Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 1/2
Australia's foundation rests on the erroneous act of 'terra nullius'. The British declared the continent ‘vacant’, ‘without settled inhabitants or settled law’. The denial of the existence of the Indigenous peoples and their cultures has detrimental consequences right into the 21 century.
Similarly, all that is impeding on settlers' livestock or crop interests is declared a pest and usually leads to the eradication of Australian endemic flora and fauna.
Land use for extractive purposes, such as monoculture plantations, often has remnants of native vegetation and with time endemic wildlife populate these habitats. The Australian government, having signed various international commitments to biodiversity and climate transition, is under pressure to conform to these environmental agreements.
Endangered or threatened species could pose an 'obstacle' to traditional 'business as usual' such as logging, deforestation and clear felling operations. Then it is best to not acknowledge the existence of these animals and plants.
This could take the form of maps (Koala habitat maps seem to not cover State forests in NSW ) and a database glitch could possibly erase data collected by citizen scientists. Or the State Forest corporation could just be a priori exempt from having to address biodiversity flora and fauna. Managed data sparsity also could lead one to a conclusion that 'nothing lives there.' Koalas in this case are non-existent. In an obstacle free plantation, clear felling can take place with a good conscience. Should a glider or koala stray into the native forest it might just become 'collateral damage' in the normal 'harvesting' operations.
>Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 2/2
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/111118750606893004
#TerraNullius #koalas #StateForests #ForestryCorporation #NSWLogging #ClearFelling #BellingenLogging #SaveTuckersNob #denial #biodiversity #extinction #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency #biodiversity
Attached: 1 image Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 2/2 Koalas then appear to be non-existent for SFs but do exist on private land and are acknowledged on the Bellingen core koala habitat map for example and private land. Denialism is a position that systematically reacts by refusing reality. The uncomfortable state of cognitive dissonance is when pledges and agreements are signed and the actions don't line up. A denialism mindset can just discount inconvenient facts and public opinion and press on with business as usual. The house of cards built over the last 200 – 500 years is collapsing. Biodiversity, its foundation, is eroding and the climatic environment becomes increasingly hostile to (human) life. As long as the paper work looks good, the PR framing is cogent and the institutional framework is consenting, it's 'just do it!' All could be so perfect if it was not for the disruptive human factor which poses an obstacle to the overuse of nature. To declare that the non-human natural world has a right to exist. To write the rights of (voiceless) nature into constitutions and force decision makers to end genocide and ecocide. >Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 1/2 https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/111118752714054883 #koalas #StateForests #ForestryCorporation #NSWLogging #denial #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency
Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 2/2
Koalas then appear to be non-existent for SFs but do exist on private land and are acknowledged on the Bellingen core koala habitat map for example and private land.
Denialism is a position that systematically reacts by refusing reality. The uncomfortable state of cognitive dissonance is when pledges and agreements are signed and the actions don't line up. A denialism mindset can just discount inconvenient facts and public opinion and press on with business as usual.
The house of cards built over the last 200 – 500 years is collapsing. Biodiversity, its foundation, is eroding and the climatic environment becomes increasingly hostile to (human) life.
As long as the paper work looks good, the PR framing is cogent and the institutional framework is consenting, it's 'just do it!'
All could be so perfect if it was not for the disruptive human factor which poses an obstacle to the overuse of nature. To declare that the non-human natural world has a right to exist. To write the rights of (voiceless) nature into constitutions and force decision makers to end genocide and ecocide.
>Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 1/2
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/111118752714054883
#koalas #StateForests #ForestryCorporation #NSWLogging #denial #ecocide #nature #genocide #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency #governance
Attached: 1 image Bellingen core koala habitat and denial 1/2 Australia's foundation rests on the erroneous act of 'terra nullius'. The British declared the continent ‘vacant’, ‘without settled inhabitants or settled law’. The denial of the existence of the Indigenous peoples and their cultures has detrimental consequences right into the 21 century. Similarly, all that is impeding on settlers' livestock or crop interests is declared a pest and usually leads to the eradication of Australian endemic flora and fauna. Land use for extractive purposes, such as monoculture plantations, often has remnants of native vegetation and with time endemic wildlife populate these habitats. The Australian government, having signed various international commitments to biodiversity and climate transition, is under pressure to conform to these environmental agreements. Endangered or threatened species could pose an 'obstacle' to traditional 'business as usual' such as logging, deforestation and clear felling operations. Then it is best to not acknowledge the existence of these animals and plants. This could take the form of maps (Koala habitat maps seem to not cover State forests in NSW ) and a database glitch could possibly erase data collected by citizen scientists. Or the State Forest corporation could just be a priori exempt from having to address biodiversity flora and fauna. Managed data sparsity also could lead one to a conclusion that 'nothing lives there.' Koalas in this case are non-existent. In an obstacle free plantation, clear felling can take place with a good conscience. Should a glider or koala stray into the native forest it might just become 'collateral damage' in the normal 'harvesting' operations. #koalas #StateForests #ForestryCorporation #NSWLogging #denial #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency
Roadkill - extinction by design
"Wildlife Road Awareness (WIRES) has reported a 20 per cent increase in the number of roadkill incidents across NSW in 2023."
