Current Australian Environmental Issues

This problem certainly isn’t central to Australia, with deforestation most commonly occurring in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, however Australia like the rest of the world is affected by the consequences nonetheless. It’s a well-known fact that rainforests have the ability to absorb immense amounts of carbon dioxide and release oxygen by photosynthesis. Not only do we lose a source of oxygen and CO2 recycling, but when trees are burned or cut down, they actually release CO2 because 50 percent of trees is CO2. According to the Global Canopy Program (organisation of chief rainforest scientists) “If we lose the forests, we lose the fight against climate change”.

Ecology is the branch of biology that studies the relationship between organisms and their environment. Ecology is a basic tool of environmental science.

Bola Creek Track is located within Sydney, New South Wales, within the Royal National Park. This famous heritage listed site holds the title for being Australia’s oldest national park and the second oldest in the world. The field study conducted in the surrounding rainforest of Bola Creek, south end of Lady Carrington Drive, is aimed at assessing and recording data from the area to determine the overall condition of the local ecosystem and the impact human activities are having on the area. Natural flora and fauna abundance and distribution of populations were studied and also the developed adaptations that assists their survival. Observations were recorded on the impact human activities were having on the temperate forest

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

Ecosystem is an important part of the environment and to protect the Australian native ecosystem many management plans are made to preserve it. Where the disruption occurred in the environment by human activities is not only the factor of worry, but also the exotic plants which are trying to take over the native species are a matter of concern too. The steps taken by humans to get rid of their own waste from the environment as well as the weeds, come under management plans. On the excursion to Buckley’s Hole, Godwin Beach, Red Beach and Melaleuca Wetland, it was observed that these areas come under the Buckley’s Hole Management Plan. Where the abiotic and biotic factors interact with each other and help in sustainability of better environment.

The aim of our excursion to Hastings Point, New South Wales was to study the biodiversity and ecology and to see how these organisms behave in their natural habitat and surroundings. There will also be information collected about a variety of different organisms as well as population counts and observe how they have adapted to the species surrounding environment. The excursion will also be an opportunity to gather information on

Ecosystem management takes an integrated view of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, integrates ecological concepts at a variety of spatial scales, incorporates the perspectives of landscape ecology so that the range of possible landscapes in an ecosystem is recognized and preserved, and is an evolving paradigm incorporating the objective of ecological sustainability.

Biomes are large ecological spaces on the Earth’s surface where fauna and flora have adapted to the environment. As Australia is a huge area it has great number of different biomes. The main biomes found here include wetlands and rivers, savanna, sea grass meadows, old growth forests and deserts.

The rare Daintree Rainforest is one of the forest that has been demolishing slowly because of logging. With this ecosystem fragmentation is occurring (“All about carbon dioxide”). Ecosystem fragmentation is where the forest is separated into smaller pieces over time because of human activity (“The Daintree Rainforest Australia”). With this happening, animals habitats are becoming even smaller (“All about carbon dioxide”). With more habitat space becoming less it is causing more animals to become threatened and an endangered species (“Deforestation”). Smaller amount of habitat is also affecting the animals migration patterns, their ability to collect food, and provides less shelter (“All about carbon dioxide”). This fragmentation also makes it a struggle for animals to move from one part of the rainforest to another and it also affects the limit it has on the animals breeding population. The ecosystem fragmentation is making them become more vulnerable to extinction (“Population in Daintree”). Logging is cutting down one and one-half acres of trees each second and eighteen million acres of forest are destroyed each year. It is estimated that in over the next quarter of a century up to twenty-eight thousand animal species may become extinct all because of logging and human damned for lumber (“All about carbon

However, forests around the world are under threat from deforestation, jeopardizing these benefits. Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. This impacts people’s livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. Some 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are lost each year, which is equivalent to 36 football fields every minute.

One environmental issues posted on the Facebook group on Ecologically Conscious Social is climate change’s effect impacts on the Great Barrier Reef where is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. The Great Barrier Reef is located in Queensland, state of Australia.

Half of the world’s rainforest is destroyed and now only covers less than 10% of the earth’s land surface (Qld Government, 2016). Rainforests have millions of threats to their survival, for example, weeds, fire, feral animals, residential development and pressures from visitors (Ehp, 2016). They are dense, moisture-dependent vegetation, with more than half the world’s plant and animal species, these are valuable resources for cultivate plants, drugs and medicines (Qld Government, 2016). Most rainforests in Australia are in Queensland, over one million hectares (Qld Government,

Rainfall is low and unpredictable in Australia. In summary, the environmental problems there are similar to Greenland under the Norse, including deforestation, overgrazing and soil erosion, but also salinization, introduced species, water shortage and man-made droughts (Diamond, 379).

Until recently, many of the environmentalist policies of the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard have been quite moderate, such as encouraging children to turn off their game consoles when not in use. On the government-run Clean Energy Future homepage, the website proclaims: "Switching off video game consoles when not in use could save households up to $150 a year enough to buy several great new games." The website provides a link to tips for ordinary consumers about how they can save money on energy costs through conservation efforts. This is environmentalism marketed from a self-interested perspective. The message is that people can save money and save energy at the same time. While this is a helpful promotional campaign in some respects, it is also somewhat inaccurate, given that many of the measures that must be taken to save the planet will likely be more costly and result in the consumer having to give up certain things and to pay more money for others. Organic food and hybrid cars, for example, cost more than standard-grown food and standard vehicles.

Ecology today can be defined as “the study of the interrelationships between living things and their environment”. It is important to understand that when we say that ecology includes the “environment”, we are talking about everything that is external to an organism, all the biotic and abiotic. Nowadays it also attempts to understand and explain the how and why of the origins and mechanisms of interactions.