"Bird Life Australia
president Hugh Possingham said a global living planet index showed about a 2 per cent decline in birds all around the world, and Australia was "no better".

"Sadly, we have lost around about 25 different bird species since the arrival of Europeans to Australia," Professor Possingham said."

"Queensland's former chief scientist said habitat destruction, invasive species like cats and foxes and climate change had all played a part."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-22/drones-and-ai-help-bring-birds-back-from-brink/106749592
#birds #biodiversity #destruction #loss #FossilFuels #cats #pets #EuropeanColonisation #TechSolutions #conservation #DB #Bellingen

Image: Noisy Pittas, these rainforest dwellers just moved back to Bellingen. Looking for worms and spiders on the ground. They'll have to deal with the abundance of roaming pet cats. (Bellingen mural)

Monoculturalism and Project Invisibility
Silencing dissenting Indigenous voices

"Project Invisibility is a sustained campaign to remove First Nations leaders from public boards and other senior government roles."

"We're going back to the [master] days, like you have your head bowed, you're too afraid to put your head up and speak your mind because you might be out the door."

"It means you'll have the same old Eurocentric version of the world in your policies, everything you're doing within government will be white, anglicised."

"They are eradicating, invisibilising us, and destroying our history and culture." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-20/langbroek-remains-silent-over-aboriginal-leadership-changes/106817420
#IndigenousPeoples #FirstNations #IndigenousVoices #TruthTelling #invisibility #culture #monoculture #monoculturalism #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #governance

"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."

"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."

- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream

#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers

https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/

Degraded ecosystems - Australia's biodiversity report card leaves out fossil fuel support

"An international agreement, the Global Biodiversity Framework, called for governments to identify and stop financially supporting industries that harm the environment.But in its first report on its progress towards stopping biodiversity decline, Australia neglected to provide any estimate of its financial support to the fossil fuels industry."

"Australia's first progress report, submitted earlier this month, noted there was $242 million of financial support to the agriculture and fishing sectors that could harm the environment."

"Independent studies have suggested one to three species of invertebrates have gone extinct every week in Australia since European colonisation. "
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-03-16/australia-biodiversity-report-card-ignores-fossil-fuel-support/106432678
#biodiversity #FossilFuels #Fossilfuelsubsidies #fishing #agriculture #harm #GBF #extinction #environment #EuropeanColonisation

The death of iconic salmon gums in WA's Great Western Woodlands

"The Woodland is under increasing threat by burning and mining activity...The lack of in depth investigation was symptomatic of a wider disregard for the Woodland." Desert forests ... "need to be protected from essentially the hand of European man — and revert to the Ngadju elders."

"This environment's been treated like a sacrifice zone for so damn long...If we wish to maintain our global recognition as a Tier One mining jurisdiction, we need to do more than pay lip service to our environmental regulations."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-21/concerns-over-tree-deaths-great-western-woodlands/106355300
#mining #degradation #SacrificeZone #DesertForests #values #biodiversity #conservation #extractivism #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples

The cost of dirt and the soil beneath our feet

" Land prices do not reflect the cost of dirt. They reflect the cost of making land ready for housing." The Australian 'dirt' has grown by more than 500 per cent since 2000. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-18/land-prices-blocking-new-housing-report-finds/106349190

" What listening to the soil can tell us about our relationship with the land. Before European colonization, Indigenous communities had long histories of stewarding the land and living reciprocally with the soil...The next time you are walking on a sidewalk, a well-used trail in an urban park or your backyard, take a moment to think about the land and soil." >>
https://theconversation.com/what-listening-to-the-soil-can-tell-us-about-our-relationship-with-the-land-205457
#soil #land #biodiversity #settlersociety #EuropeanColonisation #dirt #housing #sprawl #regulation #IndigenousKnowledge

Image: Great Piece of Turf, Albrecht Dürer, 1503