@Bellingen@mastodon.au
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Bellingen

@Bellingen@mastodon.au

Living in a small town between Gondwana rainforests and the Pacific coast. First Nations peoples, the Gumbaynggir manage/d the rich biodiversity of the Bellinger and Kalang rivers for aeons.
A landscape fitting fossil fuel mobility, livestock, exotic weeds and oodles of poodles is now emerging. The diversity of life is making way for a simplified mono-culture.#Settlers and their industries cannot wait to make this another Sydney...
#Bellingen #NSW #Wildlife #Biodiversity

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Bellingen, to wildlife
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Same destruction, new name

"Fire management in Victoria amounts to de facto native logging industry, conservationists say. On Thursday conservationists and the Victorian National Parks Association expressed shock after discovering a dead greater glider in an area where trees had been felled by FFMV."

"Logging in Victoria’s native forests ended at the beginning of this year but Prof David Lindenmayer, a forest ecologist at Australian National University, said: “There’s a de facto logging industry now emerging under the guise of fire suppression.“To me, when you cut down big trees and put them on a truck and take them to a sawmill … that is logging.”"

“One part of the same government department is trying to work out how to stop the greater glider going extinct while another is pushing it to extinction,” he said. There are some deep systemic problems here.”
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/17/fire-management-in-victoria-amounts-to-de-facto-native-logging-industry-conservationists-say

Bellingen, to climate
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

"Australia is unique in that its roads are so heavily dominated by “gas guzzling” SUVs and 4x4s".

"Passenger cars and light commercial vehicles are responsible for 60% of Australia’s transport emissions and more than 10% of Australia’s total emissions...Alongside their environmental impacts, SUVs have been criticised for their dangers to other road users."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/15/car-companies-spending-up-on-ads-for-suvs-despite-australias-new-fuel-efficiency-standards

Bellingen, to BadInternetBills
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Reasons to support environmental defenders and citizens’ assemblies
Democracies depend on citizen engagement

“States must address the root causes of mobilisation” not the mobilisation itself. Indeed, tackling protesters and not oil producers is the democratic equivalent of rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic."
>>
https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-to-support-environmental-defenders-227742

The repression and criminalisation of environmental protests
State repression of environmental protest and civil disobedience: a major threat to human rights and democracy. Position Paper by Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, 2024
>>
https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/UNSR_EnvDefenders_Aarhus_Position_Paper_Civil_Disobedience_EN.pdf

Public Participation
The Aarhus Convention and its Protocol on PRTRs empower people with the rights to access information, participate in decision-making in environmental matters and to seek justice. They are the only legally binding global instruments on environmental democracy.
>>
https://unece.org/environmental-policy-1/public-participation

Re-imagining the Making of Climate Law and Policy in Citizens’ Assemblies
>>
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/reimagining-the-making-of-climate-law-and-policy-in-citizens-assemblies/A591CF2EBFF3E60CF2BC4FE3655503E3

Bellingen, to nature
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

"Ecosystem services" for ALL living beings

"Solving our current ecological and social crises requires a radical transformation of humanity's relationship to the global ecosystems that sustain all life."

At present there is government paralysis and "we keep voting in people who are OK with prolonging the use of fossil fuels, the very thing that is cooking our planet".

We have an egocentric approach to nature, despite knowing that without the environment, there's no economy.
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-12/albanese-government-fed-budget-scientists-warn-climate-change/103834644

"Nature does not revolve around humans any more than the sun revolves around the Earth...Ecosystem services are co-created by all species; humans must stop free-riding."
"We redefine ecosystem services as nature’s benefits to the biotic community of which humans are a part...The Ecozoic is defined as an era characterized by the mutual flourishing of humans and the rest of Nature.
>>
Rethinking ecosystem services from the anthropocene to the Ecozoic: Nature’s benefits to the biotic community
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212041624000305?dgcid=coauthor

Ecosystem Services Key concepts and applications, au gov
>>
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/ecosystem-services.pdf

Bellingen, to australia
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Hyperincarceration

"First Nations people in Australia are the most imprisoned people in the world."

