extinction

The message being sent by the Australian Government in this 21st Century and in this UN International Year of Biodiversity is that killing wildlife and trade in wildlife is in 2010 somehow acceptable. Even Australia’s Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett at the CITES conference this month failed to oppose the continuation of international trade in critically endangered Bluefin Tuna and Polar Bears. Garrett should go back to singing for his supper.

Australia’s many species of macropods (mainly kangaroo and wallabies) used to be prolific. Now according to the World Wildlife Fund, 42 macropod species are listed, or in the process of being listed, on the IUCN red-list of species threatened with extinction. The distribution and abundance of all bettongs has been severely affected since European settlement. Of all 10 types of bettongs four are extinct, three are threatened and three are considered to be at low risk of extinction.

Western Australia’s woylie population has suffered more than a 90 per cent decline and has been re-listed as critically endangered. Of all five types of potoroos, one species is extinct, three are threatened and one subspecies is considered low risk despite suffering a 10-50 per cent decline in population. With 80 per cent of potoroo species extinct or at risk of extinction, this group of macropods has been severely affected.

There was one type of desert rat kangaroo, which is now extinct. Only known from the hottest and driest parts of Central Australia, has not been seen since 1935.

So long as Australia’s Liberal and Labor governments permit wildlife shooting, there will be people out there like Chris that will exploit it. It is time to outlaw wildlife poaching throughout Australia. It is morally wrong and it is driving species extinctions.

CONFESSIONS OF A WILDLIFE SERIAL KILLER

The following responses to questions were made by a self confessed wildlife killer in Dalby Queensland between 27th and 30th March 2010.

1. Killing kangaroos for commercial meat and destroying their remnant habitat is just a hangover from illegal colonist exploitation of Australia. Killing wildlife is poaching.

Roo Killer Response:
“its only poaching if the animal is protected form all licensed shooting - example koalas, wombats platypus.”

2. Killing native wildlife is wrong. Eating it only encourages supply of kangaroo meat, and perpetuate the wrong.

Roo Killer Response:
“why is it wrong explain that no one can cause there is no right or wrong just different points of view.”

3. Most kangaroo meat is sold as pet food, "not for human consumption". The pets (mainly cats and dogs) are introduced animals. Not only are colonists killing wildlife, they feed it to their pets.

Roo Killer Response:
“71% of roos shot in Australia are exported to Russia for human consumption, 25% for pet food and 4% are shot only for there skins…i shoot only for human consumption.”

4. If as roo poachers claim, that it is ok to eat Kangaroo, what about wombat, Koala and Platypus and dog?
Roo Killer Response:
“wombats, koalas and platypus are protected by law roo's arent protected if you have a marco pods harvesting licence and mate i dare you to eat a dogs liver and see if you live to tell the tail.”

5. "People are capable of eating anything that is available." So why is cat and dog not included? They are introduced animals. Thousands remain unwanted in RSPCA depots and lethal injection is a humane way of killing them. The Koreans eat dog so why not Australians?

Roo Killer Response:
“cause we’re Australian not Korean, dog is a delicacy to Koreans as is kangaroo to most of the world.”

6. Rood poaching ignores the ecological cost. If the roos shooters had to pay per carcass for the loss of the wildlife, their commercial exploitation would not be profitable. I can't see that with roo meat selling for under $4 a kilo how it is profitable anyway. Shooting wildlife for pet meat for pittance?

Roo Killer Response:
“so should people that own cats then have to pay for all the wildlife they kill. all we do is make a good living of an over populated community of animals keep the numbers down for everyone. and i can get a different job when ever i want i'm a mechanical fitter/welder by trade but i choose to do what i love.”

7. So long as cowboy poachers in utes hoon around the scrub shooting wildlife for a pittance and seek to legitimise it by calling it a 'kangaroo industry', there ought to be calls to set up a Poacher Culling Industry.

Roo Killer Response:
“I agree cause 98% of the cowboys hooning around the bush culling roo's aren't accredited and there shooting roos that i can make good money off. poacher's should have the book thrown at them they dont treat the animals the way professional's do.”

8. So where are kangaroos "out of control"? Why were theyr not out of control pre-white fella?

Roo Killer Response:
“if you knew anything about the Australian bush you'd know not much can actually live of the native grasses so when white fellas came and introduces good feed the roos got outta control. put a gold fish in a small tank it grows to the size that suit it's environment.... put the same gold fish in a big tanks and it will grow bigger to suit that environment if there is sufficient food.”

9. What is the minimum definition of a "professional shooter"? Is it anyone licenced to shoot holding a long arm licence? In NSW, this can mean a supervised 12 year old. How are recreational shooters and farmers holding a shooters licence distinguished from professional marksman with a marksman rating? I don't think they are. Australian shooting associations are all amateur and voluntary and there is no official 'professional shooters licence' as much as many roo shooters would comfort from such legitimacy.

Roo Killer Response:
“You have to hold a special license to harvest kangaroos in Australia, issues after an accuracy test and 2 TAFE courses are passed and your vehicle is up to spec and registered threw the states macro-pod harvesting agency the license is issued by the state you live in, the shooters association of Australia has nothing to do with it except issuing me with a gun license saying i can legally own a firearm,you must have a Queensland macro-pod harvesting registration number to btw and there is a special license, if anyone with out this license is caught shooting roo's it is classed as poaching and they get the book thrown at them with a jail term in toe.”

10. A kangaroo's head at 300 metres at dawn or dusk when kangaroos are grazing and so typically shot by roo shooters. This marksman standard ought to be the Australian professional standard. But I reckon we'd find bugger all shooters competent to that accuracy. Hence, despite this being a typical scenario this is why the lack of independent monitoring and systemic cover up of body shots.

Roo Killer Response:
“the government states an accuracy test must be past at 100 yard, 5 out of 5 shots in an inch and a half circle at 100 yards it like the size of a coke lid at that distance, and on a typical night i will take shots in excess of 450yards with a ruger mark2 m77 varmint rifle .223 caliber and hit it in the eye 9 out of 10 time, the other time it goes up its nasal cavity, roo shooters can out shot any long distance sportsman shooter by a long shot we depend on it for a living and shooting targets is a waste of time unless your sighting in your new rifle.”

11. Why is there no independent government watchdog overseeing roo shooters in outback QLD, NSW, SA, WA? Is it because state governments couldn't give a toss?

Roo Killer Response:
“Queensland macro-pod harvesting branch is located in charleville, and each shooter has to purchase tags with the numbers on it so a table to field trace can be establish and all carcasses are inspected by a government vet b4 the go for human consumption, or dog meat. yet again your not in the industry so i wouldn't expect you to actually know the facts only the emotional stuff.”

12. "Kangaroos are destroying...crops" Where?

Roo Killer Response:
“go talk to any wheat. lucerne, oat, or any veggie farmer and they will give you the honest truth and you have to actually leave the city to see where the kangaroos are doing the damage, go to any country town sit at the bar at the local pub and ask the old fellas or any locals from the area and you'll be told what you need to be told.”

13. "Kangaroos are taking valuable feed away from cattle" Where?

Roo Killer Response:
“the macro-pod harvesting license is issued by the EPA (environmental protection agency) just to add insult to injury. check out www.rooshooter.com.au for a little heads up”

(Kangaroo killing) ..."it’s not a pittance of a wage mate since the chiller box re-opened on the 15/1/2010 till this morning 29/3/2010 i placed my 5204th tag on the last roo i shot last night. and that's just for this year so far..... at an average weight of 28kg's going off my records that's right every roo has to be recorded when, where, weight etc..... so far this year that's a grand total of $98,876 b4 taxes.... so if i actually shot for the entire year i will have shot 20816 roos for the year there lucky i take 3 months off over winter aren't they.... and that's just me 1 of over 1500 registered roo shooters in Queensland alone. And yet most of us full timers shoot an average of 20,000 roo's a year and somehow we keep doing this year in and year out and the numbers aren't dropping there's still in excess of 60 million roo's in Australia according to last years study done by the EPA so really we need more roo shooter's."

"well you all have a good day I'm going to bed got a long night ahead of me making my pittance of a wage. oh and tiger quoll maybe some time you should come out roo shooting with me so you can see what its all about. sorry but i can't let you shoot any cause well that would be poaching but you'll still see them in plague proportion and actually know how it really is and see first hand the damage they do. well y'all have fun working the jobs that you hate while i sleep the day away after a profitable night 1100 buck for one night at work who woulda guessed you could make this kinda money and actually enjoy your job."

