*Ø* Blogmanac January 26 | Australia Day
Happy Oz Day, folks, and thanks Nora for the greetings and the great anim. Made me laff!
As you can see in the Coffs Harbour weather sticker at the foot of this blog, the temperature here is a bit higher than zero. It's a glorious day here.
Australia Day is a good time to think about our environment. These frightening statistics come from Worldwide Fund for Nature's Threatened Species Network:
Until recently, 50% of the world's mammal extinctions in the last 200 years occurred in Australia. Unfortunately the rest of the world is now catching up and the number has dropped to 25%. Since the settlement of Australia by Europeans in 1788, at least 50 species of mammals and birds and about 68 species of plants have become extinct in Australia, and there are probably many more that we know nothing about. At least another 100 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, and fish are now nationally listed as endangered, and over 500 plants. Invertebrates (creatures without internal skeletons) are not included in these statistics, as relatively little information is known about these animals. However, it is likely that there are hundreds under threat (a small few have been listed). Many of our listed species could become extinct within 10 to 20 years. The total number of species nationally listed in Australia as threatened is nearing 1500.
Additionally, 75% of our rainforests and 43% of our forests have been cleared – homes for many Australian species. There are also many important ecological communities under threat. For example less than 1% of the lowland native grasslands of south-eastern Australia remains intact.
A barbecue would be nice, but today I'm busy with January 26 at the Book of Days, which I've nearly finished. Our American readers might be interested in a quaint item there, a connection between General Douglas Macarthur, Australia and Wrigley's chewing gum.
Australia Day is a rather controversial topic here, for many reasons. I've tried to cover the topic at the Australia Day page.
Happy Oz Day, folks, and thanks Nora for the greetings and the great anim. Made me laff!
As you can see in the Coffs Harbour weather sticker at the foot of this blog, the temperature here is a bit higher than zero. It's a glorious day here.
Australia Day is a good time to think about our environment. These frightening statistics come from Worldwide Fund for Nature's Threatened Species Network:
Until recently, 50% of the world's mammal extinctions in the last 200 years occurred in Australia. Unfortunately the rest of the world is now catching up and the number has dropped to 25%. Since the settlement of Australia by Europeans in 1788, at least 50 species of mammals and birds and about 68 species of plants have become extinct in Australia, and there are probably many more that we know nothing about. At least another 100 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, and fish are now nationally listed as endangered, and over 500 plants. Invertebrates (creatures without internal skeletons) are not included in these statistics, as relatively little information is known about these animals. However, it is likely that there are hundreds under threat (a small few have been listed). Many of our listed species could become extinct within 10 to 20 years. The total number of species nationally listed in Australia as threatened is nearing 1500.
Additionally, 75% of our rainforests and 43% of our forests have been cleared – homes for many Australian species. There are also many important ecological communities under threat. For example less than 1% of the lowland native grasslands of south-eastern Australia remains intact.
A barbecue would be nice, but today I'm busy with January 26 at the Book of Days, which I've nearly finished. Our American readers might be interested in a quaint item there, a connection between General Douglas Macarthur, Australia and Wrigley's chewing gum.
Australia Day is a rather controversial topic here, for many reasons. I've tried to cover the topic at the Australia Day page.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 2:41 PM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home