Australia Pledges No New Extinctions Over Next Decade
TimeNov 25, 2022
Australia Targets "Zero-Extinction" Plan to Save Endangered Species
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Image copyright: Getty Images [via Deutsche Welle]
The Facts
On Tuesday, Australia's environmental authorities announced an ambitious "zero-extinction" plan to provide protection and restoration of the country's endangered species and natural places over the next ten years.
Despite being one of the world's wealthiest nations, Australia received a poor grade on its protection of animal species. Wildlife habitats have reportedly declined because of events like the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-2020, which saw around 3B animals killed, injured, or displaced.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
While it's about time Australia joins other developed nations in their conservation efforts, this new plan is lacking. It boasts an impressive zero-extinction goal but provides little direction on how to get there and dismally overlooks many of Australia's more than 1.9K endangered species. It remains to be seen what this plan will actually achieve.
Pro-establishment narrative
This is promising news for the conservation and preservation community. While, admittedly, this only scratches the surface, the plan is a great first step in addressing Australia's endangered species and will pave the way to greater solutions.