Further comments:

lol that was funny (29-Mar-2010):

“lol just fueled me ute up at the bp in dalby with a 32 roos and 8 pigs on the back, there were a bus load of city slickers there lol, never seen so many peeps near threw up and crying lmao why do people react to it like that if you dont like wat we do in the bush stay in the city. might have been cause watto and i were eating kfc while we were fueling up dont know. you all need to harden up. its the easiest thing a person can do for a living. yet again your all just turning the situation back around to emotional crap the roo's dont feel a thing they dont even know wats happened to em.

And yeha roo's may have been here for thousands of years but i can tell ya this i'll be shooting them till the day i die and i wont even make an impact on there numbers in australia, my son is an up and coming roo shooter to at the age of 4 he can skin and gut a roo nearly as quick as me and over the last 4 weekends he has shoot over 50 roos with only 8 misses they still didnt get away tho like always dad was there to clean up the mess. my advice is roo shooters are here to stay deal with it weather it's leagally or illegally roos will be shoot till the end of time or at least untill they learn to shoot back. if you dont like it dont purchase any of the products and you'll be rite out of site out of mind.

i'm chris's partner (29-Mar-2010)

“hi all look i'm a chick and go out every now and then shooting with chris and yes he told me he said about our son going along look its something that as an animal lover i see your point of view on the situation , i used to hate it until i started going out shooting with him and there is actually nothing morally wrong with it at all, chris kills every animal with the utmost respect and never hurts or injuries any joeys they get a quick and painless death like the rest of the roos in his sites, in the last 6 years we've been together i think i've only seen him misses 10 times and that wasn't a complete miss that was a neck shot instead of a head shot, he truely is a master at what he does, and plus the look on his face when he teaches his son and spends time with him out there is worth any amount of roo's lives, i have a photo of chris with our son and the first pig he shot the smile on chris's face i've only seen a few time , when we got married and when our son was born. it's like any thing if you love it you excell at it and do it right. look what happens out there is up to the individual dont judge all roo shooters on the ones you see in the papers giving them a bad name they arent doing anything wrong, there making a living of the land and helping out the local farmers. if cattle were australian wildlife would you all be lobbing to stop them being farmed???? or trying to make life harder for the beef industry i think not.

And to answer you suggestion (29-Mar-2010)

"...Yes, it is as easy as choosing a small or large macca's meal, he doesnt even bat an eye lid at them when i first went out shooting with him i grabbed one of the joeys and tried to take it home with us, chris went off and killed it i felt bad but i understand why he lives by the you gotta be cruel to be kind theory cause well its true it's a sad fact but it has to be done. it's not cruel or inhumane the way he does it, he does it by the book. if he can he tries to avoid shooting doe's for the fact that well i dont think he actually likes to kill the joey's, he might not flinch or have any compassion for the joey if he does shoot a doe's that has a joey but he doesnt smile for a while after. so i think it does in a way affect him when he has to kill a joey just he's not the type to show it. he's gunna be pissed at me for saying that but well he isn't a cold heartless killer like most of you may think.

loop holes mate loop holes (30-Mar-2010):

"There's a loop hole in the claws that people shooting with an accredited shooter, can if deemed competent by the accredited person to assist in them in there duties it doesn't actually state that they can't shoot the roo's while under the supervision of an a credited shooter, i was just getting my point across to tiger quoll that it's not poaching in any way shape or form if you have the correct license's. i honestly think that any one and every one should be aloud to shoot roo's with no limitations, its plain and simple there's to many of them i boxed 114 of them last night and could have easily shot more, but the night isn't long enough, also got 26 pigs there worth more but harder to find even tho there in plague proportion to unlike a roo a pig has a mind and thinks as soon as a pig see's you, your dog, a spotlight ect they do the bolt. and this instinct isn't from being in a spot light before cause like a roo they'd be dead, nothing roo, goat, pig, deer, cat, rabbit, fox or dingo lives to tell the tale when i get my sights on it. a few of my cousins came up to my place last weekend and where trying to challenge me to see wat i could and couldnt do with my .223, there was a hare about 600 to 650 yards away and they put money on it that i couldnt hit it, more fool them, took its head clean off and just to show them it wasnt a fluke i placed the other 4 rounds in to the carcass."

"Look nothing that get shoot by a professional feels a like, it's oh look a light and there dead before they even hear the shot. now any other animal would be long gone after the first shot. but no a mob of roo's are the stupidest mob of animals in the world they jump 15-20 meters away and stop look back then start eating again if the paddock is big enough you can take out a mob of 20 within half and hour, and you only have to move your ute about 20meters in a circle. if they had any kind of smarts they would dissappear after the first shot, still doesnt help tho there just as perdictable on the hop as standing still just sit there and wait watch them threw the scope get the highest point while on the hop line it up and let her rip in the 6 years i've been shooting i've only missed maybe 10 roos that are on the hop and they were clean misses i dint nick the animal’

[Above comments were sourced from responses from Chris Palmer and his partner to a previous article by Menkit Prince ‘Kangaroo Meat: Why it's Not Good Bush Tucker!]

Tiger Quoll
Snowy River 3885
Australia

The Brown Mountain landmark trial has begun!

After months of preparation, our legal team and supporters have gathered in Sale and begun the two-week Brown Mountain landmark trial.

Everything is going very well so far. It's difficult to report on a hearing that is in progress, particularly since we are the plaintiff, so this article might lack a few things.

Our lead barrister, Debbie Mortimer SC, spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning in Court outlining what we say are the facts and the law, in a fascinating opening submission.

She spoke about the beautiful native wildlife that is central to our case, and the Court was treated to large pictures of the critters. It was almost surreal, but quite appropriate in our view, to see a team of lawyers in black gowns and wigs defending the furry, the feathered, the cray and the frog.

She said that VicForests has a number of legal responsibilities towards the environment, including endangered species, and that those responsibilities are inconsistent with logging at Brown Mountain.

For a more detailed summary of the first day's hearing, read this excellent article by The Age journalist Kate Hagen, who is attending the hearing #10;h.html">Click here

Journalists from ABC Radio and Win TV (channel 9) are also attending the hearings.

VicForest's Defense

VicForests' lead barrister Ian Waller SC started outlining VicForests' case this afternoon. When Court adjourned today, he said he still had about an hour to go, so we haven't got the full picture yet.

But generally speaking he contended that VicForests' responsibility to the environment wasn't anywhere near as strong as we made out, and was balanced by its requirement to create economic and social benefits. He said that, to the extent to which VicForests has responsibilities to the environment and native wildlife, it has fulfilled them.

Judge and Legal teams in the field

On Wednesday, Justice Osborn and the legal teams were having a look at Brown Mountain first hand. It's not just a bushwalk, though; they will observe first hand some places and concepts about forests, logging and post-logging practices that will later on be discussed in Court.

Schedule

On Thursday morning, VicForests' opening submissions is expected to finish, then Environment East Gippsland will bring out our witnesses.

Court is open to the public. You are welcome to attend if you are in Sale - there have been a few people sitting quietly in the public area. If you drop in, please come up and say hello.

A local wag is tweeting the trial. Click here for regular updates.

Court adjourned until Tuesday 9 March (Monday 8 is a public holiday.)

Information, but not headers, from Jill and the team at EEG
Environment East Gippsland Forest Update

To make a tax-deductible donation for this crucial trial:

* Online - CLICK HERE.
* By direct deposit - email info[AT]eastgippsland.com.au for our bank account details
* By cheque - Make out to EEG and send to: EEG, Locked Bag 3, ORBOST Vic 3888

For more information CLICK HERE.

Search for another food bowl:

The National Water Initiative, agreed in 2004 by the Council of Australian Governments, provided a national blueprint for water reform. The National Water Initiative recognised that, as the reality of changing water resource security in the south is better understood, there would be a need to consider the potential for other parts of Australia, such as the north, to support future land and water development.

One element of the plan was to establish the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce to address its enquiries to the key surface and groundwater systems within the Timor Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria drainage divisions and the North East Coast drainage division north of Cairns. 

The Taskforce concluded that developing Northern Australia as an integrated, sustainable region was a complex policy challenge.

On paper at least, the figures are indeed astonishing: some one billion litres of rain dumps on northern Australia each year. Could the north satisfy not only Australia's rapidly growing population, but also the future needs of our Asian and South Pacific neighbours?

It seems not. Or at least not to that degree according to a three-year Federal Government study into the sustainable development of northern Australia. It also points to the damage that high rainfall can do, stripping away top soil, leaving the ground infertile.

The Top End is governed by its two seasons - the wet season from November to April when it's a deluge, and the dry, when the taps are off. The north still has that powerful hold over people's imagination.

Projects such as the Green Hills dam on the Gilbert River near Georgetown, a dam on the Flinders River at Hughenden, and other water storage facilities researched for the Flinders at Richmond and Julia Creek and along the Norman River have proved to be pipe dreams for those western communities.

