ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

IN AUSTRALIA

By Sammi
Introduction

In the last hundred years, we have

done great damage to the environ
ment, and until the last ten years
or so, we haven’t cared or though
t about the consequences. Nowad
ays, a lot of countries have finally
begun to take action and consider
the environmental issues we are f
acing.

Like the rest of the world, Australi

a has its share of the environment
al problems. The main problems a
re deforestation and pollution.
DEFORESTATION
Deforestation

 Deforestation is cutting, burning and destroyin

g trees and forests
 This has become a cause for other environmen
tal problems like climate change, air pollution a
nd loss of animals and plantation.
 Deforestation has become a problem, because
it reduces the amount of oxygen in the air for
us humans to breathe.
 It can also lead to the destruction of natural ha
bitats, causing animals and plants to become e
ndangered or extinct
 Medicine is found in tropical plants, and Austra
lia is home to one million of these species
 Here are some causes for deforestation:
1. Expansion of Agricultural La
nd
2. Dams and other development projects
3. Logging
4. Fires
5. Mining
 Land Clearing and Re-growth
This graph compares the amount of land clearing to the re-growth of trees in Australia fro
m the year 1973 to 2004.
As you can see, the amount of land clearing is much larger than the amount of trees being r
e-grown, and so we are losing trees every year. However, the net change is getting smaller
and smaller so we are getting close to re-growing the amount of trees lost in that year.
Solutions

Here are some things we can and should do to help:

 Convince the government to make a change
 Provide our future Australians with a better understanding of the envir
onmental crisis we are in and teach them to keep planting trees
 Make the government be aware of our country’s bad state
 Use products that can be recycled or reused
 Use less things that come from forests or trees through deforestation
 POLLUTION

Pollution threatens environmental sustainability and can have

harmful effects on human health
Air Pollution

Urban and regional air polluti

on is a significant environmen
tal threat. Industry, power ge
neration and motor vehicles r
elease pollutants that can lea
d to photochemical smog, ha
ze and acidification.
Land Pollution

Land pollution can be c

aused by poor agricultu
ral practices, pesticide
use, mineral exploitatio
n, industrial discharges
and indiscriminate disp
osal of urban waste.
Water Pollution

Poor water quaility and sediment qua

ility are the most serious pollution iss
ues affecting our coastal and marine
environments.

In Australia, it has been estimated th

at land-based contaminants contribut
e up to 80% of all marine pollution,
and pose a major threat to the long-t
erm health of coastal waterways.

Marcoola Beach, 2009

Solutions
These problems can be solved by:
 Controlled overproduction
 Recycling  Bury waste underground
 Use of green environmentally-friendly  Recycle water
products
 Stricter laws for pollution in the water
 Charge high taxes/fines on factories and foreign ships
that make a lot of pollution
 Much higher tax and fines for
 Use of public transport environmental damage
 Impose limits on mining
Conclusion

If we want to hand on our world

to our children and grandchildre
n, we simply can’t continue to m
isuse the world’s natural resourc
es and keep polluting our Earth
as we are at the moment. We n
eed to do something while we st
ill can. All big things are made o
f smaller things, so by you makin
g a small change to help our wo
rld change, things will spread to
make a big difference.