Environmental issues in Australia describes
a number of environmental issues which affect
the environment of Australia. There are a
range of such issues, some of the relating
to conservation in Australia while others,
for example the deteriorating state of Murray-Darling
Basin, have a direct and serious effect on
human land use and the economy.
Many human activities including the use of
natural resources have a direct impact on
the Australian environment.
These issues are the primary concern of the
environmental movement in Australia.
== Climate change ==
Climate change is now a major political talking
point in Australia in the last two decades.
Persistent drought, and resulting water restrictions
during the first decade of the twenty-first
century, are an example of natural events'
tangible effect on economic and political
realities .Australia ranks within the top
ten countries globally with respect to greenhouse
gas emissions per capital.The current federal
and state governments have all publicly stated
their belief that climate change is being
caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
Vocal minority groups within the population
campaign against mining and coal-fired power
stations in Australia, and such demonstrations
are widely reported by the mainstream media.
Similarly, vocal minority groups concurrently
oppose wind energy schemes, despite being
'carbon neutral', on the grounds of local
visual and noise impact and concern for the
currently high cost and low reliability of
wind energy.Despite the publication of the
Garnaut report and the Green Paper on the
proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme,
public belief in anthropogenic climate change
has noticeably eroded following the leaking
of e-mails from the University of East Anglia's
Climate Research Unit.There is claimed to
be a net benefit to Australia in stabilising
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm
CO2 eq in line with the prevailing political
stance. Public disagreement with this opinion
is generally dismissed as expression of vested
interests, for example from the coal industry.
=== Energy use ===
Australia is a major exporter and consumer
of coal, the combustion of which liberates
CO2. Consequently, in 2003 Australia was the
eighth highest emitter of CO2 gases per capita
in the world liberating 16.5 tonnes per capital.
Australia is claimed to be one of the countries
most at risk from climate change according
to the Stern report.
Most of Australia's demand for electricity
depends upon coal-fired thermal generation,
owing to the plentiful indigenous coal supply,
limited potential electric generation and
political unwillingness to exploit indigenous
uranium resources (although Australia accounted
for the world's second highest production
of uranium in 2005 to fuel a 'carbon neutral'
domestic nuclear energy program.
== Conservation ==
Conservation in Australia is an issue of state
and federal policy. Australia is one of the
most biologically diverse countries in the
world, with a large portion of species endemic
to Australia. Preserving this wealth of biodiversity
is important for future generations.
A key conservation issue is the preservation
of biodiversity, especially by protecting
the remaining rainforests. The destruction
of habitat by human activities, including
land clearing, remains the major cause of
biodiversity loss in Australia. The importance
of the Australian rainforests to the conservation
movement is very high. Australia is the only
western country to have large areas of rainforest
intact. Forests provide timber, drugs, and
food and should be managed to maximize the
possible uses. Currently, there are a number
of environmental movements and campaigners
advocating for action on saving the environment,
one such campaign is the Big Switch.
Land management issues including clearance
of native vegetation, reafforestation of once-cleared
areas, control of exotic weeds and pests,
expansion of dryland salinity, and changed
fire regimes. Intensification of resource
use in sectors such as forestry, fisheries,
and agriculture are widely reported to contribute
to biodiversity loss in Australia. Coastal
and marine environments also have reduced
biodiversity from reduced water quality caused
by pollution and sediments arising from human
settlements and agriculture. In central New
South Wales where there are large plains of
grassland, problems have risen from—unusual
to say—lack of land clearing.
The Daintree Rainforest, a tropical rainforest
near Daintree, Queensland covering around
1200 square kilometres, is threatened by logging,
development, mining and the effects of the
high tourist numbers.
There are some government programs in Australia
which are the opposite of conservation (such
as killing wildlife); an example of this is
shark culling, which currently occurs in New
South Wales and Queensland.
=== Native fauna ===
Over a hundred species of fauna are currently
under serious threat of extinction. The plight
of some of these species receives more attention
than others and recently the focus of many
conservation organisations has been the critically
endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat, the
endangered Tasmanian devil, northern tiger
quoll, south eastern red-tailed black cockatoo,
southern cassowary, Tasmanian wedge-tailed
eagle, Leadbeater's possum and southern corroboree
frog.
Australia has a poor record of conservation
of native fauna. The extinction of Australian
megafauna is attributed to the arrival of
humans and since European settlement, 23 birds,
4 frogs, and 27 mammal species are also known
to have become extinct.
=== Marine conservation ===
One of the notable issues with marine conservation
in Australia is the protection of the Great
Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef's environmental
pressures include water quality from runoff,
climate change and mass coral bleaching, cyclic
outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish,
overfishing, and shipping accidents. The government
of Queensland currently kills sharks in the
Great Barrier Reef using drum lines, causing
damage to the marine ecosystem.
==== Whaling ====
Whaling in Australia took place from colonisation
in 1788. In 1979 Australia terminated whaling
and committed to whale protection. The main
varieties hunted were humpback, blue, right
and sperm whales.