The CSIRO water study, presented to the taskforce last year, found there was not enough water to irrigate large swaths of land in the north without doing major damage to the rivers and the surrounding environment.

The taskforce recommended no new dams, but advocated a mosaic of small-scale irrigation systems "that have carefully combined arable land with available water".

In other words, for all the southern Murray-Darling Basin’s problems with record drought and the threat of a drying, warming climate, the Northern Australia Land and Water Task Force report found that northern Australia has only limited potential for expanding irrigated agriculture and horticulture – between 20,000 and 40,000 hectares, compared to about 1.4 million hectares in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Northern Australia’s rich biodiversity and strong Indigenous cultures are world renowned and should form the basis for sustainable economic development across the region.....There can be a strong economic and conservation future for northern Australia, but it will lie in the development of industries that are well suited to the region, such as tourism and good management of fisheries and land, says Don Henry, ACF executive director.

ACF believes a sustainable future, particularly for Indigenous communities, lies in increased opportunities in these industries.

The Murray-Darling Basin

The Murray-Darling Basin covers 1,061,469 square kilometres or approximately one-seventh (14%) of the total area of Australia (7,692,024 square kilometres).
It is the lifeblood for eastern Australia, stretching 1,061,469 square kilometres through Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The three main river systems that make up the Murray-Darling Basin include the Darling River, the Murrumbidgee River, the Lachlan River and Billabong Creek; and the Murray River itself.

It contains over 40% of all Australian farms, which produce wool, cotton, wheat, sheep, cattle, dairy produce, rice, oil-seed, wine, fruit and vegetables for both domestic and overseas markets. As Australia's most important agricultural region, the Basin produces one third of Australia's food supply and supports over a third of Australia's total gross value of agricultural production.

The Basin's most valuable resource is water.

The Murray-Darling Basin is home to a large number of different plants and animals.
About the Murray River
It has at least 35 endangered species of birds, 16 species of endangered mammals and over 35 different native fish species. Unfortunately, 20 species of mammals have already become extinct.

The Murray-Darling Basin is one of the richest sources of Indigenous archaeological and heritage sites in Australia. There are many hundreds of significant Indigenous sites along
the River. They include scarred trees, burial sites, campsites, canoe trees, hidden sites and earth sites.

Almost the entire Basin had been explored and occupied by Europeans within 50 years of the crossing of the Great Dividing Range. The development of a European way of life resulted in unintentional degradation of many of the Basin’s natural resources. This lack of knowledge about soil, climate, and geology of the Murray-Darling Basin has led to serious environmental problems including salinity, rising water tables and excessive vegetation clearances.

A 2001 report:

Forty per cent of the river length assessed was impaired, having lost a significant number of aquatic macroinvertebrates expected to occur there.

Ten per cent of river length was found to be severely impaired, having lost at least 50 per cent of the types of aquatic macroinvertebrates expected to occur there.

More than 95 per cent of the river length assessed in the Murray-Darling Basin had an environmental condition that was degraded, and 30 per cent was substantially modified from the original condition.

Native vegetation is currently being threatened by rising salinity (salt) levels; human-made changes to flooding and drying areas; and careless campers, boaters and land-developers. Nevertheless, with climate change threatening to make matters worse, finding a solution to the water crisis is becoming more urgent.

Salinity
Close to half of Australia's saline seepage is located in Murray-Darling Basin, especially the Lower Murray-Darling.
Three processes greatly increase the rate of salinisation: land clearing, erection of river structures, and irrigation.

Land Degradation
The main forms of land degradation are:

DEVELOPER RULES – URGENT!

WHAT THE ELLS GOING ON?

One rulebook for developer Bob Ells, of King’s Forest/Cobaki Lakes, and one rulebook for everyone else.

Is this right? Are we going to stand for it? What do you think?

4500 lots each Kings Forest and Cobaki Lakes (9000 total) What about the infrastructure, water etc. for such huge developments?

Block sizes from 120m (Normal minimum 450m)

Developer creates own rules for house types, roads, sewerage, etc.

THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE TO OBJECT

Send submission to:

Dept of Planning, PO Box 39 , Sydney 2001

Fax: 02 9228 6540

Email: [email protected]

IF YOU LOVE KOALAS , PLEASE HELP!

Dear Dept Planning

I strongly object to Leda Development being able to create their own rules for house types, roads, sewage etc. What on earth is going on here? Who is governing this country, developers or politicians? Who is this government serving, the people or the developers?

Why is Leda trying to minimise block sizes from 450m minimum to 120m? This is absurd not only for the environment but also the people who will be crammed together like sardines, 4500 lots with a minimum of 9000 people. Surely this will create a lot of crime in the area?

Leda will not be paying for infrastructure, water, rubbish removal, Tweed Shire council and local ratepayers will and we don't even want another 10,000 people here! We can hardly cope with the traffic and water demands we have now.

What I am most concerned about however, is the wildlife. Round Mountain was the #1 koala colony in Tweed shire and tragically it was totally burned out in a major bushfire a month or so ago. That leaves Kings Forest as the new #1 koala colony and you are allowing a major housing development on it?

What hope do the koalas have? Koalas stop breeding when stressed and many things cause stress - even simple things like having their favourite tree chopped down, or the loss of family members to say nothing of dogs (which will be permitted at Kings Forest), 6 lane freeways (with no overpasses, underpasses or exclusion fences), invasion of habitat. Their main habitat will become the new golf course which of course will be regularly sprayed with neurotoxic organophosphates which also will cause cancer and reproductive problems.

In addition to the threat to diminishing numbers of koalas, there a total of 450 species of native animals on Kings Forest , 33 of which are endangered. Why isn't the government doing something proactive to protect our wildlife? Are you not aware of the fact that Australia has the highest rate of species extinctions on the planet? Wildlife is under the radar of any government department and I would like to know WHY.

By the time people wake up to the horrific loss of biodiversity it will be too late. Humans cannot survive without biodiversity. The best protection is for the government to reclaim land like Kings Forest and leave it for the native animals. Why does money win out every time? What about your children's future? Are you even thinking of what a diminished future they will have with no koalas in Tweed ?

Tweed is home to more biodiversity than even Kakadu yet 2/3rds of these species are at risk of extinction.

Please do something NOW! Stop Kings Forest from going ahead with this madness. Bob Ell is acting like a Frankenstein monster with dollar signs popping out of his eyes and hell bent on destroying our wildlife.

[...]

Sincerely,
Menkit Prince
Uki NSW

Traditional Chinese have deemed 2010 the Chinese Year of the Tiger. But some traditional Chinese medicine is based on superstition, and some Chinese men still think the bones of a tiger will increase their libido and so want to kill tigers to get a hard on.

AdultShop should set up in Beijing and sort these misguided blokes out.

"Zion Organic's Tiger Bone contains herbs that have been associated with love potions and sexuality for thousands of years! These herbs enhance libido, boost sexual vigor, performance stamina and heighten sexual excitement for both males and females. The formula in this tonic will stimulate gland hormone activities, increase body energy that helps improve blood supply, nerve stimulation and glandular activity.

Better Sex naturally emerges from a healthier body and mind. If there are psychological or stress related problems impending sexuality (Up to 80% of sexual dysfunction is of mental or emotinal origin), our tonic drinks can hep over come them by turning the attention to love making and stimulating short term energy against impotence or frigidity. For the 20% of psychological factors causing sexual problems , the most common are diabetes, the use of certain prescriptions and poor circulation. Aging is not a cause of impotence or lack of libido for either male or female. Normal sexual function requires healthy organs and balance glands to produce necessary sex hormones. The herbs found in Tiger Bone help to establish a superior body balance by working through the glands, and they are uniquely qualified to help combat disorders associated with sexual function.[Source: zionorganic.com].

"A Chinese court has recently sentenced a man to 12 years in jail, plus a fine, for killing an endangered Indochinese tiger - which was made into a stew and eaten."

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has long advocated applying Tiger Bone as a traditional medicine for male impotence. With a billion Chinese, the Chinese Year of the Tiger translates to neanderthal Chinese paying big yuan to slaughter endangered tigers (mainly from impoverished India and Indonesia) in order to think their penises will grow and make more Chinese boys.

Unscientific people can be really backwards.
TCM used tiger bone in prescriptions for centuries, perhaps more than 1,500 years to treat pain and inflammation and to strengthen muscles, tendons and bones.

But wait!
Backward Chinese have no reason to be shy about their libido and size. The Chinese Government owned Tanggula Pharmaceutical Company has published results of 10 years of research showing that sailong (mole rat) bone “can completely substitute tiger bone for the effective treatment of rheumatism.

So misguided impotents can get help from mole rats and leave tigers alone. Their numbers in the wild have been reduced to just hundreds.

