When David Springett executed a perfect underwater marriage proposal to his girlfriend three years ago, her response in the affirmative gave him another reason to love the Great Barrier Reef.
Springett, 45, from Cairns, sells diving gear to shops and training centres the length of the Queensland coast. He talks to lots of tourists and tourism operators, and dives for fun every few weeks.
But he is starting to fear that, like the reef, his livelihood could be on borrowed time. I cant imagine therell be any diving industry if the reef dies off, he says.
The Springett family which now includes one-year-old Summer have just moved inland from a beach suburb to Kuranda, 300 metres up in the tablelands, because of worries about rising sea levels caused by global heating.
Springett, a former diving instructor, is retraining as an electrician and is hoping to snag an apprenticeship with an eye on a job in a renewable energy boom in the state.
This is a transition that Queensland is now facing on a statewide scale as it heads to an election on 31 October. Can it break away from fossil fuel extraction and develop jobs and growth in a way that protects its remarkable landscapes and ocean wonders?
Selling a message of hope and prosperity that retains the states global brand of corals, beaches and rainforests is one that, according to Nick Heath, no political party has been able to achieve.
We dont have a political party that can nail that narrative, he says.
Heath has seen Queensland elections from every available angle. He has led environmental groups campaigning on climate and the Great Barrier Reef, lobbied on behalf of the seafood industry and been an adviser to four Labor ministers after switching from management consultancy.
We have the horns of a dilemma in Queensland, he says. We have some of the most important environments on the planet and thats not coming from me just take David Attenboroughs word for it.
When Attenborough, the 93-year-old natural history documentary maker-turned environmental activist, is asked to name his favourite place on Earth, his answer will invariably be north Queensland.
Attenboroughs apparent love for Queensland above all other places is illustrative, Heath says.
To an outsider, Queenslands reputation is firmly fixed by the biggest reef, the cutest critters and the whitest sands, but Heath says voters are apathetic and politics are stuck in an adversarial cul-de-sac.
No party, he says, has managed to sell a policy path forward that brings industry and sustainable growth together in a way that doesnt use the environment as something to be burned through.
If we want to change Australia, then we have to change Queensland, he says. The challenge to the environment movement is how do we monetise a more sustainable economy and help the economy transition to a better place.
On the face of it, the environmental tensions in this Queensland election appear to pitch producers in rural areas against government intervention.
Graziers and sugarcane growers are lining up against the Labor governments new laws that will allow the state to control the amount of pollution running into reef catchments.
Some have latched on to the claims of the contrarian scientist Dr Peter Ridd, who says farm runoff is not harming corals and that the reef is not in need of saving. Rapid loss of corals, three mass bleaching events in five years, the federal governments main science agencies and the marine park authority suggest otherwise.
The federal Coalition backed a Senate inquiry into the states water quality laws and found that the science underpinning them was sound.
The fight over water regulations has been amplified for a year or more in the pages of the states New Corp Australia newspapers.
In May the Liberal National party failed in parliament to disallow parts of the rules. It has hinted that if elected it would introduce legislation locking in unspecified levels of control.
Heath says the dominant Murdoch media helps to set the narratives of rural versus city and greenies versus producers including the row about the water quality rules which, he points out, have not even been enforced yet.
Its not real, he says of the conflict.
He blames what he calls agripolitical groups in farming and fishing that to justify their existence are loud, vocal and antagonistic and drown out more reasonable voices. Whether theres actually a problem or not, they have to agitate and create fear just to maintain their business model, Heath says.
We have such an apathetic electorate and we need to engage so much more because our understanding is so impaired by the mainstream media.
If we were fully informed then so many more of us would be attuned to the issues at stake and then wed be more concerned at the standards of debate and the quality of the futures being put in front of us.
In Townsville, Dr Maxine Newlands is a political scientist at James Cook University who has studied how environmental issues fit into peoples daily conversations and are treated by media.
Theres almost been a complacency from some quarters around the natural beauty that we have, she says. There are people here in Townsville who have never been on the reef, yet they live here. That speaks to the politics and the lack of engagement with these beautiful places.
Some editors wont put climate change on the front page. Its all about pushing jobs and growth.
This week the Queensland Conservation Council tried to energise the campaign with analysis showing that moving the state to 100% renewable energy was feasible, possible and could generate 10,000 construction jobs, then 11,000 ongoing jobs.
During an online environment forum organised by QCC, the states environment minister, Leeanne Enoch, the LNP spokesman, David Crisafulli, and the Greens MP, Michael Berkman, debated the reef regulations, climate policy and the need for more protected areas.
Crisafulli moved quickly to try to hose down fears an LNP government would lead to a weakening of the states land-clearing laws, the Vegetation Management Act.
The last LNP premier, Campbell Newman, weakened the act in 2013 and land-clearing rates skyrocketed, to the extent the state was labelled a global land-clearing hotspot.
