'The new State of the Environment report has proved to be shocking reading, even for those ... who knew what to expect in it' | ANALYSIS from environment and climate editor Nick O'Malley
When Jess Abrahams was a boy he used to see koalas on his grandfather’s farm in the Yarra Valley on Melbourne’s fringe. About 10 years ago the koala was first listed as vulnerable. Today, it is listed as endangered in much of the country under the federal government’s key environmental protection law, the EPBC Act.
The report describes an environment ravaged over the past five years first by drought, then by the fires exacerbated by the drought. The impacts of recent floods are too recent to be charted, but the report notes that extreme weather driven by climate change is battering Australia’s ecosystems.In some regions, climate change has supercharged fires, adding to the toll on species already suffering from habitat destruction caused by land clearing for agriculture.
“Multiple pressures create cumulative impacts that amplify threats,” the overview notes, warning of “abrupt changes” in ecological systems. “The act has loopholes you could drive a logging truck through,” says Kelly O’Shanassy, the CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation .
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