Community Comment

A weed is simply a plant in the wrong place at the wrong time (and there are a lot of other definitions). Environmental weeds are usually introduced species (often escapees from gardens) that have invaded natural environments and may form thickets and smother or crowd out native vegetation. Environmental weeds may include native species out…

Community contribution – Beyond Biodiversity Beyond Conservation: A personal opinionConservationists have long recognised not just the desirability of but also the need for conservation of biodiversity. These sentiments have been largely dismissed by the ‘business as normal’ and the ‘jobs and growth’ mentality that dominates much of economic and political thinking. Given recent data however,…

Community contribution – Tree loss My childhood was spent on a wheat and sheep farm, and it concerned me then, as it does now,that massive areas of Australian land is totally clear felled of trees and scrub. The farms beingtotally nude except for a few stands of trees where the ground is considered too stony…

The Great Barrier Reef is on my doorstep, the lifeblood of Central Queensland’s coast, an attraction keeping many regional workers in jobs, and it’s under threat more than ever before. You might be able to imagine my shock when billionaire Clive Palmer’s plans emerged to build a huge coal mine down the road from my home, and just…

To all Australian people, On behalf of all Endangered Species, I write to express disappointment that whenever and wherever humans decide to ‘develop and improve’ land on which our habitat and homes are located, we are always the losers. Never has ‘human progress’ been good for our native environment, and through it our numbers are…

Biodiversity and carbon dioxide – A media interpretation of two scientific papers  John Murphy, January 2021 Scientists describe an ‘ecological Ponzi scheme’ in a scathing paper The world faces a ghastly future, threatening the survival of all species, unless urgent and decisive action is taken to slow climate change and biodiversity loss, an international group of 17…