The Australian Government has decided not to support a global ban on the trade of the northern variety of the bluefin tuna. Instead, the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has decided to support stronger trade control measures and fisheries management. Japan holds the line on whaling and they are also sending a signal that limits on bluefin tuna aren't up for debate either.

Tasmania's forest industry has rejected a Greens plan to ban logging in high conservation value forests.  The Greens says 300 jobs would be lost but more than 700 created through the strategy.  Even job creation is not enough to move the die-hard destructive mentality.  Both Labor and Liberals support Gunns pulp mill and neither is proposing any new forest reserves.
Trees up to hundreds of years old cannot be replaced overnight, despite how "sustainable" the logging is supposed to be!

European Parliament made history when it voted overwhelmingly to ban trade in seal products. Over one and a quarter million seal pups have been clubbed or shot to death over the last four years during Canada's annual seal slaughter. Seals and their pups do not owe swelling human populations a living, and this atrocity is morally unsustainable and unethical.
(photos of harp seals from Wikipedia commons)

Melbourne Zoo's baby elephant has been blessed by Buddhist monks after Victorians voted to name her "Mali", the Thai word for the jasmine flower.
Sadly, there is no animal "Christening" or official Blessing ceremony in the Christian church.
There is little or no agenda in the church to recognize non-human creatures, despite their worshipping of God of All Creation.
(Newborn baby Asian Elephant - Photos courtesy of Wikimedia commons)

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. There have been warnings of impending disaster for the Murray–Darling Basin for more than a decade, but here near the mouth it is suddenly real and shockingly rapid. Inflows to the Murray system remain at record lows. The removal of water for last summer’s irrigation, coupled with evaporation, has seen lake levels plummet. The search for another food bowl is on!

The mining company Cape Alumina has lodged a request to strip mine over 12,000 hectares in the western part of Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve for bauxite. This reserve is home to six highly vulnerable plant species. The nearby Wenlock River is the richest in freshwater fish diversity of any Australian river, including speartooth sharks, sawfish and the estuarine crocodile. Of the 32 ecosystems found on the reserve, 21 are threatened.

What you can do: If you are a Queensland resident, please sign the e-petition on the Parliamentary web-site (see text below), The petition is open until 17 May 2009. If you live outside of Queensland, please sign the petition on the Save Steve's Place. (www.savestevesplace.com) web site.

Kevin Rudd has expressed his desire for a "big Australia", contrary to public interests, an independent scientific assessment of our "carrying capacity", and without any population plan or policy.
Our wealth is our natural heritage.
Deliberate population growth is all about greed and consumerism and a failure to appreciate what is naturally "big" about Australia.

There was an outcry about the illegal and brutal attack on baby koala Doug, and his consequent death, yet loggers will be allowed to destroy the habitat of a colony of koalas in the state forest on the NSW South Coast. They need protection before they are legally wiped out, simply because their homes are for woodchip profits!

One of the most important principles internationally when referring to greenhouse gas reduction schemes it that the polluter pays. This means that national targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions should be based on the historical contribution of each nation to global emissions. It is obvious that Australia's population growth policies have a enormous impact on our greenhouse gas emissions.

Heavy rain triggered the slides and swept away roads, leaving the tourists stuck in Aguas Calientes, a small town near the Inca ruins. Peru has the most tropical glaciers in Latin America and has already lost 20 percent of the 2,600 kms of glaciers running through its central and southern Andes in the past 30 years. By the end of the 21st century, the tropical Andes may experience a massive warming on the order of 4.5–5 °C.
(photos courtesy of Wikimedia commons)

A patriotic meal to celebrate Australia Day should be one that does not cause the environmental damage that livestock do, and one that recognises that our ecosystem is already stressed. 
LAMB ON AUSTRALIA DAY? Sam Kekovich's rival, “Simon Kennovich”, says, thats un-Australian.
CSIRO, over 90 per cent of land degradation is caused by animal industries.

(Grey Teal - a "game" target)
The Government says conditions have improved in parts of Victoria and game ducks can be hunted sustainably. Hunters would be permitted to increase their take from last year's two per bag to five. Acting Minister for Environment and Climate Change Tim Holding said the compromise struck a balance between ensuring sustainable duck numbers and the interests of hunters.

According to the Antarctic Treaty, it shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited any measure of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military manoeuvres, as well as the testing of any type of weapon.
Australian Antarctic Division guidelines for visiting the Antarctic include ensuring that "wildlife and vegetation are not disturbed". 

Australia presently exports about 260Mt of coal each year, or about 30% of the world’s total coal export trade. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. When burned, it produces emissions that contribute to global warming, create acid rain and pollute water. The Government will spend $2.4 billion over nine years developing two to four commercial scale carbon capture projects.

A big country is one we can share with koalas and kookaburras and platypus and wombats and lyrebirds. A big country is one with wide-open spaces where you can drive for miles and hear yourself think. If you drive up or down Australia’s eastern seaboard now it’s all suburbs and traffic lights and retail franchises – that’s not a bigger country, it’s a shrinking one!