The Palaszczuk government reintroduced restrictions in 2018 but Gemma Plesman, the Queensland campaigns manager for the Wilderness Society, says she is waiting for data to see if those changes have slowed clearing.
In 2018, she says, before the Labor government passed the laws, annual land-clearing was at 392,000 hectares the equivalent of bulldozing a Gabba-sized forest every three minutes.
A WWF-Australia commissioned study estimated land clearing at those rates was killing about 1.1 million mammals, 3.7 million birds and 39.9 million reptiles a year.
Crisafulli has pledged that an LNP government would retain protections for land within 50 metres of a reef watercourse, with another category covering areas protected by covenants or used for offsets.
But Plesman says the LNP has so far been silent on a category of vegetation that supported millions of native animals and threatened species. There are still loopholes in current laws that allow clearing, she says.
About 32m hectares of land in Queensland is mostly open to land clearing under the current laws, she says, yet there is evidence those areas have regrown to habitat that could support threatened species.
Land clearing as a political issue tends to get ignored, especially in inner-city seats, but Plesman says people care.
The Wilderness Society has polled three marginal seats in south-east Queensland Springwood, Mansfield and Chatsworth and Plesman says 71% of voters said they were concerned about land clearing and its impact on koalas.
We need politicians to know that just because people are understandably stressed through Covid, people also havent forgotten about this, she says. Weve lost 80% of koala populations in south-east Queensland and 50% across the state.
This month the Palaszczuk government released a 10-year protected area strategy and retained a pledge to have 17% of the state under protection, in line with UN convention targets. The state now has 8% of its land area under some form of protection.
Conservationists say the strategy, which included an extra $60m in funding, is a good start but it lacks timelines and the funding is well below what is needed.
Heath says Queenslands fame internationally as a place rich in species and natural wonders from reefs to ancient rainforests should put environmental protections central to policy debates.
Theres no greater risk to the global environment than here in Queensland, he says. We have enormous value and enormous stakes, but our debate is about other things entirely.
Originally posted here:
'We have to change Queensland': the environmental issues at stake in the election - The Guardian
- Mundy Township Planning Commission approves tree clearing in area of planned Mega Site - WEYI - November 21st, 2024 [November 21st, 2024]
- Why was that large land parcel cleared along southbound I-5 near Olympia? Heres the answer - The Olympian - September 29th, 2024 [September 29th, 2024]
- 13 Outdoor Upgrades That Will Instantly Increase Home Value - AOL - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- Thousands of hectares of koala habitat are cleared every year, including for renewable energy projects - ABC News - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- Opinion: Lets get the real story on vegetation management - Beef Central - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- An average 100 million native animals killed or injured each year from land clearing, mostly for beef farms - RenewEconomy - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Resident faces colossal fine after clearing national park land for illegal building construction: 'This sends a strong and ... - The Cool Down - May 27th, 2024 [May 27th, 2024]
- EPA and NOAA identify problems with Port of Albany wind energy site - Riverkeeper - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Police look into alleged land-clearing smoke in crash - The Star Online - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Jacksonville to Benefit from ARPA Funds Sent to Two Rivers Land Bank - WLDS-WEAI News - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Wu announces forestry division to preserve and expand tree canopy in Boston - The Boston Globe - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Rising homelessness is tearing California cities apart - POLITICO - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- In bid to win trust of project proponents, Maharashtra govt to lift stay on 183 industrial plots allotted - Free Press Journal - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- 'Dreadful' tip being cleared after business complains of rats and flytipping - Liverpool Echo - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Genshin Impact A Prayer for Rain on the Fecund Land quest guide - Gamepur - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Clearing sale to stop temptation to work - Otago Daily Times - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Environmental Assessment Bulletin - News Releases - Government of Newfoundland and Labrador - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Preserve the island | Letters to the Editor | stateportpilot.com - State Port Pilot - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Tree That Outlasted the Dinosaurs 145 Million Years Now Endangered - Nature World News - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Reps panel probes Ministry of Agriculture over N18.6bn allegedly spent on bush clearing, land preparation, others - Premium Times - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- City of Vicksburg places liens on 17 properties - The Vicksburg Post - Vicksburg Post - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Land Grab: Why Baltimore kept desperately cutting deals with a developer who didn't deliver - The Real News Network - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Protesters have close call with heavy machinery at Dartmouth work site - CBC.ca - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- 'There are going to be a lot of unhappy people:' Louisville subdivision pushes against concrete plant - WHAS11.com - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Elgin chapter of the Izaak Walton League 'adopts' city's Central Park for national group's 100th anniversary - Chicago Tribune - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- What the Historic U.S. Climate Bill Gets Right and Gets Wrong - Council on Foreign Relations - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Selangor govt looking to acquire land at Bukit Tabur foothills to protect world's largest pure quartz dyke - The Star Online - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- SCRD issuing bylaw infraction tickets daily - Coast Reporter - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Don't let your diversification ambitions be thwarted by an agricultural land restriction - Gazette & Herald - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Dangerous 'fake' land on Doncaster river won't be cleared due to cost issues - Doncaster Free Press - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- From