 The draft report of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act audit has been released and is open for public comment until August 17th. Yesterday’s press conference (not televised because the PM was conveniently speaking at the same time….) was the therapy session I didn’t know I needed. It was a relief to hear Prof Samuel say the EPBC Act is ‘ineffective’ and ‘insufficient’, it does not address current or future environmental challenges, it doesn’t value indigenous heritage and needs an independent regulator. He said databases are incomplete, inaccessible and outdated. He said the government has simply stopped listing major environmental threats, that available habitat needs to grow and restoration is required. He didn’t stop there either. FIND THE REPORT SUMMARY HERE It was then very disheartening, but sadly unsurprising to hear the environment minister Sussan Ley spinning this into an opportunity to streamline development applications. There will be no independent regulator. All suggestions on leveraging the carbon market to benefit biodiversity were dismissed. The government will meeting with indigenous leaders and develop new environmental standards but will also transfer more powers to the states (because clearly threatened species recognise state borders). You have to look at anything this government does that seemingly benefits the environment and ask ‘what’s in it for them?’. Minister Ley announced that the government plans to push these changes through in August before the final audit report is released in October. We’ve waiting 20 years for this and suddenly the government is in a rush to push a very specific selection of reforms? Parliament in Australia is still not sitting because of COVID19 and hasn’t worked out how to sit online yet. So the next time they meet, scheduled for August, they will rush through these changes to the EPBC Act? In seemingly unrelated news - to restart the economy post COVID19 (which they still insist is a thing, like it’s going to magically vanish one day) the government has released a ‘JobTrainer’ package. To push people into priority industries, such as mining and construction. Now who do you think would benefit from streamlined development applications and no independent regulator? Certainly not the environment. If you like to listen to podcasts this is a good one talking on the EPBC Act review but also the recent controversy with Vic Forests and generally explaining environmental protections in Australia. Finally if you have made it this far - please check out the report and submit comments before August 17th 2020.  Hooded Plover (Thinornis rubricollis) - Bruny Island, Tasmania
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While we paid all the optional offsets on travel we also wanted to plant some trees to complete our offsets. The question of carbon storage depends on the type of tree you plant, how long it lives and a million other factors 🤨 but generally what I found is that one tree can absorb around 22kg of carbon a year or 1 tonne in a lifetime (calculated at 40 years - the relationship isn't quite linear). People recommend that you plant approximately 5 trees for every one you hope will live for 40 years. However I wanted to offset my carbon asap. So I made an educated guess and decided I would be happy if I could plant 24 trees. Luckily my lovely friend and colleague Fiona Hume has a farm and is very pro-active with revegetation. With a lot of people travelling for conferences it wasn't hard to find a few willing volunteers to some along and help.
It's a whole year later and I am finally getting round to finishing this blog! 🙈 So briefly - We had an amazing stop over in Alice Springs with the wonderful Al Stewart! Ran into a couple of old friends from undergraduate in Sydney (small world!). A break to stretch our legs and sleep in a proper bed for a night was well worth it. Coincidentally we were also in town for the 2019 Alice Springs Beanie Festival! Thoroughly recommend!
The second half of the bus trip was actually easier than the first. We had a very strange middle of the night stop when we had to get off the bus for a while at a service station. I think Clare managed to work quite well on the bus but I wasn't expecting to. I work well on trains but I find buses and planes more difficult. Mostly because there is less space and in this case I couldn't charge my laptop. I did get some work done (and listened to the whole series of 'My dad wrote a porno' podcasts (hilarious!)). We arrived in Darwin mid-afternoon and had a full day to catch up with friends before the conference. Not only did we save a ton of carbon we also had a great adventure.  Tweet from Clare Hawkins! |
AuthorAt work and at play my life revolves around our amazing wildlife. In particular I am passionate about birds and am very bad at regular blog posts. Archives
July 2020
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