For a very long time, the Australian government has been bleating about their ‘feral cat problem’. They want to eradicate feral cats. We know that. They want to do it anyway possible and they don’t mind if it is humane or not. This is because the feral cat preys upon precious native species in Australia and the government wants to protect those species for posterity. All well and good and very laudable but there is so much wrong about what they’re doing.
You may not know that the Australian government does not even pay lip service to global warming. Coal is mined in every state of Australia. About 75% of coal mined in Australia is exported, mainly to Asia. In other words, Australia is fuelling climate change and therefore global warming which is destroying native species.
Arguably, global warming is a major factor in the current devastating forest fires which are out of control in the east of the country. Today, Bloomberg reports that close to half a million animals in Australia’s New South Wales may have been killed in the wild fires since September. The numbers could climb. Research by the University of Sydney’s Chris Dickman said that many of the estimated half a billion affected animals have been killed due to either habitat loss or directly by the fires.
It is estimated that up to 30% of the population of koalas on the mid-north coast of New South Wales may be killed. Fires have destroyed more than 12 million acres, an area more than twice the size of Wales UK.
The Australian government has egg on its face. One the one hand they demand the inhumane killing of feral cats and on the other hand they are fuelling global warming which arguably has contributed to the loss of half a billion precious wild animals; species native to Australia. And it is also killing the Great Barrier Reef. Australia’s great natural asset. Or it was as it is mainly dead.
It is a dire situation and the current Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, is in denial about it. He was heavily criticised by Australian citizens during a recent walkabout for not doing enough to help them. He is also not doing enough to put a brake on global warming.
Australia is almost uniquely vulnerable to global warming because it is already a very hot continent. If it gets any hotter parts of it may become uninhabitable for humans.
