This photo supplied by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority shows diseased corals at a reef in the Cairns/Cooktown on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia on April 27, 2017. (N MATTOCKS/GBRMPA VIA AP)
The Australian government is to overhaul its environmental laws following the release of a devastating report which shows ecosystems on the brink of collapse, non-native plants now more common than native species, and where more species have become extinct than on any other continent.
Years of warnings were either ignored or kept secret. Promises made, but not delivered. Dodgy behavior, undermining public confidence. Brutal funding cuts. Willful neglect.
Tanya Plibersek,
Australia’s new environment minister
Even the cuddly koala is threatened with extinction, and the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s natural wonders, is suffering from coral bleaching.
The grim findings were contained in the latest State of the Environment report, released on July 19, which assesses Australia’s ecosystems, biodiversity and climate. First published in 1995, the report is updated every five years.
Tanya Plibersek, Australia’s new environment minister, said the report’s findings were “shocking”.
In a speech on July 19 to the National Press Club in Canberra, Plibersek said the former Coalition government should take some of the blame for inaction. The report was ready for release in December but was held back due to the looming federal election – which was held in May and saw Labor swept to power.
“Years of warnings were either ignored or kept secret. Promises made, but not delivered. Dodgy behavior, undermining public confidence. Brutal funding cuts. Willful neglect,” Plibersek said.
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“Laws that don’t work to protect the environment or smooth the way for sensible development. All against the backdrop of accelerating environmental destruction … It’s time to change that.”
Plibersek said the government would adopt a new target to protect 30 percent of Australia’s land areas by 2030 and develop new environmental protection legislation.
Commenting on the report, Jim Radford, principal research fellow at La Trobe University in Melbourne, said: “We knew this was coming. There is nothing in the State of the Environment report (SOE) that would catch anyone working in the field by surprise.
“What is deflating is that it is the same story as six years ago, and five years before that, and numerous state-based SOEs in between.”
The report’s lead author, Professor Emma Johnston from the University of Sydney, said the biggest difference between this report and the previous one from 2016 is how climate change is damaging the environment now, in the present tense
Radford said: “We know what needs to be done: Massively reduce carbon emissions to address climate change; overhaul environmental laws to ensure effective protection of remnant habitat to address habitat loss; ramp up restoration on private land, particularly farms; value the contribution of nature to human society; and massively increase funding for targeted threatened species programs, which we know can work when resourced and based on evidence-based science.”
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There is no more time to waste, he said.
According to the report, the overall state of Australia’s environment is “poor and deteriorating” because of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and resource extraction.
“Changing environmental conditions mean that many species and ecosystems are increasingly threatened,” the report said.
“Multiple pressures create cumulative impacts that amplify threats to our environment, and abrupt changes in ecological systems have been recorded in the past five years.”
Andrew King, senior lecturer in climate science at the University of Melbourne, said Australia has always been a land of extreme weather and climate variability, but drought and heat, fires and floods, are becoming more common.
“Human-caused climate change is causing extremes to occur more often and with more devastating impacts,” he said.
“This report should act as a wake-up call to the damage we are doing to the world around us. We must decarbonize our economy and society as rapidly as possible to try and limit the environmental losses that we will experience as we keep warming the world.”
The report’s lead author, Professor Emma Johnston from the University of Sydney, said the biggest difference between this report and the previous one from 2016 is how climate change is damaging the environment now, in the present tense.
Johnston said not enough had been done to prevent decline, nor were environmental laws strongly enforced.
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“We’re actually going to the ‘rescue’ end of the situation, where you have to breed species and re-release,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on July 19.
“Those sorts of remedies are difficult to implement … and they’re very, very costly.”
Alexandra Campbell, a marine scientist and senior lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, said Australia’s environment has been showing overall signs of decline for the past few decades.
This is concerning because “people and businesses in Australia rely very directly on healthy, functioning environments to survive and thrive”, she said.
“We need to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable energy.”