==== Shark culling ====
Main article: shark culling
Western Australia culled sharks in 2014, killing
dozens of tiger sharks and causing public
protest. Later that year it was abandoned,
and the government of Western Australia continued
to shoot and kill sharks it believed to be
an "imminent threat" to humans from 2014 to
2017; this policy was criticized by senator
Rachel Siewart for being environmentally damaging.From
1962 to the present, the government of Queensland
has killed sharks on drum lines and shark
nets, a process that also kills other animals
such as dolphins and dugongs. From 1962 to
2018, Queensland's "shark control" program
killed roughly 50,000 sharks, including sharks
in the Great Barrier Reef. Queensland's shark-killing
program has been called "outdated, cruel and
ineffective".New South Wales has a shark net
program that kills sharks as well as other
marine life. Between 1950 and 2008, 352 tiger
sharks and 577 great white sharks were killed
in the nets in New South Wales — also during
this period, a total of 15,135 marine animals
were killed in the nets, including whales
and turtles. There has been a very large decrease
in the number of sharks in eastern Australia
in recent years, and the shark-killing programs
in Queensland and New South Wales are partly
responsible for this decrease.Jessica Morris
of Humane Society International calls shark
culling a "knee-jerk reaction" and says, "sharks
are top order predators that play an important
role in the functioning of marine ecosystems.
We need them for healthy oceans."
==== 
Oil spills ====
While there have been no oil spill environmental
disasters of the scale of the Exxon Valdez
in the country, Australia has a large oil
industry and there have been several large
oil spills [1]. Spills remain a serious threat
to the marine environment and Australian coastline.
The largest spill to date was the Kirki tanker
in 1991 which dropped 17,280 tonnes of oil
off the coast of Western Australia.
In March 2009, the 2009 southeast Queensland
oil spill occurred, where 200,000 litres were
spilled from the MV Pacific Adventurer spilling
more than 250 tonnes of oil, 30 tonnes of
fuel and other toxic chemicals on Brisbane's
suburban beaches. Premier Anna Bligh described
the spill as "worst environmental disaster
Queensland has ever seen".
==== Ocean dumping ====
A serious issue to the Australian marine environment
is the dumping of rubbish from ships. There
have been a number of cases, particularly
involving the navy of Australian and other
countries polluting Australian waters including
the dumping of chemical warfare agents. Recently
documented cases include the aircraft carrier
USS Ronald Reagan in 2006 which was found
to be dumping rubbish off the shores of Moreton
Island. In Victoria, a large number of toxic
drums containing 1,2-Dichlorobenzene xylenol,
a substance very toxic to aquatic creatures
washed up on beaches during May 2009 presumably
fallen off a passing container ship.
=== Invasive species ===
Australia's geographical isolation has resulted
in the evolution of many delicate ecological
relationships that are sensitive to foreign
invaders and in many instances provided no
natural predators for many of the species
subsequently introduced. Introduced plants
that have caused widespread problems are lantana
and the prickly pear bush. The introduction
and spread of animals such as the cane toad
or rabbit can disrupt the existing balances
between populations and develop into environmental
problems. The introduction of cattle into
Australia and to a lesser extent the dingo,
are other examples of species that have changed
the landscape. In some cases the introduction
of new species can lead to plagues and the
extinction of endemic species.
The introduced species red fox has single-handedly
caused the extinction of several species.
Tasmania takes the threat of red fox introduction
so seriously that it has a government sponsored
taskforce to prevent fox populations from
taking hold on the island.
== Land degradation ==
According to Jared Diamond, "Australia's number-one
environmental problem [is] land degradation".
Land degradation results from nine types of
damaging environmental impacts:
Clearance of native vegetation
Overgrazing by sheep
Rabbits
Soil nutrient exhaustion
Soil erosion
Man-made droughts
Weeds
Misguided governmental policies
Salinization
=== 
Logging and woodchopping ===
Clearcutting of old growth forests is continuing
in parts of Australia. This often involves
the destruction of natural ecosystems and
the replacement with monoculture plantations.
=== Land clearing ===
In the prehistory of Australia the Indigenous
Australians used fire-stick farming which
was an early form of land clearing which caused
long term changes to the ecology. With European
colonisation land clearing continued on a
larger scale for agriculture - particularly
for cattle, cotton and wheat production. Since
European settlement a total of 13% of native
vegetation cover has been lost. The extinction
of 20 different mammals, 9 bird and 97 plant
species have been partially attributed to
land clearing. Land clearing is a major source
of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions,
and contributed to approximately 12 percent
of Australia’s total emissions in 1998.
The consequences of land clearing include
dryland salinity and soil erosion. These are
a major concern to the landcare movement in
Australia.
The clearing of native vegetation is controlled
by Federal laws (indirectly), State law and
local planning instruments. The precise details
of regulation of vegetation clearing differ
according to the location where clearing is
proposed.
