Tony Abbott | ConservationBytes.com

Australia’s motto: “Screw the environment!”

2 09 2015

Mmmmm! I love coal!

An article originally posted on ALERT by April Reside (with permission to reproduce).

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The Conservative Tony Abbott government in Australia is proposing alarming changes to Australia’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 — a remarkable move that would prevent environment groups from challenging many damaging development projects.

This has all come to a head over the Carmichael Coal Mine — a plan to build a massive mine in central Queensland in order to export 60 million of tonnes of coal to India each year.

Coal, of course, is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, and India’s plan to burn it by the shipload for electricity is bad news for the planet.

The Abbott government is in a tizzy after after a community organization, the Mackay Conservation Group, challenged the approval of the Carmichael Mine in Australia’s Federal Court.

The community group says Environment Minister Greg Hunt didn’t properly consider the impact the mine would have on two threatened species, the yakka skink and ornamental snake.

The mine site also sustains the largest population of the southern subspecies of the black-throated Finch, which is endangered.

The implications of the mega-mine go well beyond a few imperilled species. If the mine goes ahead, it will be one of the biggest in the world — and the emissions from burning its mountains of coal would cancel out all gains made from Australia’s current emissions-reduction strategy.

On top of the frightening precedent it would set, the Abbott government appears to be double-dealing. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: Abbottoir, Adani Group, Australia, Carmichael Coal Mine, climate change, Coal, coal mining, Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, EPBC, Global warming, greenhouse gases, Greg Hunt, Mackay Conservation Group, Queensland, The Coalition, Tony Abbott
Categories : Australia, carbon, climate change

The Abbott-oir survives another day to wreak more environmental havoc

9 02 2015

Tone Abbott-oir, easily the most environmentally destructive Prime Minister this country has seen in the modern era, has survived the party room spill for a leadership change. Although 39% of his own Fiberal Party MPs voted to dump him, he remains standing (limping) – for now.

I’ve seen rather a lot lately in the Australian media about the impending spill vote, and the potential political repercussions of a change (or not), but there’s been nearly no mention of what it all means for the continually degrading Australian environment.

As is typical in Australian politics, the environment takes a very distant back seat to the those oh-so-important societal issues like knighthoods, paid parental leave and where to put the next road in Melbourne, so I certainly wasn’t hopeful that a leadership change (or not) would have any positive environmental outcomes. This particular latte-snorting, quinoa-flavoured-pinot-grigio-in-the-artisanal-underpants-pouring, erect-nipple-paper-rubbing environmental scientist has nothing at all to celebrate, even if the no-confidence in The Great Red Underpants is potentially a positive sign. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: Abbott-oir, Abbottoir, Australia, environment, Liberals, LNP, Prime Minister, spill, Tony Abbott
Categories : Australia, biodiversity, carbon, climate change, conservation, corruption, ecology, economics, ecosystem services, environmental policy, protected area, reserve, threatened species

How I feel about climate change

7 10 2014

Angry. Furious. Livid. And a just little bit sad.

Well, I’m not pissed off with ‘climate change’ per se – that would be ridiculous. I am extremely pissed off with those who are doing their damnedest to prevent society from doing anything meaningful about it.

The reason I’m thinking and writing about this at the moment is because last week I was approached by Joe Duggan of The Australian National University who has put together a rather clever and engaging website. The point of the website is simple – demonstrate to people that those studying climate-change science are human beings with feelings; we are not autistic, empirical automatons that conspire to ruin your day. We measure, we model and we analyse, but we’re also very much affected personally by what we observe every day in our careers.

So I grabbed a pen (not something I do very often, and my finger joints complained bitterly as a result) and hand-wrote the following letter. You might be take aback a little by my sentiment, but I assure you it’s an honest representation of my emotional state at the moment:

Dear Joe,

My overwhelming emotion is anger; anger that is fuelled not so much by ignorance, but by greed and profiteering at the expense of future generations. I am not referring to some vague, existential bonding to the future human race; rather, I am speaking as a father of a seven year-old girl who loves animals and nature in general. As a biologist, I see irrefutable evidence every day that human-driven climate disruption will turn out to be one of the main drivers of the Anthropocene mass extinction event now well under way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 13 Comments »
Tags: climate change, climate disruption, climate scientists, emotion, plutocrat, Tony Abbott
Categories : Australia, climate change, conservation

The environmental Abbott-oir

9 04 2014

“What?”, my wife exclaimed, “Is this guy Satan¹ himself?”. Within 6 months in office, the Abbott-oir has:

attempted to remote World Heritage protection for a large expanse of Tasmanian forest;
vowed to reinstate logging in Tasmania on a large scale;
broken promise to fund Sumatran rhino recovery;
decided to dump 3 million tonnes of dredging spoil on the Great Barrier Reef;
scrapped management plans for most of the nation’s representative system of marine protected areas;
rollbacked protection in national parks, including allowing logging, grazing, fishing and hunting;
refused to send any Australian delegate to global climate change discussions;
allowed Western Australia to proceed with a large-scale cull of great white, tiger and bull sharks;
weakened Australia’s recently passed anti-illegal logging bill;
nearly achieved legal immunity from any challenges to his decisions on mining projects;
weakened the processes involved in development proposals by ‘cutting the green tape‘;
vowed to halt the creation of any more national parks, saying that Australia already has too many;
proposed to ban consumer boycotts of corporations that damage the environment;
cut $100 million in funding, and axed 500 jobs, in the federal Environment department;
continued to push for abolishing the carbon price.

