CLIMATE ACTION RADIO SHOW- January 30th 2023

First broadcast July 25th 2022

Produced by Vivien Langford

THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT 

"We are living like aliens in this country" Richard Swain

 As the State of the Environment report says " caring for Country is far more than environmental management – it is caring for Country as if land and seas are kin." 

Richard Swain, who features in a film set in the Kosciusko National Park, says there is a real yearning among some Australians to be connected to country. He invites us all to care for country. One place to start is getting rid of feral horses on the NSW side of the Alpine Park Region. Victoria has made progress to protect the fragile Bogong high plains from feral horses whereas NSW protects them under the 2018 Wild Horses Heritage Act .  He is the Indigenous Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhtc-pnUjUw&t=21s(link is external)

https://www.riverguide.com.au/about.html(link is external)

https://invasives.org.au/our-work/climate-change/

 https://www.frontyardfilms.com.au/wherethewaterstarts/(link is external)

https://reclaimkosci.org.au/

Christine Milne is the other Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council as well as for the Global Greens. She is working for an integrated regional and global response to invasive species in the Asia Pacific area.

She says the climate movement has been focussed on the Energy Transition with less attention to the biodiversity loss which is also driving emissions.

https://invasives.org.au/how-to-help/take-action/stand-up-for-kosciuszko/

Peg Putt co ordinates the Forest Biomass and Climate working group. She tells us about the destruction of richly biodiverse forests in the US Southern States. The forestry Industry worth $300 Billion in the US is positioning itself as offering climate solutions through the burning of wood pellets for electricity. Environment groups accuse The Nature Conservancy of promoting this as a  "false climate solution".

The European Union's 2020 climate and energy program classifies wood pellets as a carbon-neutral form of renewable energy, and European companies have invested billions to convert coal plants to plants that can burn wood pellets.

Peg explains the whole of landscape solutions needed to prevent logging fro energy causing more destruction here. As the SOE says " Human activities associated with intensified land use over the past 250 years have substantially depleted soil organic carbon (Figure 21) and contributed to global climate change. Australia is listed as number 3 (behind China and the United States) among countries with the highest loss of soil organic carbon

Contact Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. 

(02) 9379 0700

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1. Ask her to delete wood pellets from the list of renewable enrgy sources allowed as offsets etc.

2. Ask her to work with the NSW government to eradicate the invasive species in National Parks eg the wild horse in Kosciusko.

Let us know her response.

Contact us if you wish to speak on air about the State of the Environment report.

https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/(link is external)

https://grist.org/energy/logging-biomass-nature-conservancy/