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For the first time since the Coalition dumped the carbon price, energy combustion emissions fell in June 2016.

Australia's oceans are feeding grounds for many wildlife species, including seabirds. Ed Dunens/Flickr, CC BY

More of Australia’s oceans should be placed under high protection, according to the long-awaited review of Commonwealth marine reserves released yesterday. The review, launched in 2014 by then prime minister Tony Abbott, largely vindicates the original planning process. It recommends zoning changes to 26 of 40 reserves, and reductions to the area available to mining, while reducing the impact on commercial fisheries.

The Commonwealth marine reserves were meant to be an easy win for the then-Labor federal government when they were declared in November 2012. All are in Commonwealth waters, from three nautical miles (about 5.5km) from the coast to 200 nautical miles (370km). Their generally remote location meant that few people would be affected.

Declaring the reserves fulfilled national and international commitments, a feat achieved by very few marine jurisdictions in the world. Australia was leading the way.

The reserves were also hugely popular. A sophisticated social media campaign run by international and national environmental groups had harnessed massive public support, especially for the declaration of a huge, no-fishing (or “no-take”) zone in the Coral Sea.

But criticisms of the parks emerged quickly leading up to and following their declaration. Predictably, commercial and recreational fishers protested the loss of fishing access. But some scientists also questioned whether these huge parks were the best way to protect our seas.

These same concerns have been raised in response to the world’s largest marine park – the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, announced last week by US President Barack Obama.

So in 2013 the incoming Abbott government suspended the parks' management plans, making the reserves, at least temporarily, “paper parks”.

The review has restated the importance of no-take zones and recommended an increase in some of the reserves and a decrease in the Coral Sea.

So will the recommendations appease the critics?

Australia’s marine reserves as proposed in 2012. Department of Environment, CC BY Balancing act

The review panels had a challenging job of balancing conservation with emerging uses of marine space. Planning marine reserves is far more complex than agreeing to protect a certain amount of our oceans.

We don’t yet know a lot about ocean ecosystems. Researchers are trying to understand in more detail how marine species are connected and how they reproduce and feed in water and seabed habitats. Different species and communities have different needs and vulnerabilities.

A precautionary approach would suggest protection of large areas. But this begs the question of whether it’s most effective or fair to stakeholders to close large tracts of remote ocean to all forms of fishing, compared (for example) with infrequent, often seasonal, surface trolling of open ocean species by commercial or recreational fishers.

It is easy for planning processes to get caught up in a highly polarised debate between fishing and conservation interests. Part of the problem comes from a narrow understanding of benefits and impact, which focuses purely on numbers of people using an area and economic losses versus benefits.

Focusing on these questions alone fails to recognise the important role that values, emotion and identity play in framing the ways people respond to marine reserves.

For example, conservation groups have been perplexed by the opposition of recreational fishing groups to remote marine parks. Why would recreational fishers oppose parks that are well outside the usual fishing spots for the average fisher?

Conversely, fishing groups often feel that their interests should be prioritised over the tens of thousands of people who made submissions in support of the reserves – many of whom may never visit these areas.

A better understanding of why people fish, sail, dive, surf, do business, get involved in conservation campaigns and care about marine management will improve our understanding of what drives individual, group and community values and attitudes. We need to understand these emotional responses better before we can adequately evaluate the impact of marine reserves.

Without these data available now, the review panel has recommended adapting to new knowledge as it becomes available. It remains to be seen how fishing and environment groups will respond to these proposed changes. But it is likely they will still spark opposition despite the huge amount of time and resources that have gone into them.

How do you look after a remote marine park?

Another problem with large remote marine reserves is the high cost of managing and monitoring them.

Having people actively engaged in making use of these remote areas in low-impact ways can contribute to monitoring environmental health and discouraging illegal activities.

Other cost-effective solutions include technologies such as vessel-monitoring systems (which automatically track and survey boats), satellite monitoring, remote instruments and voluntary citizen science.

Along with the benefit of understanding how people use and value marine reserves, vessel-monitoring systems would increase safety and reduce costs of search, rescue and routine surveillance. While all Commonwealth-managed fisheries have these systems as a management requirement, most state fisheries do not. This is one example of the potential and the challenge of developing a coordinated system for managing and funding Australia’s coastal and ocean waters.

Inshore areas and many fisheries operating in Commonwealth waters are state and territory responsibilities. Many of the impacts affecting remote marine reserves come from these coastal areas.

