Queensland snake catcher warns public that killing snakes risks huge fines
"As urban sprawl continues...interactions between snakes and humans were becoming increasingly common in south-east Queensland"
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-01/red-bellied-black-snake-death-sunshine-coast-sparks-catcher-plea/105344622
#Sprawl #biodiversity #reptiles #WildlifeCrime
When the 'Australians dream of home ownership' becomes a nightmare for Australian biodiversity.
Put new mass housing on completely degraded land with no biodiversity values or in the middle of a last biodiversity hotspot? South-east Queensland sprawl, Ipswich, Woogaroo Forest, Lot 9999
There are "plans to sculpt and flatten this land to make way for about 1,800 houses for south-east Queensland’s booming population."
“There is plenty of completely degraded land with no biodiversity values at all to put those houses on...here’s degraded agricultural land, there’s abandoned land, there’s abandoned mines … south-east Queensland is 6m hectares."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/25/woogaroo-forest-ipswich-queensland-housing-development-wildlife-ntwnfb
#biodiversity #degradation #sprawl #housing #EndangeredHabitats #WoogarooForest #LandTenure #wildlife #koalas #birds #extinction #Australia #SEQ
Wildlife-unfriendly suburbia
The 70-kilometre-long agricultural irrigation channel is a wildlife graveyard.
"Birds, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, you name it. Various animals [are] getting trapped in the channel... More and more native animals are being hit on our roads...It's because our areas are growing and our government hasn't considered how we can build the infrastructure that we need while also considering the needs of native animals and how we can protect them."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/drowning-kangaroos-open-water-channel-wildlife-rescue-coliban/105289548
#housing #sprawl #wildlife #habitat #irrigation #infrastructure #cars #traps #biodiversity #WildlifeUnfriendly #Australia
Cassowary banishment from tropical forests
Urban sprawl and wildlife translocation
"Only around 4,000 southern cassowaries are thought to remain in Australia, and the species is threatened by habitat destruction, vehicle strikes, dog attacks and climate change."
An "endangered southern cassowary was discovered underweight and with a belly full of tomato seeds and fruits scavenged from compost bins. Several reports indicated the bird had been wandering along roads close to cane fields and was in danger of being hit by a car or truck."
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https://au.news.yahoo.com/tense-moment-rare-35kg-creature-lowered-into-remote-aussie-forest-022020386.html
#Birds #SouthernCassowary #wildlife #biodiversity #conservation #tropics #ecosystems #Wildlife #habitat #translocation #Banishment #Sprawl #cars #dogs #DogsAttacks #roads #plantations #monocultures
Groundwater Pumping Is Contributing To The Subsidence Of Major U.S. Cities
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/08/climate/sinking-cities-us-causes-groundwater.html <-- shared media article
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00240-y <-- shared paper
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#water #groundwater #subsidence #city #cities #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #engineeringgeology #engineering #risk #hazard #pumping #overpumping #waterresources #USA #America #sinking #infrastructure #damage #cost #economics #repais #mitigation #sealevelrise #flood #flooding #foundations #urban #remotesensing #earthobservation #satellite #elevation #measurement #change #vertical #movement #geology #soils #model #modeling #prediction #waterresources #farming #agriculture #watersupply #industry #well #riskassessment #landuse #monitoring #management #utilities #growth #population #demographics #construction #sprawl
Coastal erosion and human intervention
A rapidly escalating volume of traffic on ocean beaches
"In the absence of the Bribie buffer and without the dune system on the surf coast, they would suddenly be exposed to storm surge and inundation."
"Morton says the previous government long ignored the erosion under the assumption this was “mother nature” at work. But the new MP says the review will consider the impacts of human intervention, from dredging and wake from the offshore shipping channel to widespread coastal development."
"Bribie Island resident, retired engineer and environmental volunteer John Oxenford agrees human intervention has fuelled the erosion – but he points to the 2007 opening of the beach to four-wheel drives as “opening a real Pandora’s box”."
"The pressure of tens of thousands of vehicles and associated foot traffic since had prevented the natural regrowth of dunes during the winter period, and further exposed them to erosion during the summer months, he says.“Year over year over year, we’ve seen rapidly escalating volume of traffic on the ocean beach,” he says. “The end result of that is erosion.” "
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/07/sunshine-coast-residents-fear-storm-surges-bribie-island-buffer
#erosion #coast #beach #CoastalDevelopment #traffic #DIY #GoldCoast #wildlife #SUVs #cars #FossilFuels #CarsOnBeaches #sprawl #Caloundra #BribieIsland
More wildlife hospitals and care
for native animals having to exist in fragmented marginal habitats
More native animals are being brought into vet clinics and wildlife shelters than ever before.,, Wildlife carers and volunteers "do incredible work in helping to respond, rehabilitate and care for our sick, injured and orphaned wildlife".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-22/wildlife-carers-funding-needed-increasing-injured-animals/104881812
#wildlife #care #AnimalWelfare #WildlifeCarers #volunteers #biodiversity #sprawl #cars #pets
Australia is in an extinction crisis – why isn’t it an issue at this election?
"Over the past decade, more than 550 Australian species have been either newly recognised as at risk of extinction or moved a step closer to being erased from the planet."
"Analysis shows 1,964,200 hectares of koala habitat was cleared between 2012 and 2021 – 81% of that in Queensland."
