Environmental issues in Australia

Australia is becoming hotter and more prone to extreme heat, bushfires, droughts, floods, and longer fire seasons because of climate change.

Average precipitation in the southwest and southeast Australia is projected to decline during this time, while regions such as the northwest may experience increases in rainfall.

[10] Furthermore, Australia's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas at risk from rising sea levels, and existing pressures on water supply will be exacerbated.

The exposure of Indigenous Australians to climate change impacts is exacerbated by existing socio-economic disadvantages which are linked to colonial and post-colonial marginalisation.

[11] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities located in the coastal north are the most disadvantaged due to social and economic issues and their reliance on traditional land for food, culture, and health.

Vocal minority groups within the population campaign against mining and coal-fired power stations in Australia, and such demonstrations are widely reported by the mainstream media.

[19][20] Nevertheless recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the effects.

[21] There is claimed to be a net benefit to Australia in stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq[22] in line with the prevailing political stance.

Most of Australia's demand for electricity depends upon coal-fired thermal generation,[23] owing to the plentiful indigenous coal supply, limited potential electric generation and political unwillingness to exploit indigenous uranium resources (although Australia accounted for the world's second highest production of uranium in 2005[24] to fuel a 'carbon neutral' domestic nuclear energy program.

[25] Australia does not require its vehicles to meet any fuel efficiency standards, in spite of its emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement.

[57] Increased UV levels compromise the genetic integrity and immune systems of living organisms,[58] impairs photosynthesis, contributes to climate change,[58] and to one of the highest mortality rates of skin cancer in the world.

Though the "hole" in the ozone which the Protocol sought to prevent has not reached Australia, it has experienced significant sustained thinning at its latitudes, causing elevated levels of solar irradiation.

The destruction of habitat by human activities, including land clearing, remains the major cause of biodiversity loss in Australia.

Land management issues including clearance of native vegetation, reafforestation of once-cleared areas, control of exotic weeds and pests, expansion of dryland salinity, and changed fire regimes.

Intensification of resource use in sectors such as forestry, fisheries, and agriculture are widely reported to contribute to biodiversity loss in Australia.

There are some government programs in Australia which are the opposite of conservation (such as killing wildlife); an example of this is shark culling, which currently occurs in New South Wales and Queensland.

The plight of some of these species receives more attention than others and recently the focus of many conservation organisations has been the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat, the endangered Tasmanian devil,[70] northern tiger quoll, south eastern red-tailed black cockatoo, southern cassowary, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, Leadbeater's possum and southern corroboree frog.

The Great Barrier Reef's environmental pressures include water quality from runoff, climate change and mass coral bleaching, cyclic outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish, overfishing, and shipping accidents.

The government of Queensland currently kills sharks in the Great Barrier Reef using drum lines, causing damage to the marine ecosystem.

[74] Later that year it was abandoned, and the government of Western Australia continued to shoot and kill sharks it believed to be an "imminent threat" to humans from 2014 to 2017;[75][76] this policy was criticised by senator Rachel Siewart for being environmentally damaging.

Recently documented cases include the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in 2006 which was found to be dumping rubbish off the shores of Moreton Island.

[85] Australia's geographical isolation has resulted in the evolution of many delicate ecological relationships that are sensitive to foreign invaders and in many instances provided no natural predators for many of the species subsequently introduced.

Rabbits in Australia along with feral beasts of burden disrupt native species by destroying vulnerable habitat requiring drastic pest-exclusion measures such as the Rabbit-proof fence.

[90] The threat of the ongoing cane toad invasion has seen the establishment of a national taskforce despite its potential range being limited to the north of the continent.

[95] Land degradation results from nine types of damaging environmental impacts:[95] Clearcutting of old growth forests is continuing in parts of Australia primarily in the eastern states of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.

[96] In the prehistory of Australia the Indigenous Australians used fire-stick farming which was an early form of land clearing which caused long term changes to the ecology.

This places demand on infrastructure and services which contributes to the problems of land clearing, pollution, transport related emissions, energy consumption, invasive species, automobile dependency and urban heat islands.

However policy has swung over the decades, primarily due to local development priorities and agendas and a lack of federal co-ordination to the problem.

[119] Australia has some of the largest mining operations in the southern hemisphere and is a major exporter of several resources that have significant environmental effects, most notably coal and uranium.

The anti-nuclear movement in Australia actively opposes mining and seeks to prevent the construction of nuclear power plants.