=== Soil salinity ===
Soil salinity affects 50,000 km² of Australia
and is predominantly due to land clearance.
== Waterway health ==
The protection of waterways in Australia is
a major concern for various reasons including
habitat and biodiversity, but also due to
use of the waterways by humans.
The Murray-Darling Basin is under threat due
to irrigation in Australia, causing high levels
of salinity which affect agriculture and biodiversity
in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
These rivers are also affected by pesticide
run-off and drought.
=== Australian waterways facing environmental
issues ===
Rivers and creeks in urban areas also face
environmental issues, particularly pollution.
==== Victoria ====
Port Phillip (contamination - silt; sediment;
toxins; household chemicals; garden chemicals;
E. coli; litter; flotsam and jetsam)
Yarra River (contamination - E. coli; litter
- 13 traps; logging; erosion; salinity)
Maribyrnong River (contamination - arsenic
and heavy metals; litter - 1 trap)
Mullum Mullum Creek (contamination - E. coli;
litter)
Murray River (salinity, erosion)
==== New South Wales ====
Parramatta River (contamination - dioxins,
arsenic, coal tars, chromium, lead and phthalates)
Darling River (salinity, erosion)
Murray River (salinity, erosion)
Cooks River (pollution, algal blooms)
==== Queensland ====
Bremer River (water grading F - lowest possible)
Brisbane River
Oxley Creek (water grading D)
Bulimba Creek (threatened species due to land
degradation; pollution; litter)
==== South Australia ====
River Torrens (contaminants - E. coli; algal
bloom)
== Water use ==
Water use is a major sustainability issue
in Australia.
Water is becoming a very very big problem
for not only Australia but worldwide as where
there are droughts occurring more often and
only having limited use of the water and then
there are even places that don’t have any
water at all such as Africa etc, we need conserve
our water for the future and get more access
to the water since we only have roughly 5%
access to it
== 
Urbanisation ==
Australia is one of the most urbanised countries
in the world. Many Australian cities have
large urban footprints and are characterised
by an unsustainable low density urban sprawl.
This places demand on infrastructure and services
which contributes to the problems of land
clearing, pollution, transport related emissions,
energy consumption, invasive species, automobile
dependency and urban heat islands.
The urban sprawl continues to increase at
a rapid rate in most Australian cities, particularly
the state capital cities, all of which (with
the exception of Hobart) are metropoleis.
In some centres, such as Sydney and Greater
Western Sydney, Greater Melbourne and South
East Queensland large metropolitan conurbations
threaten to extend for hundreds of kilometres
and based on current population growth rates
are expected to become megacities in the 21st
century. Most Australian cities population
growth is a result of migration in contrast
to the Birth rate and fertility rate in Australia,
which is contributing to the ongoing trend
of urbanisation.
In recent years, some cities have implemented
transit-oriented development strategies to
curb the urban sprawl. Notable examples include
Melbourne 2030, South East Queensland Regional
Plan and the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy.
There are also population decentralisation
programs at state and federal levels aimed
at shifting populations out of the major centres
and stemming the drivers to rapid urbanisation.
Albury-Wodonga was part of the federal government's
program of decentralisation begun in the 1970s,
which has at times had relocation policies
for immigration. The Victorian government
has run a decentralisation program since the
1960s, having had a ministerial position appointed
and ongoing promotional and investment programs
for stimulating growth in Regional Victoria.
However policy has swung over the decades,
primarily due to local development priorities
and agendas and a lack of federal co-ordination
to the problem.
sues include large quantities of e-waste and
toxic waste going into landfill. Australia
does not have restrictions on the dumping
of toxic materials that are common in other
countries, such as dumping Cathode Ray Tubes
which leach heavy metals into water catchments.
Due to the lack of sufficient sites for toxic
waste disposal large quantities of toxic waste
are trucked between states to remote dumping
grounds or exported overseas in ships.
== Mining issues ==
Australia has the largest reserves of uranium
in the world and there has been a number of
enquiries on uranium mining. The anti-nuclear
movement in Australia is actively opposing
mining as well as preventing the construction
of nuclear power plants.
At least 150 leaks, spills and licence breaches
have occurred at the Ranger uranium mine between
1981 and 2009.
== Controversial land use projects ==
The following is a list of controversial development
projects due to concerns of environmental
effects. This list includes projects required
to submit an Environmental Effects Statement.
== See also ==
Conservation in Australia
Flora of Australia
Invasive species in Australia
Land clearing in Australia
List of environmental issues
List of threatened flora of Australia
Litter in Australia
Recycling in Australia
Timbarra Gold Mine - a highly controversial
gold mine
World Uranium Hearing
== 
Notes and references ==
== 
Further reading ==
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose
to Fail or Succeed, Penguin Books, 2005 and
2011 (ISBN 9780241958681). See chapter 13
entitled « "Mining" Australia » (pages 378-416).
== External links ==
Australian Environment Portal
Envirotalk - Australia's largest environmental
discussion forum
Environment Victoria
