Destroying Australia's biodiversity

"The decisions of our political leaders, who continue to approve fossil fuel project expansions and widespread land clearing and habitat destruction, are coming home to roost in ever more predictable, catastrophic and emotionally confronting ways. "

"There is a tragic inevitability about what ... bats – and, indeed, countless other species – confront in this “new normal”. If we continue to destroy their habitats, and politicians wave through yet more coal and gas approvals, even more mass mortality events could be a matter of when, not if."

"There was a time when the dire potential consequences of climate change and environmental destruction were warnings, calls from scientists and experts for increased and urgent action. Now an unsettling possibility feels like a disturbing reality...We must change course."
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/01/a-scorching-summer-has-left-australian-wildlife-on-the-brink-but-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way
#biodiversity #wildlife #water #FossilFuels #CoalandGas #heatwaves #extinctions #climate #deforestation #MassMortalityEvents #destruction

Combustion engines tearing the ecological web of life

"Thousands of flying foxes have perished in the heatwave that scorched south-east Australia last week, the largest mass mortality event for flying foxes since black summer."

"Extreme temperatures resulted in deaths in camps across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Grey-headed flying foxes, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, were the most affected."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/12/flying-foxes-die-in-their-thousands-in-worst-mass-mortality-event-since-australias-black-summer
#bats #FossilFuels #climate #MassMortalityEvents #CompanionSpecies #Heatwaves

Bellingen's 'vanishing' biodiversity

The 'upgrade' of Gleniffer Road and and Roses Rd. encourages motorists to drive as fast and careless as possible. Road signage is knocked down as no road is ever wide enough.

Biodiversity has to live in this fragmented space with speeding combustion boxes. All year around there are dead beings on the road that drivers kill and mush up.

Here are the latest killings in just a few days:

A large beautiful python on the middle of Roses Rd cut in half with one half missing
A freshwater turtle smeared along the road.
A stunning bright Green Tree Snake killed and tied into a knot.
Many birds along the roadside, crippled and enduring a slow death
No one counts the carnage.
#biodiversity #motorists #cars #roads #harm #MassMortalityEvents #extinction makers #RosesRd #GlenifferRoad #BellingenShire #mobility #wildlife

Is (Adelaide's) stormwater contributing to the toxic algal bloom?

"... Stormwater "had never been sexy" and, as long as it was flushed away, it did not get the attention nor the government investment it deserved."

"The EPA's Adelaide Coastal Waters Study (ACWS) summary of 2008 stated that nutrient loads had increased 30 to 50 times since European settlement, and recommended steps to reduce wastewater, stormwater and industrial inputs. The study found the loss of seagrass was "mainly due to stormwater flows" "
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-21/is-adelaides-stormwater-contributing-to-the-toxic-algal-bloom/106025180
#ocean #rivers #pollution #runoff #stormwater #drains #dumping #waste #sprawl #housing #roads #infrastructure #MassMortalityEvents #MarineLife #seagrass #HABs #brevetoxins #MarineHeatwave #FossilFuels #coast #Australia #degradation

Brewing oceans, brewing storms, making a blooming disaster

"Over the past year, Australia’s oceans have been hotter than ever before...The continued burning of fossil fuels has caused our atmosphere to warm by approximately 1.2 degrees C since the pre-industrial era....If you change what happens in the oceans, you start to change the whole system...The problem with climate change is we’re hitting that system incredibly hard with extra energy and we’re putting a lot of pressure on the oceans."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-02/hottest-year-on-record-in-oceans-around-australia/105698530
#FossilFuels #ClimateBreakdown #ocean #FoamAndBlooms #HABs #hypoxia #MarineEcosystems #biodiversity #MassMortalityEvents #GBR #DeadZones #agriculture #RunOff #eutrophication #dumping #pollution #floods #atmosphere #Australia #mobility #cars #acidification

Global oxygen decline in the ocean
Ocean hypoxia: The science of climate change in the sea

"... The field will need to draw on ... advances to meet demands for adaptation solutions to the continued progression of global ocean deoxygenation, particularly in conjunction with ocean acidification and marine heatwaves in a multi-stressor scenario."

Chan, F., Sokolova, I. & Vopel, K. Ocean hypoxia: The science of climate change in the sea. Sci Rep 15, 4260 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86706-4
#climate #ocean #hypoxia #HotOcean #eutrophication #acidification #MarineEcosystems #FoamAndBlooms #FossilFuels #agriculture #MassMortalityEvents #foodwebs #OceanDeoxygenation #DeadZones

Marine ecosystems: Human activities have pushed Earth beyond its Safe Operating Space.

"World’s oceans fail key health check as acidity crosses critical threshold for marine life. The world’s oceans have failed a key planetary health check for the first time, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels, a report has shown. Scientists call for renewed global effort to curb fossil fuels as seven of nine planetary boundaries now transgressed."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/24/worlds-oceans-fail-key-health-check-as-acidity-crosses-critical-threshold-for-marine-life
#ocean #MarineLife #biodiversity #pollution #FoamAndBloom #MassMortalityEvents #acidity #GBR #coral #FossilFuels #deforestation #ecosystems #boundaries #wildlife #ClimateDisruption #habitability