Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Crocodiles by David Bell (Geologist, British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) 1959-61)

 

Tinakula Volcano

After finishing my DPhil at Oxford I applied to join the Colonial Geological Survey, hoping for a post in Fiji. None being available there, I accepted the offer of one in the Solomons. After all, they were in the Pacific too, if 2000km distant. My outward journey was one in which - as the size of the aircraft became smaller (Bristol Britannia to Sydney, Lockheed Constellation to Port Moresby, Douglas DC4 to Rabaul, DC3 to Honiara) the humidity grew greater. On landing at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, accustomed as I was to the bleak mountains of Skye, I wondered how anyone could survive in this place.

Brigadier Bomford

The Chief Geologist, on leave in Australia getting married, had left as my first job the making of a theodolite survey of the upraised coral terraces around Honiara in preparation for future housing developments. I had fortunately learned this skill from the legendary Brigadier Bomford, Reader in Geodesy at Oxford, by carrying out a survey of the University Parks. My next assignment was real geology: exploratory survey and mapping of the Betilonga district high in the mountains of Guadalcanal where there was the possibility of copper mineralisation. We had only the simplest of maps, drawn by the Survey draughtsman from American air photographs taken during the War. A complete cover of dense tropical rainforest leaves only the vaguest outlines of ridges and valleys and nothing of the complexity of the ground itself. The way of working in such country was by pace and compass traverse along the rivers and streams as far as their source, sampling where outcrops - if any - occur and subsequent extrapolation of geological boundaries between traverses. It takes a lot of time. I learned the survey methods from John Hill, the Rhodesian geologist who was nearing the end of his last tour, and the rules of survival in the jungle from the others in the team, the Solomon Islanders: teenage boys from the mountains who carried the loads, built the camps and cooked the food, all for £6 and a pound of plug tobacco per month, and the excellent Geological Assistants who had received a grammar school level education.

John Grover's Survey Team

The basic work for any national Geological Survey is to produce geological maps of its entire territory while concurrently searching for economically significant mineral resources. The Chief Geologist, John Grover, now wished to extend this programme to the Western Solomons where no systematic geological survey had ever been attempted and Dick Stanton of New England University in Armidale, Australia and I were given the task. I sailed from Honiara in early August 1959 on the Survey's vessel Noula to set up a base camp on Oropie Island in the Wana Wana Lagoon (where John F Kennedy's patrol torpedo boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943). The Noula was a thirty-foot launch designed for ferry work in Sydney harbour but in the Solomons it regularly went on ocean-going journeys, like this one of 200 nautical miles, about 30 hours at cruising speed. On board we had two dug-out canoes strapped alongside, a 500 gallon water tank roped on the cabin roof, stores for two months, and 30 people: crew. Survey personnel and many family members including women and small children. Mercifully, the weather was benign. The Government's largest and newest vessel, the MV Melanesian, had disappeared on 10 July 1958 with 64 people on board. Its loss was never explained but a massive freak wave was one of the postulated reasons.

MV Noula

By 18 August with the Oropie camp established I was sitting on the stern of the Noula, anchored offshore having breakfast when I heard shouting coming from the island. When I asked one of the crew what was going on he told me they were saying there was an earthquake happening. I had already felt several tremors in Honiara but this time, nothing. On a ship you don't because the sea damps out the motion. Then the ship's radio came on with the Chief Geologist telling me there had been a major earthquake with early indications of epicentre near where I was and several reports of heavy damage. I was to sail immediately for Gizo, the administrative centre for the Western Solomons, about four hours sail, and report back.

The earthquake measured 7.4 on the Richter scale then in use and caused widespread structural damage but no loss of life. Ground fissures opened, shorelines subsided and a seismic sea-wave swept away leaf houses in some coastal villages. Stanton and I saw the most spectacular effects when we traversed the island of Vella Lavella some time later. Large faults had been activated, causing landslides that destroyed swathes of jungle, clogging rivers and causing flooding. Hot springs appeared in some places and a thermal area of sulphur vents and mud pools increased significantly in size.

