Australasia – Page 4 – See Animals Wild

August 28, 2021June 30, 2022

There are roughly 50 billion birds in the world but just a few species dominate

Just four birds have a population over a billion, house sparrows European starlings ring-billed gulls and barn swallows.

At the other end, there are over 1180 species with 5000 or less members left.

The last time this survey was done was 24 years ago, the estimate was 200 to 400 billion birds, though it is clear that some of this reduction in numbers will be down to a more accurate survey – still many birds are heading rapidly in the direction of extinction.

The first thing to be done in conservation is to understand the current situation, so this is a great first step. Now the world needs to work hard on conserving what is left – unfortunately this is a rather bigger task. However now we know what needs to be done we merely need to get on with it.

July 17, 2021June 30, 2022

Australian Environmentalist groups want the UN to put the Great barrier reef on the ‘in danger list’, will the government listen?

While Australian government ministers are fighting hard against, there are increasing calls from Australian environmentalist groups for the great barrier reef to be added to the list of ecosystems in danger.

The great barrier reef is one of the true spectacles of the natural world, but we are in danger of loosing it forever.

It is frankly insane that this is still a discussion. Of course the great barrier reef is in danger.

Indeed, it is endangered by a number of things

June 6, 2021June 30, 2022

Contradiction of wildlife tourism – do not kill the wild natural world while cutting your emissions

The world has an unfortunate problem. In many parts of the world we are successfully reducing our carbon footprint dramatically, through cleaning our electricity generation among other improvements.

Unfortunately, in our current setup, often the only way to pay for conserving the wild places on our planet is by visiting them, and for most people, this requires long-distance flights.

Something we must avoid in more wealthy countries is to simply halt all tourism to wild places. If in order to cut a few tons of carbon from our personal emissions, we remove the reason to conserve a large rainforest in Africa or Asia, can we really blame the locals when it gets cut down? In theory, money does indeed get sent to some of these countries to pay for offsetting our emissions. Unfortunately this rarely reaches people on the ground.