As Europe faces its hottest days, Australia’s environment has deteriorated in last 5 years, according to an anticipated report.
While releasing the long-awaited State of the Environment report on Tuesday, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said, “Our waters are struggling and so is the land. When you read it, you’ll know why.”
The report was completed last year but was not released by the previous coalition government.
Australia’s environment is “poor and deteriorating” due to “climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction,” the report said.
According to CNN, the devastating effects of the climate crisis were woven throughout the report, from marine heat waves that have caused mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef to extreme weather events including bushfires to flooding.
Meanwhile, Plibersek said, “There are some people who would say we shouldn’t have any mining anywhere. It’s just not a sustainable or reasonable proposition for a modern economy like Australia’s to say that. We made a promise on zero net emissions with an interim target of 43 per cent carbon pollution reduction. We will keep that promise.”
