Tag: Australia

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Has Australia actually appointed a climate change authority member who actually wants to do the right thing?

Australia is likely to loose a great deal if climate change continues in a big way. This is because Australia already has a large part of the country unbearably hot. If the temperature increases another 2-5 degrees these areas might well become impossible to survive within.

This is why it is so strange that Australia is so backwards in this respect.

Currently, Australia gets a great deal of money by selling coal abroad. This is because Australia is incredibly rich in coal. As a result they are keen to be able to put off zero carbon as long as possible as they will loose this income.

Professor Lesley Huges is a climate specialist, that has just been appointed to the Australia climate change authority and she has quite rightly stated that 2050 net zero is not good enough. Encouragingly, though she has also said that the new government was showing a willingness to listen to science. The Climate change minister has appointed 3 new members after it was suggested that the authority was to heavily weighted in the direction of business and fossil fuels (if there are too many representatives from this part of the market, then concerns about global warming are likely to get less voice, as fossil fuel companies know they only have a finite length of time to make money from resources that are likely to be banned in the future).

Continue reading “Has Australia actually appointed a climate change authority member who actually wants to do the right thing?”
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Could the Platypus go extinct soon?

The Platypus was such a wierd looking animal, many of the original scientists that studied specimens sent back to the UK, looked for sewing marks – they believed that it must be several creatures joined together. Even 20 years after its discovery, scientists were still arguing about whether it was real. The anatomist Robert Knox claimed if was a “freak imposture”, and that ”the scientific [community] felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art.” This was not only due to its weird appearance, but several other fake animals that had come to light in recent times.

Yet it was not,

A wild Platypus

To be sure, it is a mammal which perhaps stretches the definition more than most. It lays eggs, has a ducks beak, but feeds its young on milk. It is one of the many oddities that live in Australia.

Unfortunately it is facing local extinction, in many places across its range, and has lost a quarter of its range in the last 30 years..

This is a species that could quietly slip towards extinction without being noticed – being shy, nocturnal and not splashing, they are rarely seen. Most people who do not see one, might suggest that they simply did not get lucky.

There are a range of threats that are pushing them towards extinction. Water extraction from rivers and creeks, the building of dams and weirs, as well as river bank erosion. Increasing regularity of droughts also threaten their long-term survival as their homes become too shallow – allowing feral cats and foes to attack them.

They are capable of living alongside humans – the video above is in the Suburbs of a city, but as pollution increases they often disappear.

The lead author of the study concludes that the Platypus is not facing complete extinction, but local extinction in many different parts of Australia.

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New Australian study on reef in a no fishing zone, shows what can happen when reefs are untouched by humans

The reef in question – The Rowley Shoals, are an isolated archipelago about 260km off Australia’s north west coast.

What was found was incredible. Between its protection from fishing, its location and the shape of the reef it has sustained species long lost elsewhere.

Species of giant fish like humphead Maori wrasse and humphead Parrotfish (both growing to over 1.5m were a regular sight, despite the fact that globally they are threatened with extinction. Of particular excitement, across the long study, there was no discernible change in the quantity of these fish – even as they were seen less and less regularly elsewhere.

  • Humphead Parrotfish Tchami
  • Humphead Wrasse Larry Koester

Efforts must be made to maintain reefs like this, in their unblemished state. These reefs are far more capable of dealing with environmental changes, and hopefully one day there will be a need to reseed reefs in more accessible parts of the world.

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Recent evidence suggests that dingoes arrived in Australia 1500 years later than first thought: why is this important and should it give us more courage in repatriating Tasmanian devils to the mainland

While the dingo made look like part of the native fauna of Australia, that is not the case. They were bought there by aboriginal people. 

the dingo may look like a domestic dog, there has been little or no interbreeding for 4000 years with other dogs that were domesticated
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