Seismic Activity, 1958

The Solomon Islands form one segment of a tectonically extremely complex region of the Pacific involving interactions between the Indo-Australian plate and the Western Pacific plate. Earthquakes (now monitored by the Survey's seismic station) are common and volcanoes, dormant and active, characterize the area. Savo Island volcano, 14km north of Guadalcanal, is potentially the most dangerous. Its last eruption, probably in about 1850, wiped out the entire population in pyroclastic flows of the kind that Vesuvius produced in AD 79, engulfing Pompeii. I made one visit to Savo to check gas compositions and temperatures of the array localities that the Survey established for monitoring the volcano. I visited two other Solomons volcanoes, one, Simbo in the West, by design and the other, also in the West, by accident. Activity on Simbo consists of hot springs and fumaroles (gas vents). Past activity has been explosive causing evacuation of the population at times. The other volcano was Kavachi, a submarine vent south of Vanguno Island at the eastern end of the New Georgia group. From time to time (most recently in 2014) it erupts and forms temporary Islands that are quickly washed away. One day in 1961 I was on board the Government ship Veronica en route to Munda when we must have sailed right over the Kavachi vent that exploded when the ship was about 500m away, sending up a massive fountain of boiling seawater filled with glowing pieces of lava. The skipper ordered full speed and we watched Kavachi repeat the performance several times before dusk fell. One day Kavachi may become one of the new permanent Solomon Islands.

Abandoned Japanese Transports

Two non-geological experiences In the Solomons remain vivid in my memory. One relates to the War of which there were many signs remaining in 1959-61: beached Japanese transports, wrecked aircraft In the jungle, abandoned shattered barges half-sunk in estuaries. Just before leaving for the West, I was called on by the Police Chief. He told me that some Japanese soldiers had been seen foraging in a village garden on New Georgia. "You take a rifle with you," he said. I assented—It was a Lee Enfield .303 for protection against crocodiles. "Well, if you find them, bring them in, will you?" "What if I can't persuade them?" "Shoot the buggers." Fortunately we never saw them.

My other memory was of going with a crocodile shooter on one of his hunts, again in the Western Solomons where the salt-water crocodile Is common. Hunting was done after nightfall. A heavy dugout canoe carried three men, the hunter up front, the paddler at the stern and. In this case me, in the middle with a powerful lamp running off a car battery. The canoe went slowly along the riverbank with the lamp light sweeping the sides. A crocodile's eyes glow red in the light. The shooter stands up and aims between the eyes. The crocodile must then be secured alongside or In the canoe in case it sinks and is lost. That Is the really exciting part, or so I was told. We saw several sets of red eyes like car rear lights but the shooter judged all of the targets unsuitable: they were all too large to take on.

Governance Networks

Within the last decades of the twentieth century, the concept of governance developed within political studies and the fields related to it. This concept is one that seeks to promote the idea that there is a wide variety of approaches that are required to make sure that there is an understanding of the world and the changing nature of the role of the state within the international system. Furthermore, there is the rise of the belief that governance can be used to promote the idea that the contemporary world is where individuals live in a world where there are a diversity of coexisting networks that are aimed at safeguarding the lives of individuals as well as society in general (Bush, Oosterveer, Bailey, & Mol, 2015). These networks have developed in such a way that ensures that there is the creation of a better understanding of the massive urbanization, globalization, and a diversity of other societal demands that have come about because of the considerable participation of the civil society in everyday life (Fung, 2015). This new knowledge is essential in bringing about an understanding of the way that the world is developing because it allows for the inclusion of the manner that new concepts such as the participation of the civic society has been able to establish a strong public voice in decision making. In this paper, there will be a discussion and analysis of the concept of the governance network and the manner through which it has been able to affect the world.

One of the most significant aspects of the governance network is that it has led to the argument that societies are increasingly becoming fragmented. This is mainly because of the belief that the new demands that are being made on governments has led them towards a shift from the more traditional bureaucratic order to one that is more responsive to the demands of society (Wiesel & Modell, 2014). Such interactive governments have the potential of leading towards the fragmentation of society because it involves a process where there is greater devolution of power in such a way that promotes the achievement of more efficiency when it comes to service delivery. Governance networks have also become critical when it comes to policymaking because the individuals involved in the latter tend to consult with the diverse stakeholders in society before any decisions are made (Bovaird, Stoker, Jones, Loeffler, & Pinilla Roncancio, 2016). The arbitrary decision making processes that was an essential aspect of the bureaucratic forms of government are increasingly being abandoned in favour of more open ones where there is need to seek to achieve the approval of stakeholders before policies are implemented (Denis, Ferlie, & Van Gestel, 2015; Greve, 2015). Furthermore, there has also been an increasing role of the private sector in those aspects of government that were previously the strict domain of the public sector (O'Toole, 2015). Thus, governance networks have become essential means through which to bring about a form of governmental devolution that seeks to enhance service delivery in the most efficient way possible while at the same time reducing the role of government in the process. It has also ensured that the role of government in society has essentially become blurred because the institutions involved in service delivery have their roles increasingly being taken by more specialized entities from the private sector.

