationist activities?
Let's look at the parallels.
Steve Irwin grew up around animals.
His parents founded the Queensland Reptile and Fauna park. Steve's first job was trapping crocodiles in northern Queensland, which he did for free, because he got to keep them and send them to his parents' zoo.
Dr Jill Bowling received First Class Honours in Zoology and graduated in 1985 with a PhD from the Australian National University. Jill's first job out of uni was in the Prime Minister's Department (Hawke, a Labour PM, since you ask: instead of having BBQ's in John Howard's backyard and calling him "the greatest leader in the world", like Irwin did). While she was there she co-authored the Prime Minister's Environmental Statement.
What is that, and why do we care? It was the first document with all national policy on environmental issues. The first, and probably with language that would now be considered as falling short of the mark. But the first. If environmental causes are difficult to champion in Australia today, think of how hard it must have been two decades ago... and how important institutional change was.
Steve Irwin got married in Oregon. He took his wife on a crocodile-trapping honeymoon and used the footage as his first television show.
It debuted in Australia, but didn't approach anything nearing its cult status until it hit the UK and the US. Irwin took a cameo role in Dr Doolittle 2, had his own (mixed-reviewed) film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Irwin relentlessly Crikeyed his way around and always wore khaki. If you want attention, you need a brand.
Jill Bowling worked in Oregon. She oversaw 400 000 hectares of forest at the State Department of Forestry for eight years. As Director, she negotiated the first Habitat Conservation Plan on state-owned land in the US.
From 1997 in Switzerland, Bowling set up a Global Forestry Programme. This program got stuck into issues such as sustainable development and reforestation, as well as international labour standards.
In 2002, she joined the WWF in the Forestry department, before becoming their Director of Conservation.
Irwin mounted various projects, including his Australia Zoo, the Wildlife Warriors (donations made to a bunch of not overly detailed conservation projects, some of which run overseas under other organisations), and obviously his television series. Before his death, Irwin was planning to build a multi-million dollar Australia Zoo in Las Vegas. So the gamblers can watch the fierce animals, presumably. Or so the animals can watch the fierce gamblers. And people can have shotgun weddings wearing khaki shorts.
It's harder to pinpoint what Bowling accomplished for conservation as just Bowling, because she worked within hugely important institutions, and she didn't try to brand everything with her own name. Or, for example, release Croc Rescuer miniature Irwin dolls through Subway Restaurants.
Sadly, Bowling failed to capitalise on any Jill's Panda-monium 3D Puzzle Sets, which even now could be raising money to help save the animals she loved.
This is what WWF says that Bowling did: "Jill led the work of WWF-UK to support conservation programmes around the world and also within the UK tackling global threats such as climate change through business and government advocacy strategies."
It's not very catchy. It's not like the poem, for example, made up by Rupert McCall and read aloud by him on Radio 4BC Brisbane (apparently McCall shook Irwin's hand a couple of times and found it a 'fair dinkum' experience.)
As McCall's poem runs, "There was something very Irwin in the makeup of us all... May the spotlight shine forever on his dream for conservation... His little girl explained it best. She said the crocodiles are crying."
They would be crocodile tears, then.
I'm not saying Dr Bowling is Australia's next Mary MacKillop. I'm saying that the grieving circus for Irwin is disproportionate, and occasionally cruel to the family (look at the pressure on Bindi).
I'm saying that we grieve 'for a conservationist' without really knowing or giving a damn what real living conservationists do. I'm saying that Steve Irwin wasn't the second coming of Christ. And I'm Australian. Crikey.
I mean this woman.
Dead.. Dr Jill Bowling Schlaepfer
Dr Bowling is to pandas (and the World Wildlife Fund) as Steve Irwin is to crocodiles, only she didn't call herself the Panda Hunter, nor repeatedly throw herself on pandas, wrestle them down, tie them up and take grinning photos with trussed panicky animals.
So... are we offering her a state funeral too, considering she also died performing conservationist activities?
Let's look at the parallels.
Steve Irwin grew up around animals.
Dr Jill Bowling received First Class Honours in Zoology and graduated in 1985 with a PhD from the Australian National University. Jill's first job out of uni was in the Prime Minister's Department (Hawke, a Labour PM, since you ask: instead of having BBQ's in John Howard's backyard and calling him "the greatest leader in the world", like Irwin did). While she was there she co-authored the Prime Minister's Environmental Statement.
What is that, and why do we care? It was the first document with all national policy on environmental issues. The first, and probably with language that would now be considered as falling short of the mark. But the first. If environmental causes are difficult to champion in Australia today, think of how hard it must have been two decades ago... and how important institutional change was.
Steve Irwin got married in Oregon. He took his wife on a crocodile-trapping honeymoon and used the footage as his first television show.
Jill Bowling worked in Oregon. She oversaw 400 000 hectares of forest at the State Department of Forestry for eight years. As Director, she negotiated the first Habitat Conservation Plan on state-owned land in the US.
From 1997 in Switzerland, Bowling set up a Global Forestry Programme. This program got stuck into issues such as sustainable development and reforestation, as well as international labour standards.
Irwin mounted various projects, including his Australia Zoo, the Wildlife Warriors (donations made to a bunch of not overly detailed conservation projects, some of which run overseas under other organisations), and obviously his television series. Before his death, Irwin was planning to build a multi-million dollar Australia Zoo in Las Vegas. So the gamblers can watch the fierce animals, presumably. Or so the animals can watch the fierce gamblers. And people can have shotgun weddings wearing khaki shorts.
It's harder to pinpoint what Bowling accomplished for conservation as just Bowling, because she worked within hugely important institutions, and she didn't try to brand everything with her own name. Or, for example, release Croc Rescuer miniature Irwin dolls through Subway Restaurants.
Sadly, Bowling failed to capitalise on any Jill's Panda-monium 3D Puzzle Sets, which even now could be raising money to help save the animals she loved.
This is what WWF says that Bowling did: "Jill led the work of WWF-UK to support conservation programmes around the world and also within the UK tackling global threats such as climate change through business and government advocacy strategies."
It's not very catchy. It's not like the poem, for example, made up by Rupert McCall and read aloud by him on Radio 4BC Brisbane (apparently McCall shook Irwin's hand a couple of times and found it a 'fair dinkum' experience.)
As McCall's poem runs, "There was something very Irwin in the makeup of us all... May the spotlight shine forever on his dream for conservation... His little girl explained it best. She said the crocodiles are crying."
They would be crocodile tears, then.
I'm not saying Dr Bowling is Australia's next Mary MacKillop. I'm saying that the grieving circus for Irwin is disproportionate, and occasionally cruel to the family (look at the pressure on Bindi).
I'm saying that we grieve 'for a conservationist' without really knowing or giving a damn what real living conservationists do. I'm saying that Steve Irwin wasn't the second coming of Christ. And I'm Australian. Crikey.
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