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Australia To Build Cross-Continent Climate Corridor

 

 

 

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July 09, 2007 — By Rob Taylor, Reuters

 

CANBERRA -- Australia will create a wildlife corridor spanning the continent to

allow animals and plants to flee the effects of global warming, scientists said

on Monday.

 

The 2,800-kilometer (1,740 mile) climate " spine " , approved by state and national

governments, will link the country's entire east coast, from the snow-capped

Australian alps in the south to the tropical north -- the distance from London

to Romania.

 

" A lot of that forest and vegetation spine is already there. But there are still

blockages, " David Lindenmayer, a professor of conservation biology, told Reuters

of the plan.

 

" The effects of climate change will likely to be less severe in systems that

have some resiliance and that we haven't gone in and buggered-up. "

 

The creation of the corridor was agreed by state and federal governments this

year amid international warnings that the country -- already the world's driest

inhabited continent -- is suffering from an accelerated Greenhouse effect.

 

Climate scientists have predicted temperatures rising by up to 6.7 degrees

Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080 in the country's vast outback interior.

A 10-year drought is expected to slash one percent from the A$940 billion ($803

billion) economy.

 

The corridor, under discussion since the 1990s as the argument in support of

climate change strengthened, will link national parks, state forests and

government land. It will help preserve scores of endangered species.

 

" We are talking a very long-term vision, a land use that values keeping the

eastern forests in place over past uses like landclearing, " said Graeme Worboys

from the IUCN, the world conservation union.

 

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology last year said climate change was occurring so

fast in Australia that cooler southern towns were moving to the warmer north at

the rate of 100 kilometres each year.

 

Lindenmayer, from the Australian National University, said governments would

need also to work with private landholders to link the corridor through

voluntary conservation agreements.

 

" Given only 10 percent of Australia's landscapes are going to be in formal

reserves, we are going to have to be far cleverer about how we manage the

country outside, " he said.

 

But Michael Dunlop, from the country's top government science organisation, the

CSIRO, said the corridor would not be a silver bullet for conservation efforts,

with the country needing to do more to protect different types of climates.

 

" Connectivity is just one solution. Connectivity is not one of my six big hits, "

he said.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

" Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England,

nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the

leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter

to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship,

or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ... Voice or no voice, the people

can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have

to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for

lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any

country. "

- General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag & Nazi Party, Commander

of Luftwaffe