Seriously, the Chinese Government's 14 year ban on trade in 'tiger bone' is a positive step forward out of a backward superstition that only serves to drive a significant top order mammal into extinction.

If not, the 1 billion Chinese pathogen should be returned to the one child policy.

Short interview with anti-growth advocates highlights Canadian apathy

“Populations, like potholes, are produced locally....” Garrett Hardin

You may have heard of "S.O.S." (Save our Suburbs), an anti-growth organization that has set up shop in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, Australia. You may even of heard of how Noosa Shire, Queensland had developed a vision of sustainability that involved capping their population level. But what about North America?

This is a 13 minute radio interview from Charlottesville, Virginia with Jack Marshall of ASAP (Advocates for a Sustainable Abermarle Population) and Brian Czech of CASSE (Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy). "Jack Marshall and Brian Czech discuss limits to growth" . Canadians like to think of themselves as more "progressive" and "enlightened" than Americans. Yet where are conversations like this taking place in Canada? There are or were groups like ASAP in Vermont, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, California and Hawaii. Other than Qualicum Beach, BC and Okotoks, Alberta, or briefly, "Save Our Valley" in Chilliwack, BC, where is there a critical mass of citizens who have formed a strong anti-growth lobby in this country? This despite Canada having the highest population growth rate in the G8 group, with our major urban centres sprawling into greenbelts even while they densify, putting more than 500 species at risk and paving over one-fifth of our prime farmland. It is not a question of building "up" or building "out". We are just "building". Why aren't Canadians up in arms? We are pathetic and apathetic. And those of us who are not are muzzled, blacklisted and shunned by the media, staffed as it is by journalists schooled in political correctness and editors mindful of where advertising revenue comes from. There ain’t much money in giving a podium to growth-bashers.

To use Brian Czech's metaphor, we are building our house higher and higher by robbing its foundation of building materials. The foundation being finite natural capital. Yet every hick town and every major city, from Campbell River, BC to Vancouver to Saskatoon to Sudbury, Ontario and beyond is chalk full of mayors and councillors, elected by developer campaign funds, calling for more growth. Of course, it must come in the fashionable clothing of the time, that is, it must be "sustainable" or "green", complete with the necessary seal of approval from an environmental review process or ecological impact statement from the environment branch of the planning department. But all of that is cynical green wash, and those who are asked to file the impact statements clench their jaws in the knowledge that conservation and growth don't mix. And while they unleash the bulldozers these hypocrites on council are calling for more water and energy conservation, telling us to turn our computers off for an hour or stop watering our gardens while they issue more building permits, still unable to notice that tax revenues seldom recoup the infrastructure costs of the new subdivisions.

Granted, it is the federal government which controls immigration levels, enacts pro-natalist policies and effects stimulatory fiscal policies. But it is at the grass roots level, in city councils, real estate offices, chambers of commerce and planning departments where growth is born---that is the lair of the growth lobby. It isn't a monster in a distant boardroom, or the conspiracy of a bank chairman on Bay Street. It is the sinister gremlin of greed that hides behind the face of your friendly, smiling neighbourhood realtor, loans officer, mortgage broker or small town newspaper editor a half mile down the road on Main Street. Even college presidents and trade union bureaucrats are charter members of the growth club. More growth means more students and more revenue for the school, and more jobs for union members. MPs typically cut their teeth on local politics, and they build their careers as growth-boosters, flush with the cant of growthism. "Growth is good", "growth is necessary", "growth is inevitable". "We must have growth. That is the measure of our success. Why, people come from everywhere to live in our beautiful community, and who are we to say that they can't? Our greatest resource is our people....etc etc." Let me puke.

It is about time people were told the truth about growth. It is about time that politicians and environmental NGOs were told that is not sustainable, that it cannot be "managed" or rendered "smart". Is it going to take triple digit oil and $20 a gallon gasoline to send them that message? It looks that way, doesn't it?

It will be interesting to see how the Sierra Club and members of parliament screen out the apocalypse with their spam filters. "A power-down you say? Take me off your email list!"

Tim Murray
January 1/10

See also by Tim Murray: "What is a racist?" of 3 Jan 10, "The Green Badge of Courage" of 3 Jan 10 and "It is socially responsible to be socially irresponsible" of 4 Jan 10.

This TV ad takes the cake. Have you seen it? It is paid for by an organization that calls itself “Alliance for Life” (Ontario). It is a “provincial coordinating organization” of some 44 affiliates which, surprise surprise, includes seven Christian denominations, of which, another shocker, five are Catholic. Most interesting is an organization calling itself the “Population Research Institute”, founded of course by a priest, Father Paul Marx. Its mission? “...to expose the myth of overpopulation, to expose human rights abuses committed in population control programs.”

The Alliance, meanwhile, claims to present “a united voice for the dignity and worth of all human beings from conception/fertilization to natural death.” I can personally attest to the kind of dignity in death to which they are referring. My brother writhed in agony for months from terminal cancer, and repeatedly indicated that he wanted to die. But his Christian fundamentalist doctor was too concerned with his dignity to assist him in executing his wishes, and so my brother was forced to suffer without the ability to swallow or control his bowels. This conduct is sanctioned by the Alliance for “Life” as “morally and ethically acceptable”.

And of course, the Criminal Code, built on this kind of “morality”, stands behind them. This is the cultural “heritage” which some Canadian anti-immigrationists are intent upon saving. They are the people who grasp at environmental reasons for limiting immigration, but then turn around and advocate more birth incentives for native-born Canadians, most of whom are self-described Christians. Their objective is an ancient one. “Grow the tribe and screw carrying capacity.” So how does the Alliance for Life present its case on television?

The ad features children playing, when in a stroke, one in four of them vanish from the screen. This is to simulate the number of “children” or “babies” destroyed since the abortion law was struck down in 1988. That’s right. After 20 years the Christian right still doesn’t get it. They don’t understand the difference between a baby and a foetus. Between a life and a potential life. I once bought a lottery ticket, and I discovered that there was a substantial difference between a ticket that had the potential of winning the jackpot and one that actually did. It only took one purchase for me to figure that out. But then my learning curve is rather shorter and higher than a Bible-thumper’s I think.

But the Alliance for “Life” , or more aptly, the Alliance for the Increased Quantity of Life (rather than Quality of Life) is animated by different logic. They claim that since one-quarter of all pregnancies were terminated in Canada since the abortion law was passed, young Canadians are “missing” 3 million of their friends. Think of what a difference they would have made, they ask. Over to you Julian Simon. Another Sydney Crosby, or 100 cancer researchers, or 10,000 teachers perhaps. Forget the extra criminals, dead beats and real estate speculators. The more “life” we have the better. After all, “people” are our greatest resource.

Yeah sure. But each Canadian member of that “resource” emits, on average, 23 metric tonnes of green house gas (GHG), consumes 3 million tons of metals, minerals and fuel per year, and produces more than 150 pounds of waste annually as well. So what would those 3 million “missing” friends bring us? For starters, about 65% more GHG emissions than the tar sands produce, and about half the farmland that has been developed to accommodate the New Canadians that have arrived since the abortion law was enacted. And let us not forget the number of non-human species that would have been obliterated by the bulldozer to clear the way. Do you still miss those 3 million potential consumers now?

Each extra Canadian, whether he or she enters the country through the hospital or through the airport, diminishes the per capita share of non-renewable resources that existing Canadians enjoy. Even if the extra 3 million would have spurred more economic growth---a proposition refuted by two or three studies so far---that growth is still contingent on the supply of cheap fossil fuel and rapidly scarce minerals and metals upon which an industrial economy depends. More people does not mean a higher per capita GDP, and even if it did, the economic foundation upon which our inflated population rests is built on quicksand. The bigger we are, the harder we’ll fall. Triple digit oil will kill our transportation system and our ability to grow, harvest, transport and refrigerate our food. If we continue to grow our economy and grow our population, many more of us will starve, freeze and die, along with the flora and fauna we take down with us.

What is really required is an advertisement showing the number of various species on a screen, and those that disappear with each increment of the human population. Christians are fond of justifying the Biblical mandate for humans to exercise dominion over all God’s creatures by stressing our obligation to be wise stewards. That is a difficult task when the human population, to Catholic and evangelical cheerleading, has nearly tripled its size in my lifetime and is shrinking wildlife habitat relentlessly and mercilessly. Whether a primate’s life begins at conception or not, there are now fewer primates in existence than there are human beings born in any given day. If each one of God’s 214,000 miracles born each day is precious, what of the tens or hundreds of thousands of non human life forms that are murdered that day by our expansion? Yes, 100 species are lost each day. But many more life forms are killed than that each day. How many? Who knows? Each and every day we are breeding our life support system into the ground.

