Sydney

”the Burrup Peninsula and parts of the Kimberley coast would be put forward for World Heritage listing under a pitch by the liberal Party to turn the North West into the World Heritage Coast. under the plan, Murujuga National Park would join Shark Bay and the Ningaloo Marine Park as a World Heritage listed site by 2020... [Greens member for Mining and Pastoral] Mr. Chapple said even if it was just a thought at this stage, talk about World Heritage-listing the Kimberley coast would help to ward of any potential reintroduction of mining and exploration in the area.”

“it would be one of the biggest mines on the planet, occupying an area nearly three times larger than Paris, where world leaders hammered out a landmark agreement to combat climate change in late 2015. if the A$16.5bn project goes ahead in Queensland's Galilee Basin - and latest indications are that it will - the coal produced there will emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year than entire countries such as Kuwait and Chile... [Supporters] insist that it will bring jobs and prosperity to a depressed region of Queensland. Critics, on the other hand, among them environmentalists and climate scientists, warn that the 60m tonnes of coal to be dug up annually from Carmichael's 45km (28-mile) pits will exacerbate global warming and threaten the already ailing Great Barrier reef.”

“thousands of bats fell dead out of the trees as Sydney's parched suburbs reached their hottest temperature on record earlier this month: 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) saw parts of the city receiving the dubious honor of being the hottest place on the planet that day. that would be considered an unusually hot day, even in the Sahara Desert. the city's human residents fled to beaches, shops sold out of fans and power cuts hit more than 40,000 homes in southern Australia after the electricity grid struggled to cope with air conditioning demand. A total of 87 fires raged across the state of New South Wales at the heat wave's peak in February. For Australia, these heat waves are likely to only get worse. Although it is the developed country already most feeling the effects of climate change, heatwaves that are longer, hotter and more frequent are yet to come, according to a 2016 report from the Climate Council.”

“Sydney loves to talk about food, and the housing market. But rarely do we talk about the threat that housing poses to the resilience of Sydney's food system. if we continue along the path we're on, Sydney stands to lose more than 90% of its current fresh vegetable production. total food production could drop by 60% and the city's supply of food from within the basin could drop from 20% of total food demand to a mere 6%.... Sydney's fertile soils are being paved over at a rapid rate. large portions of areas that currently grow Sydney's fresh produce are earmarked for release for housing development. Currently, the planning system does not priori- tise agriculture as a land use, meaning urban sprawl into potential farmland continues relatively unchecked. Instead, planning tends to focus on whichever use has the greatest economic value.”

“it will soon be much safer to be a fish in Australia, now that the country is planning to turn nearly one-third of its coastal waters into the world's largest network of marine preserves. the plan would restrict fishing and oil and gas drilling in a patchwork totaling 1.2 million square miles, including the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier reef... Australia's move comes at a time of growing awareness of the importance of marine reserves to ease the pressure on ecosystems and creatures that are acutely vulnerable to overfishing, pollution and a changing climate.”

“When you go back there now every property, all around there, has done virtually the same thing. When i was a kid i used to go chasing pigs through there onhorseback with my cousins. if you go out there now and just stand up on the bigreservoir and you look around for miles and you can’t even see a tree. it’s justbare.”

“More than 2,700 weeds have become established in Australia so far, at a cost to the economy of more than $3 billion, and each year another ten take root. Weeds now make up 16 per cent of Australia’s wild plant species. two hundred or more foreign animals and algae infest our seas. the number of exotic insects, fungi and micro-organisms is anyone’s guess. these figures will keep growing.”

“No other single course of action in the past two centuries has contributed so much to the nation's soil, water and biological degradation as the mass removal of native trees, bushes and grasses... . the result of excessive tree loss can be seen almost anywhere in Australia, in a myriad of forms—deep gullies scarring the hillsides, a rising tide of underground salt, choking dust storms, biological graveyards caused by dieback, ragged riverbanks and silted streams.”

“From 1928 until its closure in 1986, the site [Homesbush Bay] was used for the manufacture of a wide range of highly toxic chemicals, including timber preservatives, herbicides, pesticides and plastics. For the latter half of its operating life, the site was owned by union Carbide Australia ltd... From 1949 until 1976, the site was used to manufacture the herbicides 2,4,5-t and 2,4-D, the ingredients for Agent Orange that was used as a defoliant in the Vietnam War. As a result of both chemical manufacturing and the use of contaminated fill for reclamation, soil and groundwater on the site were highly contaminated by various chemicals, including dioxins... While the heavily contaminated former union Carbide site has been extensively remediated, dioxins from the site have spread throughout the sediments at the bottom of Sydney Harbour... Dioxins from the contaminated sediments enter the marine food chain and are accumulated in fish, prawns and other organisms. the only practicable means to ‘remove' the contaminants from the marine food chain is to allow other, clean sediments to cover the contaminants. For much of the harbour, this process will take decades. Fishing bans have been in place around Homebush Bay since 1989, and were extended to parts of the Parramatta river in 1990.”

“i love a sunburnt country,A land of open drainsMid-urban sprawl expandedFor cost accounting gains; Broad, busy bulldozed acres Once wastes of ferns and trees Now rapidly enriching investors overseas.”

“Pollution of swimming and surfing beaches around Sydney by sewage is expected to be ended in five years under a $50-million program for purifying household waters before they reach the sea... A public normally apathetic to civic causes became aroused a few weeks ago when the popular beach at Maroubra, a Sydney suburb, was closed for a short time because of fouling by sewage at the height of the summer season...the pollution comes from the 200 million gallons of raw sewage that empty into the sea every day from Sydney homes, institutions and businesses.”

“From the 1960s, as awareness of environmental matters penetrated society and as the increasingly diverse range of environmental philosophies gained public attention and adherents, the environment became a source of public concern... environmental groups were established to lobby and to work at the three levels of society: Federal, notably Australian Conservation Foundation in 1965; state, including... the total Environment Centre in Sydney in 1972; and a diversify of local groups concerned with particular issues and places.”