fire to floods to fire: London Fire Brigade warning as more dry weather due - Evening Standard - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Wetland area coming to FDR Park - South Philly Review - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Big banks CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ and Macquarie in push to disclose the impact of lending on nature - The Australian Financial Review - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Coast Guard helping to clean up oil spill in Tabbs Bay near Baytown - KTRK-TV - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Tahoe Summit explores highs, lows of progress on the lake - Tahoe Daily Tribune - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Alaska wildland fire crews ready for action, with state funding to reduce hazardous fuels - Alaska Public Media News - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Clearing landmines from Ukraine may take decades; Work to find, map, and remove them has already begun - Ukraine - ReliefWeb - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area - Mongabay.com - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Sunday sees rain with the return of drier conditions to start the work week. - FOX 13 Seattle - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Minister backs Western Port woodland clearance to expand sand mine - Sydney Morning Herald - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- The Alarmist Vireo - Bay Weekly - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Save Nambucca River Groups Meets For May News Of The Area - News Of The Area - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Swapping 20% of Beef with Meat Substitute Could Halve Deforestation: Study - EARTH.ORG - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- 'Incredibly historic': Winners of 2022 Archibald Prizes announced - Honi Soit - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Disconnect: Climate change and the Australian election - Pursuit - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Gallup's Quarry was so polluted the EPA took over. Here's how much it pays Plainfield now. - Norwich Bulletin - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Buffer ordinance in hands of Sussex council - CapeGazette.com - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Sundance Doc The Territory Shines Light On Alarming Deforestation Of Protected Land In Brazils Rainforest: Its A Nightmare - Deadline - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- The FAA says some 777s are cleared to fly to airports with 5G C-band - The Verge - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- The Tallest Known Tree in New York Falls in the Forest - The New Yorker - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Dredgers spotted off Cambodian base where China is funding work -U.S. think tank - Reuters - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Mystery person who cleared Munlochy Clootie Well didn't have permission from land owners - Press and Journal - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Ashtabula County Land Bank Executive Director leaving organization tomorrow - The Star Beacon - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- New businesses making their way to Chattahoochee County - WRBL - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Fog and stagnant air quality continue to drive the forecast through mid-week. - Q13 FOX (Seattle) - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Proposed TBM bylaw to impose restrictions on urban tree removal from private properties - CollingwoodToday.ca - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Calls for clean-up to remove plastic waste piling up on the Wessel Islands, off Arnhem Land - ABC News - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Snow and ice removal from vehicles targeted in five states - Land Line Media - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Efforts to restore a neglected Charlotte cemetery prove it's neither gone nor forgotten - WFAE - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Port Of LA Teams Up With Dairy Industry To Address Supply Chain Disruptions - NBC Southern California - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Rekindling connections in the small flame of a qulliq - High Country News - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Environmentalists angered by management of Rocky Hill - About Regional - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Former Bucs Tony Dungy and Shaun King Lead the Army of Head-Scratchers Over the Bucs' Fatal Blitz - Sportscasting - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Wilcox County Students recognized for work in the community - 41 NBC News - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Permits now required in Douglas County for riprapping, clearing and grading projects - Echo Press - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- What the Forest Remembers, by Jennifer Egan - The New Yorker - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Advocates Want the EPA to Force Portland to Clean Up a Key Stretch of the Willamette River - Willamette Week - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Sidewalks and subdivisions: The final part of our SW Hamilton series - BikePortland.org - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Ghana loses 3% of its total revenue to fire outbreaks - GNFS - GhanaWeb - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Country diary: A tiny island on a loch perfect for a solstice overnight camp - The Guardian - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- When It Comes to Air Assault, Ukraine Could Give Russia a Run for Its Money - The National Interest - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Saints expected to start QB Ian Book vs. Dolphins as Taysom Hill, Trevor Siemian land on reserve/COVID-19 list - The Athletic - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Global maps of cropland extent and change show accelerated cropland expansion in the twenty-first century - Nature.com - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- The moments that defined the Middle East in 2021 - TRT World - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Created the Amazon Rain Forest - Scientific American - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- UNIFIL deminers persevere with clearing south Lebanese land of deadly mines | UNIFIL - UNIFIL - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Landfill size, tipping rate increasing over coming fiscal year - Maryville Daily Times - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Here's how Bally Sports' takeover of Fox Sports Southwest affects Spurs fans - mySA - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Nonprofit Harmony Lanes brings inclusive transportation to High Country - The Appalachian Online - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- With the Suez Canal Unblocked, the Worlds Commerce Resumes Its Course - The New York Times - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]