Worst it’s ever been’: a threatened species alarm sounds during the election campaign – and is ignored
Warnings of dramatically escalating extinctions in Australia over the next two decades seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Gregory Andrews was Australia’s first threatened species commissioner, appointed in 2013 by the then incoming Coalition environment minister Greg Hunt. He recently returned to the country, after serving as high commissioner to Ghana, and was disheartened by what he found.
Andrews believes the state of the country’s natural wildlife and biodiversity is the “worst it’s ever been” and calls the ongoing destruction of forests and other habitat “crazy”.
After a political term marked by consecutive summer disasters and multiple official reports highlighting government failure, he sees it as a major issue. But, as far as the first two weeks of the election campaign are concerned, the environment may as well not exist.
“Biodiversity and nature have been completely absent from this campaign so far,” he says.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...s-during-the-election-campaign-and-is-ignored
Warnings of dramatically escalating extinctions in Australia over the next two decades seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Gregory Andrews was Australia’s first threatened species commissioner, appointed in 2013 by the then incoming Coalition environment minister Greg Hunt. He recently returned to the country, after serving as high commissioner to Ghana, and was disheartened by what he found.
Andrews believes the state of the country’s natural wildlife and biodiversity is the “worst it’s ever been” and calls the ongoing destruction of forests and other habitat “crazy”.
After a political term marked by consecutive summer disasters and multiple official reports highlighting government failure, he sees it as a major issue. But, as far as the first two weeks of the election campaign are concerned, the environment may as well not exist.
“Biodiversity and nature have been completely absent from this campaign so far,” he says.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...s-during-the-election-campaign-and-is-ignored