"Hyperincarceration of First Peoples is a common feature of former British settler colonies such as Canada, the United States and New Zealand. This shared experience shows us First Peoples are not the problem. We should instead be paying attention to the colonial motivation for incarcerating First Peoples."
>>
https://theconversation.com/first-nations-imprisonment-is-already-at-a-record-high-unless-government-policy-changes-it-will-only-get-worse-226612

Bellingen, to cars
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

The koala "walks around like he owns the joint."

Koalas face habitat loss pressure by deforestation and sprawl. The verge of the road is their new home now.

"Urban koalas and ones in rural areas are not doing so well, they are continuing to decline at an alarming rate.This is a classic sign of loss of habitat and these animals having to struggle in areas where habitat has been removed...The number of koalas being hit by cars recently has been concerning..."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-06/koala-drops-in-competitors-ironman-triathlon-port-macquarie/103808158
makers

Bellingen, to Energy
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Bioenergy that depends on logging native forests is problematic

"We do not want to be cutting down native forests. Even using native forestry “residues” (by-products like bark and ends of trees that can’t be directly used) is problematic. The residues are made regardless of the bioenergy project, but tethering a power station to the native forestry industry, and creating a reliance on it continuing, is contentious. Some states have already flagged the end of native logging."
>>
https://theconversation.com/is-bioenergy-ever-truly-green-it-depends-on-5-key-questions-228202
#NativeForests #energy #LoggingIndustry #coal #BellingenLogging

Bellingen, to climate
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Environmentally sustainable plant-based dishes in restaurants and cafes?

"Occasionally ordering a plant-based meal instead of a meat dish can greatly reduce the environmental footprint of the global food system. Animal agriculture accounts for 56% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions but produces only 18% of calories and 37% of protein."

"This means a family of four ordering plant-based meat burgers instead of beef patties saves carbon emissions equal to driving from Brisbane to the Gold Coast."

Check out the meat heavy menus in your local eatery in NSW!
Ways restaurants can promote plant-based meat dishes.
>>
https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-diner-are-you-6-types-of-diners-who-avoid-plant-based-meat-dishes-226234
#meat #climate #restaurants #cafes #eateries #food #NSW #consuming #livestock #ClimateBreakdown #GHG

Bellingen, to Birds
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

First the thylacine, then the koala, then the kookaburra...

"The tree hollows kookaburras need to breed can take a hundred years to develop. Every forest patch felled means hollows are lost. Over the past 200 years, nearly 50% of our forest cover has been felled. Urban development all along Australia’s east coast has continued."

The “guuguubarra” laughed for 16.3 million years. "That once-ubiquitous call will be heard no more."

"If species such as kookaburras and koalas are disappearing, then the threatened species have no hope."
>>
https://theconversation.com/why-the-kookaburras-iconic-laugh-is-at-risk-of-being-silenced-208181
makers

Bellingen, to Bulgaria
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Can Europe save the koala?

Europe must stop funding Australian deforestation. A report into Europe’s role in solving Australia’s deforestation and extinction crisis.
>>
https://www.wilderness.org.au/protecting-nature/biodiversity-and-extinction/can-europe-save-the-koala
#deforestation #ExtinctionCrisis #LoggingImpacts #biodversity #EUDR #EU #SupplyChains #koalas #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #NativeForests #destruction #governance #Australia

Bellingen, to random
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

What’s so bad about a road?
Roads are forest killers.

"A road means access. Once roads are bulldozed into rainforests, illegal loggers, miners, poachers and landgrabbers arrive. Once they get access, they can destroy forests, harm native ecosystems and even drive out or kill indigenous peoples. This looting of the natural world robs cash-strapped nations of valuable natural resources."