60% of our population growth is due to immigration. This is basically on-going colonisation!
The best estimate of the First Fleet, that we celebrate on Australia Day, is 1373 people.  Today the numbers of permanent and long-term migrants arriving in Australia to more than 500,000 a year. 
The Roman Empire, built by controlled immigration, perished under an onslaught of uncontrollable barbarian migration.
( photo source )

Landholders in Victoria are being given permits to kill tens of thousands of protected kangaroos every year, even in good seasons and in areas not affected by drought. This is despite research showing that kangaroos do not compete with stock for pasture. Kangaroos are also being shot without proper assessment of population numbers, locally or regionally, putting them at risk of local and regional extinction. This is despite the some one million native animals killed on Black Saturday.
(photo source: www.business.vic.gov.au)

‘Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink;’ Thus spoke the Ancient Mariner in the 18th century. A recent report  warns that without global action, demand for water in 2030 will outstrip supply by 40 per cent. Ray Brown, Mayor of the outback Queensland town of Dalby, says the town's in real danger of running out of water and restrictions may be increased to their highest level if the situation doesn't improve. Dam levels in Toowoomba, Queensland's biggest inland city, are down to 8.5 per cent.

Whaling is threatening newly-discovered deep-sea creatures with extinction, according to research by biological oceanographer Craig Smith. He is sounding the alarm that whaling continues to be a threat to these ecosystems. 'We must recognise that the oceans consist of a group of tightly connected ecosystems – over-fishing or pollution in surface waters is bound to cause problems hundreds of metres below.'

Jumps racing in Victoria will cease at the end of 2010 but key stakeholders say they will fight the decision announced by Racing Victoria Ltd.  The fact that some will be condemned to the knackers if the "sport" is banned shows just how little the lives of the horses are valued, nothing but meat, outside the industry. It is a reflection of the exploitation of these fine and hard-working animals, and how little the owners,
trainers and jockeys bond with them.

Australia is one of the world's biggest CO2 emitters per capita, but has only pledged to cut its emissions by five per cent from 2000 levels by 2020. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that the Great Barrier Reef could be "functionally extinct" within decades, with deadly coral bleaching likely to be an annual occurrence by 2030.

The “exploding kangaroo population” in Thargomindah Queensland, apparently, is because Russia has banned the sale of roo meat.  It sounds like the kangaroo industry pushing their own agenda! The media has reported stupid things like a a woman who was too scared to hang her washing out because of the kangaroo coming close to the town, implying very strongly that they are creating a safety problem as well!

(Australian shelduck)
Australia was one of the first countries to sign the Ramsar Convention and designated the world's first Wetland of International importance. A report from the previous government says Australia has 65 wetlands of world significance listed under the Ramsar treaty, but water management requirements of only 11 sites are known in any detail. Roughly half of Australia's Ramsar wetlands are not adequately mapped, and information is so disorganised.
A member of the Ramsar task force says the lower lakes of the drought-hit Murray could be delisted along with the Coorong.

In Australia, Make Poverty History is a coalition of more than 60 aid agencies, community groups and religious organisations. Make Poverty History has some lofty aims, but ignores the impact of Western diets, makes no mention of family planning or contraception schemes, or even population growth.

The abuse of the word “racist” is manipulating us into silence and being used to enforce policies that were appropriate and beneficial in past decades, but are not appropriate for Australia in the 21st century.

Immigration-fed growth in the economy is good only if it raises the real average incomes of the existing population.

If it doesn't, we're running a high immigration policy mainly for the benefit of the immigrants, who are able to earn more in our country than they were in their own country.

How dare John Kelly of the despicable commercial kangaroo killing industry ask for handouts due to the fallout from Russia placing a ban on kangaroo meat imports! Our taxpayers should not be giving handouts to help "restructure" this vile and cruel industry.

Be part of the 350 Big Picture! Be part of a human chain to focus on climate change and the role forests play in protecting the planet.

(source: Wikimedia commons)
There is no easy solution to the economic impacts of an ageing population. However, we need to stabilize our numbers, not replace older people through adding more people! We all must share the pain until. The alternative, an overloaded Australia and the implications of the erosion of our ecosystems, destruction of our wildlife habitats, loss of arable land, the threats of water and food shortages, and climate change, all need to be taken into consideration

River Red Gum wetlands provide an irreplaceable refuge for plants and animals in one of the most heavily cultivated and poorly protected landscapes in Australia. If the drought conditions continue in line with climate change predictions, much of the existing forests that are home to numerous threatened species will not survive even in their current condition. Hans Heyson, the renown artist, fought for the protection of the red and white gums he made so famous.

The CSIRO recently released their Home Energy Saving Handbook – How to save energy, save money and reduce your carbon footprint. According to Victorian Liberal MP John Vogels, the CSIRO should apologise to meat and livestock farmers for stating what is scientifically clear - that a move towards a plant-based diet is not only a way to limit greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction, but also a route to a healthier diet.