It is in this sense, then, that the Alliance for Life is the Alliance for Death.

Tim Murray
December 26/09
PS Happy New Year to Canada’s greatest and most effective environmentalist, Dr. Henry Morgenthaler.

Through incompetence and neglect 110 ha which was recently added to the Pines Flora and Fauna reserve was mismanaged by Parks Victoria and Department of Sustainability Victoria to the point where nearly all the species it contained have become extinct. Now this land is due to be separated by a huge tollway from the rest of the reserve, despite many bitter protests and submissions from residents and other concerned people, whose hearts are nearly broken. See also related articles

The death of the DARA land.

110 ha of land once belonging to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, known now as 'the DARA land" was recently added to the Pines Flora and Fauna reserve. Through incompetence and neglect it has been mismanaged by Parks Victoria and Department of Sustainability Victoria to the point where nearly all the species it contained have become extinct. Now, in a crowning act of environmental vandalism,[1] this land is due to be separated by a huge tollway from the rest of the reserve. This is to go ahead, despite many bitter protests and submissions from residents and other concerned people who do not want it.

Here Hans Brunner describes the process by which the species became extinct and pleads for the area to be rehabilitated. It is the least that the State government and SEITA (now renamed the Linking Melbourne Authority) can do. This time there should be transparent aims to increase the fauna species representation to its optimum and reproducible methods to test the success of the operation, so that the public may monitor the effectiveness of it.

Hans Brunner sends a plea to Department of Sustainability and Environment and to Parks Victoria to bring the Dara land back to life again. It can and must be done.

The future of the DARA land can be so much brighter than its past

The Dara land is the 110 ha that has been added to the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve. It borders on Ballarto Rd and McClelland Drive and joins on to the golf course, North-East of the original Pines. The proposed Bypass will separate the two parcels of land.

Some twenty years ago the Dara land, then occupied by the Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, was teaming with wildlife. There were large colonies of Swamp Rats, lots of Bandicoot diggings everywhere, there were Wallabies, Ringtail- and Brush-tail Possums, Echidnas, an occasional Koala and Sugar Glider and only a very small number of Rabbits. This was the result of regular poisoning of foxes and rabbits and the total absence of dogs. Boundary fences were inspected weekly and repaired immediately.

After a large wildfire, it took about two to three years for these animals to recover to their original numbers, but they did so with the help of ongoing fox and rabbit control and the absence of dogs.

After Dept of Agriculture left, Parks Vic and DSE allowed ferals to run amuck

After the Dept, of Agriculture vacated the Dara land Parks Victoria was appointed to manage this land. Immediately fox and rabbit poisoning stopped, a number of gates were erected to allow people with their dogs to enter as well as foxes and cats. The bandicoots were the first to suffer. It took only about twelve months for them to totally disappear from the whole of the Dara land. Where there were once large colonies of Swamp Rats one could find only the mounds of soil where they used to be. Rabbit numbers increased and fox and dog foot prints became prevalent not only along the walking tracks but also throughout the bush land off the tracks.

20 yrs ago foxes' and domestic dogs' scats revealed diet of endangered fauna

During my many visits, I collected scats of foxes, cats and dogs containing hairs and identified them in order to determine the prey species.

Since we know already too well what foxes prey on I concentrated on dog scats with hairs of prey species. It is well known that some people encourage their dogs to hunt for rabbits in the Reserve and the dogs will than go for anything that moves including native animals. Bandicoots are especially vulnerable to predation as they have to dig deep holes to get to their food and then can easy be ambushed while doing so. They also have not got large ears like the rabbits have to hear predators approaching. Subsequently I established what the contents were of twenty four dog scats. Of these, 8 had Rabbit, 4 had Wallaby, 4 had Bandicoot, 3 had Brush-tail Possum, 3 had Ring-tail Possum and 2 had Swamp Rat. Fox scats had a higher proportion of Rabbits but preyed on all the other animals as well and included some Sugar Gliders and lots of lizards.

Now the same scats show diet of mostly rabbits

Fox and dog scats now contain manly rabbit and a few ring-tail possums as all the other small native animals have almost totally disappeared.

This was not helped when Parks Victoria control burnt a large area of prime bandicoot habitat and before this area could recover an adjacent area was also burnt. This resulted in the absence of all the animals that used to live there and consisted of about fifty percent of the whole Dara bush land.

Active fox dens are now distributed throughout the whole area and there is no hope for the native animals to become re-established again.

The ultimate blame lies with DSE and PV

The ultimate blame lies with DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment)[2] and PV (Parks Victoria)[3]. They both were unwilling to protect the nationally endangered bandicoots and with it all the other native mammals, birds, lizards and frogs. How can they completely neglect and mismanage this prime habitat for not only this rare bandicoot but also for Koalas, Sugar Gliders, Swamp Rats, Echidnas, Brush- and Ring-tail Possums and all the other native wildlife! We have to urgently go back to the way the Dara land was managed by the Agriculture Dept.

In the absence of dogs, the control of foxes, cats and rabbits could than be carried out completely un-restricted and efficiently.

I plead with the DSE and PV to bring the Dara land back to life again. It can and must be done. If I had time, exactly the same story could be told about the Western half of the Pines where beside the predators and rabbits motorbike riders cause havoc to Wallabies, birds and other wildlife.

Hans Brunner

[1] Works undertaken by the Linking Melbourne Authority (once called SEITA) with the support of the Brumby government and your taxes.

[2] The Department of Sustainability and Environment has almost no staff devoted to actively protecting and sustaining healthy biodiverse fauna populations. DSE seems to be far more interested in pushing human population growth by stimulating high immigration, providing land to developers and pushing through infrastructure programs to the detriment of our indigenous fauna and the loss of green spaces. DSE is dominated by agriculturalists and property development oriented planners and technicians.

[3] Parks Victoria is a public authority (akin to a government department), funded from three major sources; payments from the State Government Budget (your taxes), an annual charge based on a property rate levied on all metropolitan properties, and user fees.
It is managed by a board with the following members:
Rob Gerrand, BA, FAMI, FAICD
Lois Appleby
Clarice Ballenden, BA (Hons) M.Ed.
Damien Bell
Rod Gowans, PSM.
Ken King, Dip. For., B.Sc (Hons)
Noel Harvey, OAM, MAICD
Jennifer Labourne, B.Bus, FCPA
Jan Mahoney BA, PhD, FAICD

What are these people doing with our money?

Geological and climatic events in Australia’s history have resulted in the unique species seen today, with marsupials evolving around 56 to 34 million years ago.

The main threats to macropods in Australia are habitat loss, altered fire regimes, introduced predators and now climate change. These are the main drivers of decline affecting many mammals in Australia and have resulted in this continent having the worst rate of mammal extinctions worldwide.

(extinct desert rat kangaroo)

Of 53 species of kangaroos, 29 are now threatened and 6 extinct. According to WWF, Australia's macropods, kangaroo and wallaby species will face extinction if urgent action is not taken to protect their habitat, warns WWF-Australia in the lead up to National Threatened Species Day on 7th September commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.

However, we still read the absurd statement that governments and scientists use to support kangaroo “management”:

kangaroo populations have increased dramatically since European settlement in these areas due to the introduction of European farming methods and, for this reason, carefully controlled harvesting is required.

Historical records from settlers’ report are quite the contrary!
1788 NSW Port Jackson- “Kangaroos are very numerous here.”
1802 Barrallie “The hills were covered by kangaroos”.
1818 Oxley “flocks of kangaroos like sheep. I do not exaggerate when I say that some hundreds were seen in the vicinity of this hill.”
1820 Sutherland “A great number of kangaroos in South Australia.”
1828 Sturt “There were very many kangaroos, the intervening brush was full of kangaroos”
1836 Mitchell “During the day we saw a great number of kangaroos”
1938 Hawden “Kangaroos in great abundance”
1849 Sturt “There was no want of game of the largest kangaroos”
1882 Lyne “Kangaroos and emus! A plenty!

Historian John Auty reports that reference to historical records suggest high populations of kangaroos over much of their range. Early historical records are dotted with references to large numbers of kangaroos.

The species identified so far as at risk of climate change comprise one-third of species on the national “Endangered” list, and about one-sixth of those listed as “Vulnerable” under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (Environment Australia, 2001). In other words, climate change is a threat for at least one third, and probably more, of the endangered species the Federal Government is obliged to protect.

Scientific studies in Australia identify 90 animal species at risk from climate change. These studies are far from comprehensive – the actual number is likely to be much greater. Rare species, fragmented ecosystems and areas already under pressure from pollution and deforestation are the most vulnerable.

