Hans Brunner, internationally respected Victorian wildlife ecologist and forensic hair identification expert, author of Hair ID, says that information provided in the Victorian Government's Land and Biodiversity at a Time of Climate Change Green Paper highlights the rapid decline in the quality of our environment. The blame is mainly put on global warming and, thankfully, also on the government’s persistent push for economic and human population growth.
This “growth" will exacerbate the present decline not only in the environment but also in the future welfare of the people.
It is the government’s first duty to make sure that we can survive. This will obviously not happen if it does not change its policies. Those who make peaceful changes impossible, make violent changes inevitable!
Unfortunately, no politicians have the guts to treat the population and growth issue with the seriousness it deserves. This seems to be due to political cowardice and blind obsession.
Sadly, the green paper offers mainly band-aid solutions.
Whatever the conscientious little man achieves is more than undone by the present policies of the government. Hence, we keep on losing thousands of species of plants and animals resulting in local and national extinctions.
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Because of the way our activities are endangering so much life on earth, we need to have a serious and honest look at ourselves and realise that, objectively speaking, we are in fact the greatest pest species on earth. In this light, it should not be difficult to see that all our environmental and social problems are directly and proportionally linked to the obsessionally driven population and economic growth rate.
Democratic views ignored
Community recommendations to submissions like this are mostly ignored, in violation of the democratic process.
Page 8 shows the bioregions of Victoria but does not show urban bioregions of urban cities and towns.
Pages 13 and 14 do not show when country towns ran out of water and when water restriction were implemented.
Page 17: Why is there no text for fig, 7, “Summary of threatened animals in Victoria, 2007?”
Page 40: 6.6, Building ecological connections is continuously ignored in outer urban areas where existing wildlife corridors are wantonly destroyed.
Page 46: The desperate water issue has not been sufficiently linked with population growth!
The blame has been manly put on global warming and an uncertain future. Why then gamble with increasing the human population?
Page 52: “ While some adopt modern approaches and consider principles of sustainability and biodiversity, others are outdated and do not consider recent knowledge and threats.” An example is the proposed Frankston Bypass where road easements were reserved in 1960, a totally outdated decision.
There is also a constant “nibbling” at the Green Wedges, resulting in environmental groups suffering burnouts through constantly fighting VCAT’S etc.
Page 89: Consultation paper submission raised concerns about the continuing population growth, increased resource use, urbanisation, pollution and the sea change/tree change phenomenon, which means I am not alone in highlighting the absurd and obsessed push for population and economic growth. The 2030 plan expects over one million more people in the Melbourne growth areas and another 50’000 on the Mornington Peninsula. On top of that we have an artificially created baby boom by giving $ 5’000.00 for every new borne baby, and added to this we allow 170,000 more migrants to come here each year.
My major concern is that the GREEN PAPER will give people false hope. We have to realise that it is us, and rapidly more of us, that are destroying this earth by pollution and over use of resources such as fuel and water as well as destroying the environment. And , importantly, we must not blame global warming and climate change for the rapid decline in biodiversity etc., since it is also all of us who have caused it and keep on increasing it.
Finally, we must still go on and do what we can to protect the species we still have but also strongly and openly protest against the “ poles apart “ policies of the government.
Hans Brunner, Wildlife Ecologist, Frankston, Melbourne
(Hans Brunner is an animal hair specialist who is famous for his forensic work in showing that hairs in the Azaria Chamberlain case were dog hairs (Dingos are dogs!), thereby overturning Lindy Chamberlain's conviction, and who made the world news in 2002 through his identification of hair from a previously undocumented primate in Indonesia, which locals thought could be the "Orang Pendek".
This article was based on his submission to the Victorian Government re the Green Paper.
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