The latter collaborative arrangements have made it possible for governments to undertake their tasks in a manner that is more supervisory than active. Governance networks have ensured that there is an increase in the proliferation of governance arrangements either with the private sector or other governments with the aim of bringing about a more efficient achievement of goals (Page, Stone, Bryson, & Crosby, 2015). This is especially the case considering that there are some governance networks which have developed between a local government, other governments, as well as the private sector with the aim of seeking to achieve the best possible results when it comes to undertaking their functions. These new collaborations have essentially made it possible for governance networks to become more common in the contemporary world to such an extent that they have become the norm. It is currently normal for individuals to expect that network arrangements will bring them the services that they need without a complete reliance on their governments to provide the services (Vangen, Hayes, & Cornforth, 2015). Governments have ended up becoming facilitators and guarantors rather than the actual providers of services; meaning that there has developed a necessity that there is the establishment of newer networks to increase efficiency. It has also become possible for a new layer of governance to appear within local governments, with these layers playing a significant role when it comes to the development of strong initiatives aimed at enhancing efficiency while at the same time reducing the role of government (Kapucu, Hu, & Khosa, 2017). The various stakeholders in society have also come to have a say in the management of their own governments and how services are delivered. However, despite this being the case, it is essential to approach governance networks with caution because despite their being widespread, they have not been as widely adopted as expected.

Governance networks have brought about a greater understanding of the role that networks can play in enhancing the role of governments. This is because it involves an understanding of the manner through which the complexity of the multi-governmental landscape has become a necessity in the contemporary world (De Vries, Bekkers, & Tummers, 2016). It is necessary to consider that governance networks have essentially made it possible for there to be the creation of means through which to bring about the interaction between a diversity of actors in society in such a way that promotes the interests of all involved because there is devolution of functions (Borg, Toikka, & Primmer, 2015). Furthermore, it has become possible for these actors to come to terms with each other’s capabilities in such a way that helps to bring about the achievement of means through which to promote the diversification of functions towards the achievement of common goals. Thus, it can be argued that politicians and administrators have become the main actors when it comes to the promotion of societal interests and this has been in such a way that they have come to be seen as the guarantors of public services (Bryson, Crosby, & Bloomberg, 2014; Head & Alford, 2015). However, despite the achievement of this objective, it has become essential to consider that these individuals have gained considerable power over a diversity of functions. This is especially the case considering that these individuals might end up abusing their power to ensure that they serve the interests of their respective organizations or lobbies that sponsored them towards attaining their positions (Howlett & Ramesh, 2016). Therefore, there should be a process where there is the development of awareness concerning the relationships between the actors in various governance networks so that it can be possible to bring about the achievement of greater transparency in the processes that are undertaken.

The term governance network implies that there is a convergence when it comes to a diversity of issues concerning government and the manner through which it is operated. It is necessary to consider that this convergence is one that has taken place in order to meet the needs of society while at the same time promoting a situation where there is the achievement of common goals in as efficient a manner as possible (Lecy, Mergel, & Schmitz, 2014). While there has been considerable debate concerning what exactly governance networks mean, it is pertinent to consider that it is a reality in the contemporary world and has to be understood as such. A body of knowledge and concepts concerning governance networks has grown over the years and this has led to the establishment of means through which an understanding of the term can be understood. One of the most important factors concerning governance networks is that is involves a situation where service delivery and policy are developed and implemented through networks that involve actors that are essentially interdependent. The interdependency between the various actors can be considered to be an essential aspect of promoting the development of the networks that are involved in service delivery (Bryson, Crosby, & Stone, 2015). It is also necessary to stress that it is the actors who make choices concerning the strategies that they have to use in order to find and make solutions to various problems. There are also instances where there is a complexity of interactions and negotiating partners that come about because of the interdependencies that occur between actors (Skelcher & Smith, 2015). Therefore, the different governance networks tend to be quite diverse in their make up because each of them is developed to satisfy a large number of unique needs (Van den Hurk & Verhoest, 2015). The variety of perceptions and strategies that they have to implement requires that there is the achievement of unique problem solving, service delivery and policy implementation initiatives at all times to ensure efficiency.

In conclusion, the governance network approach is one that stresses the need to consider the outcomes of the implementation of different policies and service delivery. A consideration of the outcomes ensures that there are initiatives aimed at promoting the development of the most pertinent policies possible while at the same time including the most qualified actors to undertake the diverse tasks involved in bringing about the achievement of results. The development of an understanding of needs is critical for the creation of institutionalization of the relationships that come about between the different actors. These create patterns that are necessary for the promotion of effective working relationships between actors that make it possible to bring about strong service delivery initiatives. The relationships involved are those that ensure that there is the establishment of social networks that are necessary for not only bringing about better service delivery, but also ensures that there is the establishment of a basis upon which the various actors can work together in other networks. Finally, the relationships between the various actors ensures that there is the emergence of rules that promote the regulation of the behaviour within networks; making it possible for actors to explore new content that might enhance their efficiency while at the same time helping in enhancing the quality of services being delivered.