"Australia tops global rankings for mammal extinction – at least 33 species have died out since European invasion and colonisation – and is number two behind Indonesia for loss of biodiversity. The challenge is not only to stop the loss of habitat but to restore the environment in places it has been lost in 250 years of European-driven clearing."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/07/australia-is-in-an-extinction-crisis-why-isnt-it-an-issue-at-this-election
#biodiversity #ecosystems #loss #nature #wildlife #koalas #care #biosphere #laws #deforestation #extractivism #SettlerSociety #destruction #extinction #pollution #sprawl #housing #governance #ExtinctionCrisis #FossilFuels
Quolls are on the environmental trajectory of the thylacine
"The spotted-tail and northern quoll are at best functionally extinct across the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and at worst they had completely disappeared from the area." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-03/quolls-functionally-extinct-in-large-parts-of-queensland/105122684
Population growth highlights and trends, Queensland regions, 2023 edition.(pdf) >>
https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/3061/population-growth-highlights-trends-qld-regions-2023-edn.pdf
"Dog attacks in the Sunshine Coast region are up 10 per cent. Pet owners are urged to follow some fundamental steps to reduce incidents and improve safety of people and pets. A total of 382 dog attacks were reported – 166 on people and 216 on another animal." >>
https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/news/pet-owners-warned-after-rise-in-dog-attacks
#biodiversity #wildlife #quolls #conservation #sprawl #Queensland #pets #dogs #extinction #Australia
A suburb of Phoenix is not where one might expect to see a residential development based on emancipation from the dominion of the car.
Reducing car dependency in Arizona matters beyond the borders of the state. All too often those working for more human and environmentally sound planning and transit policies in the USA are met with a simplistic and thought stopping cry of "It might work in Europe, but our geography makes it impossible!"
From water pollution to blue gold
Water "“blighted by mats of algae, mountains of foam, scum, and dead fish floating on the surface. Pollution from water companies and agricultural runoff are driving the contamination, which affects all parts of the country, causing toxic algal blooms, mass die-offs of fish, and risks to human health."
"A country that once let raw sewage and industrial wastewater flow directly into its water. Today, it is 98%, and the country has a reputation for pristine swimming waters, sometimes referred to as its “blue gold” – and it’s all thanks to a complex network of sewage plants."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/17/from-sewage-and-scum-to-swimming-in-blue-gold-how-switzerland-transformed-its-waterways-aoe
#water #pollution #micropollutants #ecosystem #health #swimming #Australia #sewage #floods #runoff #ImperviousSurfaces #roads #MassMortalities #SepticTanks #sprawl #biodiversity #rivers #civilisation
The human carnage on the roads - "accidents" and road violence
"In Australia, a country with a terrible occurrence and societal acceptance of violent road deaths (would we, for example, be so lackadaisical about the death “toll” were we measuring killings, accidental and otherwise, involving knives or dogs or lawnmowers?), we are culturally imbued with notions of our “rights” rather than our “privileges” when it comes to motor vehicle driving. Something to do with our vast expanses and wide-open roads perhaps."
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/18/when-dad-couldnt-drive-any-more-it-was-devastating-but-he-was-just-too-old
#RoadViolence #cars #SUVs #roads #violence #accident #RoadTrauma #RoadTrafficFatalities #roadkill #sprawl #Australia #MobilityDesign
Australian farmers push for "right to farm" legislation in a bid to push back against suburban sprawl: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2025-03-03/qld-right-to-farm-push-as-urban-growth-extends-to-farm-areas/104998330 #auspol #farming #urbanism #UrbanPlanning #sprawl
Logging machinery and other combustion machines are driving koalas out of their habitat at Bellingen/ Gleniffer's Tuckers Nob forests.
#biodiversity #dispersal #bellingen #gleniffer #GlenifferRoad #NSWLogging #cars #sprawl #FCNSW #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #SaveTuckersNob
Provide habitat and fund wildlife hospitals!
"The WA Wildlife Hospital has seen a 17 per cent year-on-year increase in patient admissions over the past 15 years."
Reasons?
"These include increasing urban sprawl, with suburbs encroaching on natural habitats as the population grows, and attacks from introduced predators such as wandering cats, foxes and dogs."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-20/wa-wildlife-hospital-buckling-under-surging-animal-admissions/104923496
#Biodiversity #wildlife #birds #carers #sprawl #FishingHooks #roads #drivers #IntroducedSpecies #pets #dogs #ExtinctionCrisis #SettlerSociety
This is what "growth paying for growth" gets us. The constant push by developers and the construction companies for sprawl has gotten us to this point #yqr #Regina #taxes #sprawl
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/city-budget-sees-proposed-tax-increase-of-27-a-month-or-320-a-year-1.7450176
Flooding? Get out of the way of the river.
"Historic settlement patterns have pinched our rivers into these narrow corridors. Giving land back to the river means potentially abandoning entire neighborhoods and swaths of town centers."
https://e360.yale.edu/features/vermont-floods
#FossilFuels #floods #flooding #sprawl #rivers #catchment #housing #Queensland
The last yellow-tailed black cockatoos on Eyre Peninsula
"National Parks and Wildlife Service SA conservation ecologist Katrina Pobke said the loss of habitat through settlement and land clearing had impacted flocks that would have numbered in the hundreds of thousands across southern Australia's woodlands more than 10,000 years ago."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-28/saving-yellow-tailed-black-cockatoos-eyre-peninsula/104845668
#birds #Biodiversity #sprawl #cockatoos
Greg Cocks 