Cry? Despair? Laugh? No – fight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 24 Comments »
Tags: Australia, Coalition, environmental destruction, environmental policy, LNP, Tony Abbott
Categories : conservation

The lengths Abbott will go to destroy environmentalism

7 04 2014

Over at ALERT (Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers), Bill Laurance has highlighted yet another major blow to environmentalism in Australia: the Coalition’s latest push is to ban consumer boycotts of environmentally damaging corporations. The following press release went out this morning. You can also find more details on the Abbott proposal here and here.

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An international scientific group has decried an Australian government proposal to ban consumer boycotts of corporations that damage the environment.

“It’s clearly a bad idea,” said William Laurance, a professor at James Cook University in Australia and director of ALERT, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers.

“Boycotts have been one of the most important arrows in the quiver of responsible conservationists and consumers,” said Laurance. “They’ve convinced many environmentally predatory firms around the world to clean up their acts.”

Consumer boycotts have improved the behaviour of hundreds of aggressive timber, oil palm, soy, seafood and other corporations around the world, say the scientists.

“Boycotts get the attention of environment-destroying companies because they hit them where it hurts—their reputation and market share,” said Corey Bradshaw, a professor at the University of Adelaide. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 12 Comments »
Tags: Australia, autocracy, bans, boycotts, Coalition, environment, Environmentalism, fishing, palm oil, seafood, timber, Tony Abbott
Categories : Australia, biodiversity, conservation, corruption, ecosystem, environmental policy

Abbott’s ‘No more parks’ vow a bad move

6 03 2014

Published simultaneously on ALERT:

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An international scientific group has decried Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s recent ‘no more parks’ pledge, saying it is badly out of step with environmental reality.

“Tony Abbott has blown it with that call,” said William Laurance, a professor at James Cook University and director of ALERT, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers.

“Australia has some of the world’s most desperately endangered ecosystems and species, which direly need better protection,” said Laurance. “Just 7.7 percent of the continent is in national parks—that’s low by international standards.”

“It really is worrying,” said Thomas Lovejoy, a renowned ecologist and former environmental advisor to three U.S. presidents. “I hope the Prime Minister gets better advice in the future because the world really needs Australia’s leadership on the environment.”

As an example, the scientists cite the mountain ash forests of Victoria, which have been devastated by over-logging and fires, with just 1.2% of the old-growth forest remaining.

“The Leadbeater’s possum relies entirely on these old-growth forests and is endangered,” said Corey Bradshaw, a professor at the University of Adelaide. “There’s a dire need to create a new national park for this iconic species and ecosystem.” Read the rest of this entry »

Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: environment, Greg Hunt, national parks, Tony Abbott, William Laurance
Categories : Australia, conservation, corruption, deforestation, environmental policy, extinction, habitat loss, protected area

Australia’s (latest) war on the environment

3 03 2014

Yes, the signs were there, but they weren’t clandestine messages written in the stars or in the chaos of tea-leaf dregs. We saw this one coming, but Australians chose to ignore the warning signs and opt for the American political model of extremism, religiosity, plutocracy and science denial.

Enter the ‘Tea Party’ of Australia – the ‘new’ Coalition where reigning Rex perditor Prime Minister Tony The Monk Abbott¹ has, in just a few short months, turned back the clock on Australian environmental protection some 40 years.

Yes, we saw it coming, but it wasn’t a tautological fait accompli just because it concerned a ‘conservative’ government. It’s difficult to remember, I know, that conservative governments of yesteryear implemented some strikingly powerful and effective environmental legislation. Indeed, it was the former incarnation of the Coalition government that implemented the once-formidable Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act under the direction of then Environment Minister, Robert Hill. A colossus of sorts, the EPBC suffers from many ailments. While it’s the only really bitey environmental legislation we’ve got, that colossus is a lumbering, limping giant missing more than a few teeth – it needs a complete overhaul.

As most Australians are unfortunately aware, The Monk repeatedly and defiantly promised to repeal the Labor-government carbon price implemented in July 2012, despite the absolute necessity to tax the heaviest polluters. While somewhat sheepish about his recent climate disruption denialism following his election in 2013, a denialist he remains:

Let us re-familiarise ourselves with some of his historical pearlers: Read the rest of this entry »