References

Borg, R., Toikka, A., & Primmer, E. (2015). Social capital and governance: a social network analysis of forest biodiversity collaboration in Central Finland. Forest Policy and Economics, 50, 90-97.

Bovaird, T., Stoker, G., Jones, T., Loeffler, E., & Pinilla Roncancio, M. (2016). Activating collective co-production of public services: influencing citizens to participate in complex governance mechanisms in the UK. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(1), 47-68.

Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C., & Bloomberg, L. (2014). Public value governance: Moving beyond traditional public administration and the new public management. Public administration review, 74(4), 445-456.

Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C., & Stone, M. M. (2015). Designing and implementing cross‐sector collaborations: Needed and challenging. Public administration review, 75(5), 647-663.

Bush, S. R., Oosterveer, P., Bailey, M., & Mol, A. P. (2015). Sustainability governance of chains and networks: a review and future outlook. Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, 8-19.

De Vries, H., Bekkers, V., & Tummers, L. (2016). Innovation in the public sector: A systematic review and future research agenda. Public Administration, 94(1), 146-166.

Denis, J. L., Ferlie, E., & Van Gestel, N. (2015). Understanding hybridity in public organizations. Public Administration, 93(2), 273-289.

Fung, A. (2015). Putting the public back into governance: The challenges of citizen participation and its future. Public administration review, 75(4), 513-522.

Greve, C. (2015). Ideas in public management reform for the 2010s. Digitalization, value creation and involvement. Public Organization Review, 15(1), 49-65.

Head, B. W., & Alford, J. (2015). Wicked problems: Implications for public policy and management. Administration & Society, 47(6), 711-739.

Howlett, M., & Ramesh, M. (2016). Achilles' heels of governance: Critical capacity deficits and their role in governance failures. Regulation & Governance, 10(4), 301-313.

Kapucu, N., Hu, Q., & Khosa, S. (2017). The state of network research in public administration. Administration & Society, 49(8), 1087-1120.

Lecy, J. D., Mergel, I. A., & Schmitz, H. P. (2014). Networks in public administration: current scholarship in review. Public Management Review, 16(5), 643-665.

O'Toole, L. J. (2015). Networks and networking: The public administrative agendas. Public administration review, 75(3), 361-371.

Page, S. B., Stone, M. M., Bryson, J. M., & Crosby, B. C. (2015). Public Value Creation by Cross‐Sector Collaborations: A Framework and Challenges of Assessment. Public Administration, 93(3), 715-732.

Skelcher, C., & Smith, S. R. (2015). Theorizing hybridity: Institutional logics, complex organizations, and actor identities: The case of nonprofits. Public Administration, 93(2), 433-448.

Van den Hurk, M., & Verhoest, K. (2015). The governance of public–private partnerships in sports infrastructure: Interfering complexities in Belgium. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 201-211.

Vangen, S., Hayes, J. P., & Cornforth, C. (2015). Governing cross-sector, inter-organizational collaborations. Public Management Review, 17(9), 1237-1260.

Wiesel, F., & Modell, S. (2014). From new public management to new public governance? Hybridization and implications for public sector consumerism. Financial Accountability & Management, 30(2), 175-205.

Gasland (2010)

One of the most espoused ideals of this century has been environmentalism, which can be defined is a philosophy that is based on the concept of conserving the natural environment through addressing issues that concern various human activities. It is a fact that most of the activities which are addressed by environmentalism involve the pollution of the environment through industrial activities such as the extraction of natural gas by oil and gas companies. The documentary Gasland is an attempt to create awareness, within the American public, of the effects of that attempts made by gas companies to extract natural gas in rural America have on the environment. This film has created a new awareness in the public concerning the devastating environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, which is one of the means through which natural gas is extracted in the mainland United States. This means of gas extraction, also known as fracking, is done through the injection of chemicals and massive quantities of water at high pressures with the intention of cracking open the rocks deep beneath the surface and as a result releasing the natural gas. This method has helped in the emergence of the natural gas boom across the United States, but as the film shows, there has developed proof that this method of gas extraction is leading to the contamination of water as well as leaking into homes. The film works towards the establishment of means through which these issues concerning the conservation of the American environment can be discussed and viable solutions for the environmental problems caused by these activities by oil and gas companies can be found. It can further be said that this film deals with the preservation, the development, and the return of the American natural environment to the state in which it was previously.

