(ORDO NEWS) — Wildfires, droughts and warming weather are killing Australia’s unique nature, according to an official report published on July 19, which warns that many animal species are on the verge of extinction, Agence France-Presse reports.
Over the past five years, the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires in Australia have burned more than 8 million hectares of native vegetation, killing 1 to 3 billion animals or leaving their habitats, according to the State of the Environment Report over the past five years.
Rising sea temperatures have caused massive coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, 2017 and 2020, the report says. Then, according to official data released in March 2022, the reef again suffered massive bleaching.
Environmental damage is compounded by climate change, which has warmed Australia’s average temperature by 1.4 degrees C since the early 20th century, the report says.
Australian Environment Minister Tanya Pliebersek called the document “shocking”.
Pliebersek, a member of the centre-left Labor Party that came to power in the May 2022 elections, said her predecessor in the previous Conservative government received the report as early as December 2021 but never released it.
“I will not bury my head in the sand,” she said.
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