While some Australian animals and plants are adapted to withstand dramatic seasonal changes in climate each year, many species have quite limited ranges of long-term average climate. Temperature ranges in the order of 1 – 2°C and 20 percent variation in rainfall mean that Australian animals and plants are vulnerable to long term climate change. Average temperatures on Earth have warmed by about 0.76 of a degree Celsius over the past 200 years.

Wildlife moves if possible towards preferred climate conditions for breeding, nesting, growing or feeding. With the temperature increases expected over the next 100 years, many plants and animals will need to be on the move. In the Australian Alps, kookaburras are hunting at higher altitudes than before, preying on alpine skinks that fail to recognise them as predators.

Some species that are sensitive to change will need to move away from their hotter home ecosystem southwards to where their preferred climate will exist in the future. Other species may be able to adapt to the new climate conditions at their current location and will become more dominant.

Some invasive species will be ‘winners’ from climate change. For example, feral cats are known to have caused extinctions of indigenous mammals on arid islands – but not on high rainfall ones – and hence changing rainfall patterns will most likely change the impact of cats on native mammals. Some ‘sleeper’ weeds will expand their range, and some new weeds may emerge. Some pathogens and their hosts will extend their range as temperatures increase.

We now have shooters wanting access to protected areas for “conservation shooting”, including native animals, the ongoing commercial kangaroo killing industry and burgeoning human populations justifying expansion and land clearings. Too many times we hear the “jobs” and “income” arguments to support wildlife killings and habitat destruction - this is where the buck stops! We hear too many contrary opinions!

History and cultural conditioning have animals considered a resource to plunder. Our appalling wildlife conservation record speaks for itself!

(photo courtesy of freefotos.com)
Earth is experiencing its sixth great extinction event and the new report reveals that this threat is advancing on six major fronts,says the report's lead author, Professor Richard Kingsford of the University of New South Wales

Our region has the notorious distinction of having possibly the worst extinction record on earth.

A study out of the University of New South Wales identified six major threatening processes (habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, climate change, overexploitation, pollution, and disease) and developed a set of conservation policies for each process.

Threats TO Livestock

The study by the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre estimated that six of Australia's most common pest animals cause annual crop and livestock losses of just over $620 million. According to Agricultural Minister Tony Burke, Feral pests are not an irritation; they sabotage farm businesses.

Feral animals impact on native species by predation, competition for food and shelter, destroying habitat, and by spreading diseases. Over the last 200 years, at least 19 species of native mammals have become extinct in Australia.

Extinction is the end result of a process over time as populations of a species gradually decline and disappear.

The feral animal problem in Australia is more than destruction of "assets" or "sabotage" of farm businesses! One of the more obvious impacts is that many invasive species will increase their range or population densities – cane toads hopping further south, for example.

Threats FROM livestock

Land clearing, primarily for agriculture, is perhaps the single most important cause of environmental degradation, loss of species, and depletion of ecological communities, both in Australia and worldwide. About 80% of the world’s original cover of forest has been cleared, fragmented, degraded or converted to plantations. CSIRO report.
Over the decade 1990–2000, Australia had the sixth highest annual rate of land clearing in the world.

Sheep

The sequence of occupation and land use in the Western Division NSW and the timing of the loss of native mammal species allows the conclusion to be drawn that it was sheep, and the way the land was managed for the export wool industry, that drove so many of the mammal species to extinction.
The resemblance of Australian to European pasture was only superficial. Australian native grasses were adapted to a poorer soil type and soft-footed, grazing marsupials. In a short time, native grasslands began to lose their vigour as hard-hoofed, close-cropping stock were introduced to these areas. However, despite declines in sheep numbers, there are still about 77 million head in the Australian sheep flock.

Cattle

There are roughly 29 million cattle in Australia. Most of these animals are raised to be killed for food. The climatic environment in Australia for sheep and cattle grazing is highly uncertain and producers face high levels of variability in grass growth and hence grazing pressure.
According to the Garnaut report, these industries are highly vulnerable to climate change.

Notably, Australia is the only country in the top 20 land-clearing nations with a developed first world economy! More than 550 000 hectares of native vegetation are cleared in Australia each year (Australian Conservation Foundation, 2001).
Grazing by Sheep and Cattle on natural or semi-natural pastures is the major land use for 4.5 million square kilometres (60%) of Australia’s land surface (Commonwealth of Australia).

Introduced ungulates (hoofed animals) are more dependent on permanent water than are native mammals. They congregate near permanent water, especially during drought. They eat and trample native vegetation, compact soil, alter soil structure and disrupt the soil.
Grazing by Cattle and Rabbits can have relatively severe ecological impacts in drought years. Over-grazing leads to desertification, and up to 4 million hectares of pastoral inland Australia could become permanent.

Food and Agriculture Organisation report Livestock's Long Shadow. Cattle possibly pose the single greatest threat to biodiversity as forests continue to be cleared to accommodate them; 70 per cent of clearing in the Amazon alone is for cattle.

Nearly 50% of the Australian continent is grazed by animals raised for human consumption. This is in addition to the land that is cleared and used for the production of hay and other food for animals. Clearing of forests and bushland for animal industries results in habitat loss throughout Australia, which is the major cause of wildlife species becoming threatened, endangered and extinct.

Eating Up the World Up: The Vegetarian Network Victoria

Wildlife as “invasive species”?
Kangaroos

Of 53 species of kangaroos, 29 are now threatened and 6 extinct. Australia has the worst record of extinctions of any country having exterminated one third of its wildlife in just 200 years. The commercial killing of kangaroos is the largest land-based wildlife slaughter on earth, kills more unweaned young than any other country and is as shameful as the Japanese whale slaughter and the Canadian seal hunt.

Researchers from the CSIRO tested the grazing pressure of red kangaroos equivalence to 0.7 sheep and have shown it to be a two-fold overestimation of their contribution to total grazing. Moreover, kangaroos had extraordinarily lower rates of water turnover, being only 13% that of sheep. Consequently, our data support arguments that the removal of kangaroos may not markedly improve rangeland capacity for domestic stock.

Kangaroos only compete with livestock for pasture when total grazing pressure exceeds dry matter production.
A six year study by Dr Steven McLeod at the University of New South Wales, determined: There was no evidence of a competitive effect of red kangaroos on sheep in terms of body mass, wool growth, reproductive output of sheep or the growth and survivorship of lambs. In fact, Red Kangaroos consistently avoid areas used by sheep.

A 4yr study of Grey Kangaroos in Western Australia by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation) found that 95% wheat crops are never visited by kangaroos who rarely wander more than 400 metres from their home range in the bush. Also kangaroos have virtually no impact on the country’s crops, despite claims by farmers to the contrary.

Dingoes

Speaking at the 2007 Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, ecologist Chris Dickman of the University of Sydney revealed data showing that in many areas - surrounding major Australian sheep farming regions - "where dingoes occur there are no foxes." Other research has shown a correlation between dingoes and low fox numbers on either side of 5,000-kilometre-long 'dingo-proof 'fence constructed by Australian state governments to exclude the dogs from sheep farming areas.

However, native species are not "invasive" but part of our ecology that provides "services" for farmers. They need to be treated as an ally and non-lethal management needs to be part of farming costs.

Native flora and fauna are part of our biodiversity, our heritage, our life-support system and their conservation and survival is a duty-of-care. Any wildlife and native plant losses have far more serious implications than financial and asset losses!

Colonial attitudes that consider wildlife losses as incidentals, or as inconveniences and "pests", still exist today and need to be challenged.

THE GREEN ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AUSTRALIA IS PART OF THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION THAT GOES BACK TO THE APOSTLES. WHEN WE CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, SAYS
HIS EMINENCE ARCHBISHOP STYLIANOS HARKIANAKI, WE ARE TRULY 'IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD'.

Human beings have caused species to become extinct, and destroyed the biodiversity of creation; we have degraded the integrity of the Earth by causing excessive and rapid climate change; we have destroyed forests and wetlands, and contaminated the Earth’s waters; we have polluted its lands and its air with poisonous substances. This is sinful. Sinfulness means we have ‘missed the mark’ as to God’s original purpose for creation, choosing instead to become beings consumed by avarice and greed, contrary to the will of our Creator.

“Si spegne, signori, si chiude”
("Lights off, gentlemen, we are closing down”)

Recently a well-known professor of Siena University, a hydrology expert and director of FAO development projects in Africa, launched an extraordinary thesis, using instruments of cultural anthropology, in an Italian publication.

In the middle of the renewed interest in demography, with one side decrying the population dearth and the other denouncing the obscene threat of overpopulation, professor Pietro Giuliano Cannata has introduced what amounts to a new world vision, challenging both views.

Liberation from the shackles of determinism is at hand.

For Cannata, the long and anguished process of evolution, dictated by biological necessity, but without a design (telos) has been overtaken by culture, which now governs evolution.