"When ghost roads appear, local deforestation soars – usually immediately after the roads are built. We found the density of roads was by far the most important predictor of forest loss, outstripping 38 other variables. No matter how one assesses them, roads are forest killers."
>>
Ghost roads and the destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests
https://theconversation.com/roads-of-destruction-we-found-vast-numbers-of-illegal-ghost-roads-used-to-crack-open-pristine-rainforest-227222

Bellingen, to cars
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Freedom and harm distribution
Cartoon: Andy Singer

Bellingen, to history
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Where will all the microbats go when the NSW forests are logged and clear-felled?

Decline of rare UK bat linked to tree felling for British empire’s fleets
"Rife deforestation 500 years ago aligns with western barbastelle slump, finds study of bat DNA."

"The examples of flora and fauna disappearing because of human excesses over the past 50 years are manifold, but research has found that the decline of a characterful bat began in the UK when its trees were felled for shipbuilding 500 years ago."

"“These bats usually roost in mature oak and beech trees, and move around every few nights – so they benefit from areas with substantial woodland cover. Our findings reveal that the northern and southern British populations have declined over several centuries, beginning about 500 years ago. This coincides with a period of widespread tree-felling to supply wood for colonial shipbuilding. It is likely that the decline we found was triggered by this loss of woodland – which has continued since that period.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/14/decline-of-rare-uk-bat-linked-to-tree-felling-for-british-empires-fleets

The barbastelle are sparsely distributed in the landscape and absent from many areas of the country.
https://www.vwt.org.uk/species/barbastelle/

Bellingen, to australia
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

A ‘zero-deforestation’ approach overseas
while logging continues in NSW

"The Committee had recommended the Government prevent UK businesses from trading in commodities linked to UN-defined deforestation in all cases, regardless of whether the deforestation was illegal or permitted by local laws. This ‘zero-deforestation’ approach would encourage consistency in trading such commodities across UK and European markets, increasing protections for areas at risk of deforestation."

"But in its response to the Committee’s report, The UK’s contribution to tackling global deforestation, the Government said it believed “the only way to achieve zero global deforestation in supply chains is to work in partnership with producer countries – and that working in partnership requires us to uphold and respect national laws.”

“Clearing forests to produce goods is deeply damaging whenever it takes place; it being permitted under local laws does not change that fact. UK businesses should not be trading in products linked to deforestation, as defined by the UN, if we want to provide genuine international leadership. Failing to prohibit such trade risks giving mixed signals."
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/62/environmental-audit-committee/news/200626/eac-response-deforestation-published/

The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/export/from-australia/european-union-deforestation-delegation

Bellingen, to australia
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

‘Property poetry’?
"Real estate is another way to say Australia."

"Kate Holden connects Turnbull’s persistence in illegally clearing vast tracts of koala habitat, and his murder of Turner, to British Enlightenment theories of property. The English philosopher John Locke, she observes, “placed emphasis on labour to morally justify the owning of property. The more work put into the land, the more settled a man was upon it. Holden traces associations between Locke’s ideas, the history of terra nullius and the “strange, morbid fixation in Australian myth of just how hard a person has to work on this land.”

"[b]y the time of Australia’s settling, the ineluctable mark of a British citizen was land ownership. It enfranchised him, gave him rights […] Land – elemental, foundational – was the desperately prized asset in a new colony. Without it, man was only an object."

"Yet the contradictions and inequities surrounding the trade in stolen land are rehearsed largely without reflection or analysis across contemporary Australian culture."
>>
https://theconversation.com/property-poetry-real-estate-ads-and-literature-have-more-in-common-than-you-might-think-214835

Bellingen, to brainfood
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

The great outdoors
was the outdoors, particularly in reference to a large park or wilderness area, especially when expressed as healthy or favorable.(wiktionary.)

The great outdoors at 56.7 °C (134.1 °F)?
The effects of climate change on workers
When heat kills (documentary) is "the story of the many migrant laborers who arrive in Qatar in good health, but who die on the job. The deaths are officially put down to natural causes. But they are linked to the inhumane temperatures that prevail in the region."

