29/07/2011 – Anna Bligh said containing the Hendra virus is too important to allow political manoeuvring to influence the Government’s position; she said ‘there is a lot that we do not know about the Hendra disease but all the evidence we have points to the risk that moving on bats will spread the disease’.

Yet with CSG problems around the world, she and her government are happy to put tens of thousand Queenslanders well-being and lives at risk, cutting deals for known polluters from overseas … but its all about money … $6 millon is a drop in the bucket (for ‘Hendra Virus’), but when the Labor government (and if the LNP gets in it will be more of the same) relies so mucg on income from energy resource sell-off, we know that health is secondary …

42% of the Qld government income comes from payments in sales of energy resources …. to get an idea of what our landscape will look like in the not too distant future, Google CSG depleted sites and the economic hole those regions now find themselves in …

On Easter Island, the ‘leaders’ on having difficulties with over population, food shortages eventually ending in cannibalism, decided they needed more stone carvings facing the sea to please the gods and alleviate the break-down of society and illnesses, so continued to cut all the trees down to transport the stone carvings to the beach.

With a human population in excess 6.5 billion people, do you really believe its the bats’ fault, that they need culling or could it be the human race that needs to live within constraints?

However, Japanese whalers complained to the Australian government and the Rudd Government send the Australian Federal Police to raid the Steve Irwin – Sea Shepherd for taking part in anti-whaling practices.

Now if the AFP are acting on behalf of the Japanese inside Australian waters, then fine … but what are the Japanese whalers doing in Australian territorial waters?

And if the Sea Shepherd was in international waters, what right have the AFP to board the Steve Irwin vessel?

Senator Bob Brown has written to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling for an immediate explanation on how the raid could be justified, or in the nation’s interest. He is reported to have said ‘otherwise Mr Rudd should order the immediate return of the film and other materials seized from the Steve Irwin to Sea Shepherd and the international media organisations which are aboard; if this action was taken at the behest of the Japanese authorities it will outrage many Australians; the Australian Federal Police can expect detailed questioning from the Greens at Senate Estimates this coming week’.

And rightly so, what is Rudd and his government playing at, supporting a non-Australian corporate entity? Are there $s in there for the next election?

“Please explain” sounds real relevant right now.

The expansion of humanity that began with European colonization has exacted a far deadlier toll than previously realized on the world’s other large land mammals, a new study has found. Only one-fifth of the Earth’s surface is today home to the same diversity of large mammals as five centuries ago and most of that lies in six remote wilderness areas, such as the Canadian Arctic and the Amazon basin.

Wildlife researchers say this large-scale vanishing act is bad news for the continued health of ecological systems. “Areas retaining a full complement of large mammals are more likely to be ecologically functional than those missing one or more large mammal species,” warns John Morrison of the World Wildlife Fund. Morrison and colleagues produced this sombre picture of humanity’s impact by assembling the first-ever picture of global mammal populations then and now, published in the current issue of the Journal of Mammalogy.

The big losers include iconic wild animals such as the lion, tiger and rhinoceros, but also the brown bear, elk and wild horse. They have all been pushed out by exploding human settlement and hunting, often losing habitat ranges larger than Canada. The researchers define large mammals as those weighing more than 20 kilograms. At least a third of the 263 species studied have lost more than half their former habitat range since 1500, the date when extensive European colonization began. Only seven large mammals have actually become extinct
in that period but many others survive largely in remote wildernesses or protected areas. Ten parks and reserves in sub-Saharan Africa each conserve more than 25 species, the greatest number in the world.

By contrast, the Arctic Archipelago is a refuge for only three species ¬ caribou, musk ox and grey wolf. Yet the grey wolf has been successfully reintroduced in parts of North America; a success wildlife researchers say should be repeated with other threatened large mammals, along with other conservation measures. “There is a strong need for creation of new reserves in unprotected areas and enhanced efforts to prevent poaching and habitat degradation within current reserves,” they write. The research identified 108 areas that still retained the same mix of large mammals present there in 1500, ranging from tiny Bawean Island in Indonesia to all of Siberia.

But only a quarter of these areas have the bulk of their land under some sort of conservation protection. The Arctic Archipelago is listed as “poorly” protected and north-central and Eastern Canada as “partially.” The researchers drew upon 500 written sources plus interviews with experts to create the range maps for individual mammal species in 1500. Current distribution information came from an international study now underway called the Global Mammal Assessment.

© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2007