If Robert Ellison is worried about biodiversity, why isn't he focussing on the scandalous escalation of mining as a major problem ? In NSW alone, 15 river systems have been cracked, polluted and/or drained as a result of irresponsible government regulation and greedy mining companies. Seven more are under threat right now. Three major creeks have dried up altogether - Wambo, Diega and Bowmans. The upper Nepean and its major tributary the Bargo River, are both about to be cracked. Ditto the Georges. These are Sydney's iconic rivers. Last year the NSW Scientific Committee determined that longwall mining is a threat to threatened species - but so few care. Rivers SOS is an alliance of 30 groups around NSW who want to preserve our river systems, but despite appeals to all universities for support, however minimal, from scientists and academics like Robert Ellison, we have had zilch response. Except one letter from Sydney University saying that academics should be more formally addressed. Hey guys, this is urgent ! the rivers and the threatened species need saving now,with organised actions and campaigns, not more essays and committee meetings.

Oh how depressing.

But I think it’s a pretty accurate assessment…. which only makes it all that more depressing!

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Very interesting article with suggestions for methods that could improve biodiversity. Not just a whinge. Well done.

We tend to see biodversity as only the count on extinctions. That way a population of 20,000 of a species or a populaiton of 500 is all the same thing. They have not gone extinct, so who cares. Mammals and birds are declining in 45% of Australia, reptles in 30%. Are we happy with this? Is this the world we want to leave our kids?

A $10 per tonne carbon tax would raise the price of petrol less than one cent per litre but would raise the money needed for the improvements described by Robert Ellison to start protecting our biodiversity. It would also show the rest of the world that we are trying to do something about global warming and biodiversity.

Kang - Perhaps you could prepare an article for OLO on the impact of mining on river flows and the associated impact on biodiversity. Sounds like a really good article.

The article is fairly Queensland specific but Ellison seems to go soft on land managers(=farmers)who from his figures control the vast majority of land at risk. What happened to the Productivity Commission's report a few years ago on land degradation where they proposed land managers be legally bound by a 'duty of care' to maintain ecology/biodiversity? For my money I would annul all Western Division leases in NSW and put anyone who wanted to remain in that sensitive fragile environment on a remediation payroll. As Ellison says land management is all development oriented - cash cropping in other words - without the ability to sustain it. Forego drought assistance, dam subsidies, etc go with the PC's recommendation that land managers only be compensated (ie paid) for efforts to restore threatened species habitat. A carbon tax would be a good start toward funding. As far as non western division freehold land managers go, watch what Minister Frank Sartor does in the Centennial Coal bid for open cut mining at Anvil Hill near Muswellbrook, surely a touchstone area of threatened species, even in his view.

99% of all species which have ever lived are extinct, mostly before man arrived on the scene. Extinction is often a natural process which allows the development of newer better adapted species. Artificially prolonging the life of maladapted species is fraught with problems and essentially "unnatural".

If man is able to prevent the UNTIMELY demise of a species this is a different situation but to think extinction is solely a man made phenomenon or should be actively resisted is a current nonsense thinking.

I’m a biologist with a particular passion for plants and birds.

It is not only our fauna that has suffered greatly, but also the flora, especially in the just about entirely cleared Western Australian wheatbelt, which just happens to coincide with one of the world’s megadiverse botanical provinces.

I explored this area as a botanist in the 70s, collecting many unnamed species in areas where bushland had been reduced to narrow road verges.

My heart has ached over the years due to this extraordinary lack of regard for our natural heritage.

But now I take a more pragmatic approach:

We are here to stay. Our presence has meant a major change to the Australian landscape, and that has favoured some animals and plants and disadvantaged others. The same thing happened with the Aboriginal occupation of this continent. I think it is pretty clear that their presence led to the extinction of the megafauna, and no doubt many plant species as well.

I think we basically have to learn to accept the new regime and just come to terms with it.

Ok let’s work on saving the bilby, woylie, black-eared miner, orange-bellied parrot, and the many critically threatened plants in WA. That is all honourable stuff… and I’d hate to see any of them go. And a healthy society should promote that sort of work. But let’s also accept the radical changes that we have caused and not try to turn back the clock.

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We have actually added a lot to our biodiversity by way of weeds and feral animals, many of which are rather benign and have already come into harmony with the other critters in their new environments.

As Tim Low, author of ‘Feral Future’, says, we should accept the change and not try to recover a pre-1770 Australia.

Our energies are much more urgently needed on directing us onto a sustainable basis on this continent. If we don’t do that, we can forget about any funding or significant effort going towards the protection of endangered species.