"Whether it’s construction workers in the Middle East, parcel delivery drivers in the US or farm laborers in Central America - they’re all being pushed to their physical limits. An increasing number of epidemiologists, doctors and economists are warning of a risk that’s also heading Europe’s way: heat can kill."
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biqZUwaj0WE

Bellingen, to Dogs
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Pets, pesticides and polluted rivers

"Fipronil and imidacloprid are widely used in flea treatments, which are typically applied to the back of the pet’s neck once a month.These two chemicals are extremely potent neurotoxic insecticides and it is deeply concerning that they are routinely found on the hands of dog owners through ongoing contact with their pet. Pet owners will also be upset to learn that they are accidentally polluting our rivers by using these products.”

"The insecticides used in the flea products flow down household drains when pet owners wash their hands after applying the treatment. Wastewater from sewage treatment works is a leading source of fipronil and imidacloprid pollution in rivers, with concentrations exceeding safe limits for wildlife."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/01/vets-pesticide-flea-treatments-river-pollution-pet-owners-toxic-insecticides-hands

Bellingen, to climate
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

"A new car sold in Australia uses on average 6.9 litres of fuel for each 100km compared with new cars in Europe and the US that use 3.5 litres and 4.2 litres respectively."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/13/peak-motorist-body-requests-clarity-on-albanese-governments-proposed-clean-car-policy

Bellingen, to climate
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Australia is a world leader in species extinction and declines
Yet the koala’s feed trees keep falling...

"Since time immemorial, the Gumbaynggirr Nation has cared for country and we know that the Dunggirr is sacred to the First Nations peoples of Bellingen Shire."

"Koalas cannot read signs or distinguish boundaries between native forests, state forest plantations or your backyard."

"Over decades locals and tourists have come to know about the Gleniffer koalas, through registered sightings and expert evidence. Yet the koala’s feed trees keep falling, even though Forestry Corporation of NSW (FC NSW) has no social licence."

"After operating within our Shire for over three decades, FC NSW have deliberately withdrawn any connection with the community and take no responsibility for the cumulative damage that the corporation has inflicted on our community’s waterways, roads and bridges".

"...We need to rethink the age-old argument between plantations versus habitat.This requires courage because we all need to have these conversations regarding the remnants in plantations and the wildlife therein."

Bellingen Environment Centre
Take me to the article>>
https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/letter-to-the-editor-bellingen-environment-centre-calls-for-unity

Bellingen, to Law
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

Hope for NSW forests: Court decision upholds community’s right to challenge native forest logging
Weak laws failing our forests , EDO

"In the shadow of claims made by the NSW Forestry Corporation, communities have been led to believe that they have no rights to challenge decisions about industrial logging in NSW native forests or seek action over unlawful conduct when logging destroys hollow-bearing trees and critical habitat for threatened species."

"But two recent court decisions have shattered those claims after EDO’s client successfully ran an argument which hasn’t previously been tested in the courts. After 20 years of resistance by the Forestry Corporation, it is now legally recognised that communities with a special interest have the right to hold the state-owned logging agency to account over its forestry operations in native forests."

"Protecting our forests is one of the most important things we can do to manage climate change, preserve our precious biodiversity and prevent further species extinctions. Yet Forestry Corporation NSW logs around 30,000 hectares of state forest every year. Sadly, many of these forests are logged to be turned into low-value products, such as woodchips, that are exported to make cardboard and toilet paper."
>>
https://www.edo.org.au/2024/02/29/hope-for-nsw-forests-court-decision-upholds-communitys-right-to-challenge-native-forest-logging/

Bellingen, to Law
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

‘Revolutionary’: EU Parliament votes to criminalise most serious cases of ecosystem destruction

"Countries will have two years to put the updated directive, which covers crimes 'comparable to ecocide', into national law. Ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, will be punished with tougher penalties and prison sentences under the EU’s updated environmental crime directive."

