The Herald's View: A depressing five-year report card shows the urgency of rewriting the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
released on Tuesday paints a depressing picture of the threats to the natural wonders that play so large a part in Australia’s collective imagination.
Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek in a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday said she was surprised by the bleakness of the report, which she described as “difficult, confronting and sometimes depressing”. She pledged that the environment was once again a priority under Labor. But Plibersek cannot use the past as an excuse. She must act quickly to reverse these trends, both with more money for things such as research and national parks and by tougher legislation and regulation.
While saving individual wetlands or forests or reefs from exploitation is important, it won’t make much difference unless something is done to protect them from the dramatic rise in global temperatures due to climate change.
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