Reading the book is in itself an experience regarding the revelation of the psychological forces that impel our behaviour and preoccupy every human being. Fear of death and attempts to dominate and exorcise it, using a variety of means from civilisation to civilisation, define those civilisations in major leit-motifs.

I use the editor’s comment to convey the main thesis:

“Suddenly one day, it became clear that the human species was taking control of its own destiny, because humans started to “choose”, in a confused and intermittent way, between life’s accidentally encountered bifurcations, in the long story of biological blind evolution.

Among these choices one triumphed over others: the decrease of births and the consequences of this, plus a significant new element: the refusal to procreate.

What were the reasons for this reluctance? Apart from the usual causes of economic difficulties, lack of social services, demand for political and professional participation by women, and aspirations for a continuously higher quality of life, another reason appeared. This one is a guiding anthropological, psychological and cultural factor, the unconscious determination to shirk the call for procreation, to refuse to transmit life.

After winning the competition for nourishment and space, after madly multiplying and achieving extraordinary levels of well being, consuming to satiety almost all the world, the human species refuses to grow anymore. Humans are getting ready for the final decline, in a disciplined way.”

The author wants to show an ontological transformation of evolution, no more driven by blind necessity and condemned to repeat the past. Life then, as glimpsed through the testament of some great philosophers and poets, is an insensate flight towards Nothing. The question about our final destination has no answer since the faith in a divine origin and destiny has dwindled.

The old fertility paradigm

The old paradigm imposed the fertility imperative on women. The female of the species will however soon everywhere be liberated by contraception and the possession of her body. History points to a rather different view of the maternal instinct: "Against the terror of repeated pregnancies, reality shows abortion and infanticide to be common practices. The casual smothering of the new born (which resulted in the canonical law of the suspended cradle), exposure to freezing weather, the fable of the children lost in the woods…”

Did men invent the maternal instinct?

Was the notion of maternal instinct invented by men, to better subjugate women and insure their cooperation in the propagation of their genes?

These and other strange questions run through the book, supplied and documented with vast philosophical, environmental and anthropological knowledge. The mind boggles and is taken over by a sense of despair, an outcome which I am sure the author did not intend. On the contrary, he seems to present the vision of a future without humans as the best solution to this absurd eternal flight towards death, the only sure thing in the uncertainty of life.

To be born - "Ed è rischio di morte il nascimento" - ("To be born is to risk death" - G.Leopardi) is the same as being mortal. Mortality is a state of being so intolerable that every century, every culture has invented a way to exorcise and justify it. The thirst for meaning cannot be satisfied: the enlightenment has eliminated all dogmas and the crumbling edifice of faith brings with it isolation and alienation.

Challenging paradigm of dominant males' reproductive success

Among the numerous themes to be dissected is the presumption that dominant males dominate natural selection in reproduction, denying the weak the chance to reproduce themselves.

“But the examination of DNA explodes this theory, showing more exceptions than confirmations of the dominant male theory, revealing six different fathers for each of the six kittens born to one female cat. Every male cat had a chance. Selection is therefore dictated by chaos.”

"It is clear that the health of the planet is a human task. It depends on humanity. Humanity is freeing itself from the unbearable weight of the world. This liberation will be the end of the future and maybe the end of history, because our descendant’s won't continue to get on and off the merry-go-round. Inexorably, the merry-go-round will slowly empty itself and finally stop. Nobody will get on anymore."

"Lights off, gentlemen, we are closing down."

#LastStand" id="LastStand">The last stand for Tweed Coast koalas - our local heritage and icon at stake!

The Tweed Shire has abundant World Heritage areas and has the highest biodiversity of vertebrates in Australia - more than Kakadu National Park - due to abundant rainfall and rich volcanic soil from Mount Warning.

Kings Forest is a 2,000 + acres (880 hectares) parcel of land that contains critical habitat for the second largest colony of koalas on the Tweed Koala Coast (i.e. 145 to 175 koalas) out of a total of 300 koalas (see map). This is a very significant colony. There are a total of 22 endangered species of animals on this land and hundreds of endangered flora (scribbly gum and rare heathland).

There is currently a proposal by Mr Bob Ell, Executive Chairman, Leda Holdings, GPO Box 2522, SYDNEY NSW 200 before State government to develop the following on this land:

• residential development of 4,500 houses (dogs and cats permitted)
• aged care facility and/or retirement living
• educational facilities (pre-school, primary schools, high school)
• village centre
• church
• service station
• golf course and club house
• neighbourhood centre
• regional community facility
• four-lane boulevard

#ThreatsToSurvival" id="ThreatsToSurvival">What threatens koalas' survival?

The biggest killers of koalas (in order of impact) are:

1. habitat destruction
2. cars
3. dogs

All three threats would be present on this development, in addition to others. Felled trees would not only cause loss of habitat for koalas but also loss of koalas' food source. Revegetation of these eucalypt species would take at least five to ten years.

#WildlifeCorridors" id="WildlifeCorridors">Koala-friendly wildlife corridors

Additionally, the plan includes a golf course, a four-lane road and bicycle paths to interface with the wildlife corridor for koalas who move on foot from tree to tree.

There are no koala-proof fences planned around the roads or overpasses/underpasses to prevent koalas from running onto the roads. This would be disastrous for the koalas and would lead to their local extinction.

Already the koala populations on the Tweed are highly fragmented due to lack of interconnecting wildlife corridors. Without a healthy gene pool their species will become weaker and sicker. This is may be the only healthy koala population in NSW. Other populations of koalas die from disease and weak immunity.

Golf courses spray pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that can be carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and mutagenic, affecting immunity and reproduction of koalas who could inhale and also tread in these toxins. Also fertilisers will kill native species of flora.

World koala experts say that when you reduce habitat and food sources to koalas, their numbers will reduce, so if this goes, all koalas go.

Since pockets of koala habitat occur throughout this area, removing pockets will have a major impact on the colony. Although 50% of the koala population are female, none of them have any sign of breeding due to the stress of logging in the area.

#DistributionMap" id="DistributionMap">Koala distribution map for the tweed shire (crosses):-

www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/stpuweb/koala.htm

#UnsafeHumanHabitat" id="UnsafeHumanHabitat">Unsafe human habitat

Due to the high fire-risk nature of the area with so many native trees, this development is very risky for human habitation. Every house would need trees cleared around it, trees that are habitat and a food source for the koalas thus significantly impacting endangered species. This would breach the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 (EPBC Act). Furthermore, this is low-lying land prone to floods and close to the coast in the event of rising sea levels.

In summary, this proposal is an ecological disaster for the Tweed Shire.

#Extinct By2020" id="Extinct By2020">Koalas extinct by 2020?

There are estimated to be less than 100,000 koalas remaining in Australia, considerably less due to the recent disastrous Victorian bush fires and Queensland floods.

It is incumbent on us to protect those koalas and endangered species remaining not only for our growing tourism industry but for future generations. Currently, Koalas are predicted to become extinct in the wild by 2020.

Considering we are in the Sixth Mass Extinction of all species, it is imperative that we understand that human survival depends on biodiversity.

See also: "Kings Forest Development threatens 21 Threatened Species of Fauna" on Blue Cray of 28 Feb 09.

#HowYouCanHelp" id="HowYouCanHelp">How you can help

Please write to:

The Director
Coastal Assessments
Department of Planning
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001
(02)92-285-811
[email protected]

The General Manager
cc The Councillors
PO Box 816
Muwillumbah NSW 2484
email [email protected]
(02)66-702-400.

Deadline: March 2, 2009 (post-dated on envelope)

"Think Globally, Act Locally"

Dear friends of Earth,

Australians everywhere are devastated at the terrible bush fires in Victoria and flooding in Qld. An estimated one million native animals have been incinerated in the infernos, although the true total could be many times more. The surviving animals will be left to starve or die from injuries, heat stroke or dehydration. We have seen the photos of desperate koalas stopping cyclists on the road for a drink from their water bottles, clambering over fences and drinking from people's swimming pools, dog bowls and watering cans. Koalas nation-wide will now number considerably less than 100,000 thanks to these fires and floods.