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/02/27/revolutionary-eu-criminalises-the-most-serious-cases-of-ecosystem-destruction
-IdustrialPollution

Bellingen, to climate
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

The fossil fuel profit machine
and a cooked planet

World’s largest oil companies have made $281bn profit since invasion of Ukraine
"Last year was the hottest year on record by a huge margin, driving heatwaves, floods and wildfires, damaging lives and livelihoods across the world."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/19/worlds-largest-oil-companies-have-made-281bn-profit-since-invasion-of-ukraine

What we know about last year’s top 10 wild Australian climatic events – from fire and flood combos to cyclone-driven extreme rain
https://theconversation.com/what-we-know-about-last-years-top-10-wild-australian-climatic-events-from-fire-and-flood-combos-to-cyclone-driven-extreme-rain-224614

The State of Weather and Climate Extremes 2023
More than 30 of Australia’s leading climate scientists released a report analysing ten major weather events in 2023, from early fires to low snowpack to compound events.
https://climateextremes.org.au/the-state-of-weather-and-climate-extremes-2023/
#FossilFuels #industry #climate #ExtremeHeatwaves #extreme #bushfires #ClimateActionNow

Bellingen, to BadInternetBills
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

"Innovative Citizen Participation
explores the innovative ways that governments can effectively engage with citizens and stakeholders to source ideas, co-create solutions, and tackle complex policy"

"A Citizens’ Assembly
is a group of people selected by lottery who are broadly representative of a community. They spend significant time learning and collaborating through facilitated deliberation to find common ground and form collective recommendations for policy makers, decision makers, and the community."

"The Assembling an Assembly Guide is a resource for any institution, organisation, city administration, or policy maker interested in running a Citizens’ Assembly. It is also a useful tool for citizens and activists wishing to learn more about what a Citizens’ Assembly is and how it works, in order to strengthen their advocacy efforts."

"Prepared by DemocracyNext, a non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute founded by the people who developed the OECD Deliberative Democracy Toolbox, it embeds the OECD Good Practice Principles of running a high-quality Assembly."
https://assemblyguide.demnext.org/

Bellingen, to Law
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

New Australian environment laws would not stop widespread deforestation, organisations say

"Three groups familiar with draft conservation laws say they do not go far enough and may allow political influence on development decisions."

"Plibersek said about 90% of Australian timber came from plantations but the government was “not talking about banning native forest logging altogether...We’re talking about making sure that we are careful and thoughtful about the timber industry that we have in Australia."

The "national state of the environment report ... found Australia’s environment was in poor and deteriorating health, with at least 19 ecosystems showing signs of collapse or near collapse."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/22/new-australian-environment-laws-would-not-stop-widespread-deforestation-organisations-say

Bellingen, to wildlife
@Bellingen@mastodon.au avatar

The koala is an icon for Australia

Images of politicians and tourists seen cuddling the threatened marsupial are ubiquitous. The mascot, usually placed on a stump, has to pose and represent the 'brand' Australia.

Due to habitat destruction the animals are deprived of a living habitat and have to flee. The fragmented habitat they have to negotiate is crisscrossed with roads and dangerous canines.

The verge of the roads and the gutter is the koala's new designated home. The slow arboreal animal has to face speedy cars, trucks and pet dogs. The industrial destruction of biodiversity, native forest logging, has the largest kill-score. In one case the “koala massacre” killed 40 in one 'harvesting' operation.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/03/koala-massacre-animals-reported-starving-or-dead-after-plantation-logging

In Victoria three rotting koalas were found recently beside a country road within a week.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/sad-reason-koalas-were-found-dumped-inside-cardboard-boxes-beside-country-road-061958594.html

Here in Bellingen, where Tuckers Nob public forest is being industrially logged, all images cropping up are of disoriented koalas on daytime roads. There will be nothing left to cuddle soon.

Friends of Tuckers Nob have pictures of Roadside Koalas of the area near the logging sites.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/250189120465227/

Desperate koala looking for a tree
https://www.tiktok.com/@candyandcalvin/video/7322989951233150216

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