A major scorecard gives the health of Australia’s environment less than 1 out of 10

2019 was the year Australians confronted the fact that a healthy environment is more than just a pretty waterfall in a national park; a nice extra we can do without. We do not survive without air to breathe, water to drink, soil to grow food and weather we can cope with.

We need immediate action to put Australia's environment on the road to recovery.

Every year, we collate a vast number of measurements on the state of our environment: weather, oceans, fire, water, soils, vegetation, population pressure, and biodiversity. The data is collected in many different ways: by satellites, field stations, surveys and so on. 

We process this data into several indicators of environmental health at both national and regional levels.

The report for 2019, released today, makes for grim reading. It reveals the worst environmental conditions in many decades, perhaps centuries, and confirms the devastating damage global warming and mismanagement are wreaking on our natural resources.

Immediate action is needed to put Australia’s environment on a course to recovery.

Read the story from The Conversation - “A major scorecard gives the health of Australia’s environment less than 1 out of 10.”

Climate and Health: the discussion we have to have

“I can’t tell people to choose different air to breathe, or to choose different weather,” writes Dr Tim Senior in arguing, below, for a policy response to the health impacts of climate change. 

Worryingly, Dr Senior reports already seeing people in his own practice who have been affected by events linked to climate change and, by drawing on the government’s own research, he predicts that this is likely to become a much more serious problem in the future.

Unfortunately the political agenda appears to be focused myopically on “illness” policy problems – such as the rate of bulkbilling – but Dr Senior suggests some important reading material that could change the views of politicians and encourage them to address this significant and under-rated threat to the long term health of our community.

Read the Croakey story - “Climate and Health: the discussion we have to have.”