With the worst record in the world of wildlife extinctions, having driven 40% of our native animals extinct in a mere 220 years, isn't it time, once and for all, that the Australian government stopped allowing the killing of our so called 'protected' native animals, most of whom are suffering from the following major threats:

1. drought
2. climate change
3. habitat destruction from developers and livestock farmers
4. bushfires
5. flooding
6. farmer kills
7. illegal kills
8. roadkill
9. illegal wildlife trade
10. diseases caused by man
11. polluted air, soil and water
12. the 'bush tucker' trade
13. sports hunters
14. government 'culls'

We call on the government of Australia to protect our native animals in the following ways:-

a) Impose an immediate moratorium on the killing of ALL native animal species (except where it's in the best interest of an animal such as in the case of wounding/disease).

b) Immediately revoke all licences for nuisance killing or sports killing.

c) Increase the penalty for deliberately killing a native animal and to include jail time.

d) Mandate that motor vehicles be installed with 'Shu-Roo' type sonic devices to alert wildlife of the approach of vehicles on country roads.

e) For all development proposals to include appropriate wildlife corridors for the species who live there.

f) To increase expenditure for wildlife corridors to be created where native roadkill consistently occurs.

g) Offer substantial subsidies for livestock farmers to transition from cattle and sheep farming operations to grain and vegetable operations, which do not require constant deforestation to create more grazing lands. Much of the dryness of our country, and therefore propensity to bush fires, is due to livestock farming since cattle and sheep pull out the roots of grasses then compact the soil and cause soil erosion, deserts, droughts and climate change. It's time to move away from this destructive industry and help people transition to a plant-based diet for the sake of our nation.

h) Close down the 'bush tucker' trade completely, especially the kangaroo meat and leather industry. Kangaroo populations have plummeted up to 70% nationwide due to drought and excess killing by the commercial kangaroo industry. The average age of commercially killed kangaroos is only 2-3 years, barely reproductive age. More than 50% of kangaroos killed are females - a recipe for extinction and certainly not 'sustainable.' (see www.stopkangarookilling.org )

i) Create an information sheet highlighting the many ways that kangaroos help prevent bushfires such as by eating the dry grasses that ignite easily in bush fires and by regenerating native grasses by eating the seeds and then migrating to other areas before depositing them into the soil via their stool. Kangaroos are beneficial to our ecosystem in many ways. They do not compact the soil and they help plant many seeds by creating indentations in the soil for seeds to fall into. They also need very little water to drink.

j) Use the media to dispel the widely-held myths that kangaroos are in 'plague proportions' and 'pests.' Since there are more than 5 times as many sheep as there are kangaroos and more cows than kangaroos and about the same number of people, it is hardly fair to call refer to kangaroos as in 'plagues' or 'abundant' and to use that to justify killing them. Also there is no scientific study proving that kangaroos compete with sheep or wheat fields.

k) Develop new methods for people to live in harmony with wildlife so there is no need for governments to 'cull' them. Perhaps where absolutely necessary initiate contraceptive measures or skilfully relocate them.

l) Above all, cease referring to native animals as 'resources to be sustainably harvested.' There is no more sustainability in killing our wildlife, especially our iconic animals.

m) Immediately disband the FATE program established by UNSW which pays farmers to allow shooters to come onto their property and kill native animals for a profit.

n) Tourists come from all over the world to see our amazing native animals and are disappointed to only find them in zoos. Since our tourism industry is suffering financially, creating eco-tourism (possibly employing former shooters and/or local farmers to become tourist guides) would do a lot to stimulate our economy and also go far in re-establishing our current abysmal international reputation for eating our national emblems and for the fact that we conduct the largest slaughter of wildlife on the planet.

We are running out of time. Without biodiversity, we will all perish!

May Australia not be the first country in the world to have all its native animals extinct during this period of the 6th Mass Extinction of all species.

In 1845 the Mornington Peninsula was thick with wildlife: herds of kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, many echidnas and koalas and glorious birds, all unused to man and quite tame and inquisitive. ...wonderful trees, abundance of silver wattles, when in blossom, gilded the country and filled the air deliciously with their sweetness. Now population growth is turning the Peninsula into a desert. Research and graphs by Malcolm Legg and Hans Brunner.

Original fauna

Howitt in 1845 wrote:

“ The Peninsula was thick with wildlife, with herds of kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, many echidnas and koalas and glorious birds, all unused to man and quite tame and inquisitive. He described the wonderful trees and abundance of silver wattles which, when in blossom, made the whole country golden and the whole atmosphere filled deliciously with their sweetness.”

Henry Tuck and others also stated that Kangaroos were like herds of sheep and could never be shot out, and bandicoots and possums were in hundreds and that the native cat was one of the commonest animals.

Ms. Cavill, who lives next to the Moorooduc Quarry Reserve commented in her Masters Thesis:

“In the 1930’s we found bush around us, a whole wonderland of animals, wild flowers, birds, hollow trees, gullies and ground water ways.

Koalas grunted all night, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, echidnas, bush- and water rats, flying foxes and bandicoots were abundant and tame. At night the frogs roared in the darkness . In the evening, swarms of birds arrived in v-shaped formations and landed on the swamp. Black – and tiger snakes were common around the huge Moorooduc swamp that lay below our property and brown snakes and copperhead were a nuisance around the house.
Our delight in exploring the swamp with its sheets of water, covered with swans and ducks, and its spongy islands of moss and tee-tree was always tempered by fear of these snakes.
On our horse rides their was a never failing source of interest in the discovering new wild flowers, gullies of maiden ferns, orchids, minute wild strawberries, egg and bacon bushes and swathes pink and white heath.

There were several other similar reports made by Wheelwright, Kenyon and Hobson, mentioning also many other species and all describing the Mornington Peninsula as teeming with wild life.

Based on historical and recent records there were at least 37 species of mammals on the Peninsula in those early days.

Much the same could have also been said about the many species of birds, reptiles and amphibians. Hobson in 1837 observed the gigantic crane or brolga and the native turkey ( Australian Bustard ). They are now listed as threatened fauna in Victoria.

The loss of native fauna

With the arrival of pioneers and settlers, timber cutters removed nearly all the mature trees on the Peninsula and shipped them to Melbourne or used them to build railway lines or as fuel to drive stone crushers etc. or to clear land for grazing.

Kangaroos were slaughtered in their thousands on single drives and some of the meat, together with koalas and possums was sent to Melbourne for food. Animals were also destroyed because of competition with sheep and cattle grazing.

Much of the land was then used for farming and for fruit orchards. The clearing of land caused subsequently massive soil erosion and mega-tons of good soil was washed into the sea especially along Balcomb Creek.

With the ever increasing number of people arriving on the Peninsula, the remaining natural bush was gradually destroyed and fragmented.

Chris Tzaros recently worked out that for every 100 hectares of woodland cleared, between 1000-2000 woodland dependent birds are lost. These figures could be even higher for mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

With this drastic decrease of suitable habitat for most native birds and mammals, many species have now become locally extinct. (See graph below).

Doug Robinson has estimated that about 50% of birds which originally existed on the Peninsula are now either locally extinct or are threatened. Ground nesting birds have suffered most, especially because of predation by foxes and cats.

A Mr. Woolley and others also used to shoot ducks in the 1880’s for a living until they were almost shot out.

Later, larrikins delighted in the shooting of wild life when the pubs were closed after 6 O’clock.
In the quarry area bandicoots and kangaroos lasted till about 1940 and wombats and the eastern quoll till about 1960. By 1970 koalas, sugar gliders and antechinuses were still present but have since declined drastically and have become extremely rare and the antechinuses are now extinct in the Frankston area.

There is also a growing concern over a serious decline of invertebrates. Subsequently, there are concerns for the future of many species of bird, mammals and amphibians that feed on them. Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation as well as the over use of pesticides has to be the main reason.

In summary, we have taken over all the prime land on the Mornington Peninsula . The rest of nature is forced to make do with what is left which amounts to less than 5 % of a much- reduced quality of habitat. Plainly, this is the major factor resulting in the ongoing, local species extinction and in an increase in ecosystem stress.

Loss of mammalian species on the Peninsula:

From 37 original species = locally extinct and endangered 25 species = 66%

Loss of mammalian species in the Frankston area:

From 37 original species = locally extinct and endangered 28 species = 76 %

To cap it all, we now have, in a large number of reserves, more introduced mammalian species such as the fox, cat, dog, rabbit, black rat, brown rat and house mouse, than native species. (This does not include all the farm animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and deer etc. that take up land originally used by native animals.)

The graph (data from Malcolm Legg ) shows the loss of mammals on the Mornington Peninsula. Since then, two more species had to be shifted to the “extinct” section, namely, the Wombat and the Southern Brown Bandicoot.

The recent, local loss of the Southern Brown Bandicoot is one of the latest examples. In spite of all the lobbying and by-partisan political support, no sufficient efforts have been made to safe this species. This Bandicoot has been in great numbers all over the Peninsula and its disappearance during the last thirty years has been well recognised and documented. This is yet another frustrating, shameful, local extinction story of an iconic Australian species.

Hans Brunner

(Hans Brunner is a Peninsula Wildife Biologist and internationally recognised as a Forensic hair identification expert, through his work identifying dingo hairs in the Azaria Chamberlain appeal and later in identifying a possible new hominid species in Indonesia.)