The film’s director, states that his father received a proposal from a gas company for the latter to be allowed to drill for natural gas in his property using the fracking method. At this time, this was a new method which can be considered to be extreme for the purpose of extracting natural gas through the pumping of water and toxic chemicals into the ground at extremely high pressures to fracture the rock formations that contain the natural gas. In the film, it is stated that previously, the main method that was used for the extraction of natural gas was through the drilling into the ground until a pocket of gas was hit and this gas was captured as it rose. The director states that one of the reasons why he started making the film is because he started to wonder how it was that all of a sudden his family and their neighbours were in a gas drilling area when prior to this, their area had never had any kind of industrial development. In the film, the fact that the fracking method is causing environmental damage is worrisome and disturbing and it is because of the use of these methods by the various gas companies that the beautiful, scenic and amazing landscape of the United States is being destroyed. The director of the film, who also serves as the narrator, states that at least fifty percent the state of New York as well as sixty percent the state of Pennsylvania is being leased to gas companies for the purpose of drilling for gas using the fracking method. Throughout the film, it is seen that the land in the United States is being handed over to gas prospecting companies at an alarming rate with many of the individuals doing so, mostly farmers, not realising that doing so is resulting in the destruction of their natural environment.

One would say that the film is mostly made up of a series of interviews and it can be considered to be one which shows profound respect for the people from different places across the United States that are interviewed. It can further be said that because of the respect that is displayed by the film’s director that the individuals who are interviewed are so forthcoming with the information that they have to give concerning the effects of fracking on their environment as well as its direct effects on their lives. The film is able to show how the use of the fracking method has come to put those areas in which it is used in an environmental crisis and the people who are affected the most by this environmental degradation seem to be more than willing to talk to the film’s director about their problems. The means through which the director seems to conduct his interviews seem to be down to earth and this not only engages the individuals being interviewed but also the audience of the film as they become more interested and engaged in the arguments being made. One of the factors which make the film more interesting to the viewer and is able to pass its message across is that the director is able to incorporate what the individuals who are being interviewed are saying and doing into the main story of the film and this enables the director to pass his message across from the direct perspective of those individuals affected. It seems that the main aim of the film’s director is to ensure that he attempts to find the most profound factors about fracking that have come to affect the interviewees and because of this, his attempts are rewarded by a straightforward response to his enquiries.

Music plays an important role in the film because it comes to affect the way in which the message of the film is being relayed. Music is what makes the message of the film gain some sort of character because it enables the viewer to recognise the gravity of the message as it is being passed across. It is what gives the interviews in the film the desired effect when the director attempts to make a point concerning the fracking method of gas extraction. Music is also used by the film’s director to display the irony behind the various statements made by some of the leaders in the gas industry as well as some of the politicians who are in full support of the use of the faracking method in the mainland United States. The power of music in this film is so profound that its audience cannot help it but be engrossed in the subject matter of the film without any more prompting. It can be said that music is the soul of this film and it is meant to get in touch with the emotions of its audience as it is used to display the various areas where the director is heading. For example, one hears music from Preston Reed as the director heads into Colorado and this provides the setting for the material which he would like for his audience to hear and absorb.

When one watches this film, he will come to the conclusion that while many environmentalist groups profess to fight for the conservation of the American environment since many of them tend to defeat their own purpose for doing so. One of the reasons why the environmentalist groups have been defeated in their purpose is because they do not have enough awareness concerning how the use of the fracking method of natural gas extraction is slowly but surely destroying the environment of the United States. This is the reason why Gasland is extremely important since it helps to raise awareness concerning the destruction of the environment by gas companies starting from his home state of Pennsylvania to the rest of the United States where gas companies are either involved or propose to get involved in the extraction of natural gas using the fracking method. While it is a fact that most of the gas companies have come out to vehemently oppose the film, making use of all the public relations strategies available to them to discredit its validity, it is the duty of all the environmentalist groups in the country as well as all the people concerned to oppose the use of fracking method by the gas companies as well as ensure that the government is pressured into passing laws which regulate these companies.

In conclusion, it can be said that the idea that gas companies retain control of their own matters concerning drilling especially when these methods endanger the environment has come to be challenged in the film since at present, actors other than governments have come to be key players in the environmental issue. There has been a shift from having regional meetings to implementation of initiatives that are localized and formation of partnerships in order to be able to combat the causes of environmental problems that affect various countries. The time has come when the government should shift their strategies to involve those tactics which are able to enhance the prospects that will implement effective management of the environment starting from the local level of the society.