"The problem was made worse by increasingly dry conditions in some areas of the state. This was because wildlife may need to cross roads to reach water sources or, when other food sources ran dry, macropods such as kangaroos and wallabies were attracted to the green ditches beside roads for food."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-23/eurobodalla-virtual-fence-trial-reducing-roadkill-incidents/102880624
#RoadEcology #NSW #roads #cars #motorists #speed #fossilfuel #drought #WildlifeCrossings #wildllife #FragmentedHabitats #BiodiversityEmergency #extinction makers
Logging Bellingen's biodiversity
Bellingen is being hit by an 'infrastructure tsunami' (William Laurance) this year. Rural country roads are turning into a highway like network. Gleniffer Road is made 'logging ready' and Roses Road gets a daily smear of toxic coal-tar to take the added heavy vehicles.
Gleniffer Road infrastructure cuts through native ecosystems for human convenience. The road is designed solely with fossil fuel traffic in mind. Getting motorists from a to b in the fastest way and getting massive logging machinery into the remaining (Tuckers Nob) forest. Fossil fuel free mobility of humans and non human animals never entered the design considerations.
The habitat of the more-than-human assemblages is fragmented and degraded. Peri-urban sprawl (roads, cars, houses, dogs & cats) further poses a threat to wildlife.
It's estimated that 10 million Australian animals are killed on roads by (signage blind) motorists. For a country with one of the highest rates of animal extinctions in the world this is a lot of biodiversity to sacrifice. The maimed and dead seem to be an accepted 'side effect' of this mobility.
From the public roads the Forest Corporation cuts a labyrinth of logging roads (fishbone pattern) into the heart of the forest. Massive fossil powered machinery is then set to work to clear fell Australia's biodiversity.
Noise pollution, toxins from tyres and exhaust fumes poison freshwater ecosystems, the soil and the air. The survivors of the roadkill and deforestation carnage have nowhere to go. Birds fall silent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_ecology
Can ‘road ecology’ save millions of animals?
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/can-road-ecology-save-millions-of-animals/
How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
https://wwnorton.com/books/crossings
Pollution from tyres
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
#Wildlife #conservation #roadkill #RoadEcology #logging #roads #Bellingen #SaveTuckersNob #BiodiversityEmergency #ClimateEmergency #GlenifferRoad #ClearFelling #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #extinction makers
Could the stranded assets of the forestry industry be recycled?
We've done Victoria
"By the end of this year, native forest logging will cease in Victoria. After more than 50 years of clearfelling and other destructive logging practices. The supply of sawlogs in Victoria was close to being exhausted, and the state’s logging industry had long been financially unviable."
https://theconversation.com/we-cant-just-walk-away-after-the-logging-stops-in-victorias-native-forests-heres-what-must-happen-next-206596
Now for NSW
Logging 95 % of the Great Koala National Park
In Victoria "the harvesters and their machinery were left sitting idle after the government fast-forwarded its intended 2030 phase out of native forest timber harvesting to January 1, 2024 after a court decision last November locked the workers out of the state’s native forests...25 of the state’s 27 harvest and haulage crews have been on VicForests stand-down payments since last year’s Supreme Court decision."
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/outofwork-forestry-crew-to-catch-firebreak-contracts/news-story/ee6a84bdf66de04fdeea2c7216002dce
#NSWlogging #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #ClearFelling #NativeForests #bushfires #climate #tourism #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #FossilFuel #machinery #StrandedAssets #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityEmergency
The Gross Domestic Product counts "everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." Robert F. Kennedy
Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968 (excerpt)
"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/remarks-at-the-university-of-kansas-march-18-1968
Robert F. Kennedy challenges 'Gross Domestic Product'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77IdKFqXbUY
#GDP #growth #forests #logging #destruction #violence #carnage #externalities #values #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityEmergency
Prof Duncan Westbury
Steve Paradis
BellingenNSW
Seedtopia