So the success of the final zoning arrangements in achieving conservation objectives will require looking beyond state versus Commonwealth and fishery versus environment disputes.

Humpback whales migrate along Australia’s coasts. Whale image from www.shutterstock.com Where to from here?

Regardless of where you sit in this highly polarised debate, the final zoning of Australia’s marine reserves should not be seen as the end of the story.

There’s growing interest in Australia’s “blue economy”. It is time to revisit the need for a national oceans policy – a partnership between states and the Commonwealth that addresses the complexity of managing our seas. The development of Australia’s Oceans Policy in 1994 came close.

This was originally designed to address a range of issues, which included, but were not limited to, biodiversity conservation and the Commonwealth marine reserve network. Issues with negotiations prevented the policy coming to fruition.

With the reserve network now close to completion, it is time to turn attention to the range of other challenges that lie on the horizon for our oceans. No-take marine reserves provide sanctuaries and reference sites for understanding our impact on marine environments and are part of the solution to sustaining them.

It’s now time to move on, provide certainty for industry and stakeholders, and shift attention to the challenge of managing these reserves and the waters that surround them in a sustainable, productive and inclusive way. A great deal of work remains to be done.

Michelle Voyer has been involved in a number of projects that have received funding from the Commonwealth Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust and the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Richard Ambrose Kenchington has received funding from CSIRO as part of a Coastal Cluster study of barriers to the application of science in Coastal Zone management.

Almost 100,000 sq km of Coral Sea, including important coral reefs, could lose protection from fishing under changes recommended in Abbott-era review

Australia’s commonwealth marine parks could be significantly cut back, under recommendations that almost 100,000 sq km of the Coral Sea, including important coral reefs, lose their protection from fishing.

The network of 42 marine reserves was announced by Labor in 2012 after years of consultation and consideration of more than 8,000 submissions. It was welcomed by environmental groups but was designed to have minimal impact on commercial activities, which sparked some criticism from conservationists and scientists.

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New data shows South Australia electricity prices fell sharply in August as gas prices fell, confirming the critical role of gas generators in setting power prices.

Norwich How odd that UEA, a place renowned for its pioneering role in academic conservation, should contemplate ruining these grasslands with a huge car park and artificial grass pitches

When I first went to the University of East Anglia more than 30 years ago it struck me as odd that the 32 acres of encircling grasslands were maintained as if they were a golf course. Flayed to within an inch of its life, the sward was absolutely useless for biodiversity.

How times change. Today, aside from a network of cut trails, which give access to hundreds if not thousands of local people who use this city park daily, it is a low-level forest of flower-rich vegetation.

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G20 fudges on fossil fuel subsidies, now labelled as the "dumbest policy" in the world. But the Paris climate deal is now likely to come into force later this year, four years earlier than thought, and China has announced a major boost to "green finance", just as Australia looks to strip its own greed funds.

Whether EVs will be charged from rooftop panels – as Tesla etc would like it – or from a network of charging stations – as utilities would like it – it is only a matter of time.

Worker at sanctuary suffers cuts to her face after entering eagle enclosure on Tuesday morning

A wedge-tailed eagle has attacked a female staff member at the Gold Coast’s Currumbin wildlife sanctuary, leaving her with cuts to her face.

The woman, believed to be in her 30s, was attacked at about 8.30am on Tuesday and was taken to Gold Coast university hospital in a stable condition.

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Dear Craig Kelly, your electorate in southern Sydney has 9,500 voters who live in solar powered homes. This year they will save over $2.9m on their power bills.

Council unanimously passes motion calling for policy that would remove more than $500m from banks that invest in fossil fuels

The City of Sydney council is set to divest from fossil fuels this year, regardless of the outcome of the election on Saturday, after a two-year campaign by members of the anti-fossil fuel group 350.org.

The council has more than $500m under management. At the last meeting before the election, it unanimously passed a motion calling for a new investment policy that would divert those funds away from banks that invest in fossil fuels.

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New research suggests air pollution could be contributing to diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Panorama programme claims there are numerous, potentially lethal safety flaws at the Cumbria nuclear plant

The Sellafield nuclear site is riddled with potentially lethal safety flaws, according to a BBC investigation.

The Panorama programme, broadcast on Monday night, uncovered a raft of safety issues on the site in Cumbria which stores almost all of the country’s nuclear waste.

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Wild horses are wreaking havoc in Australia's mountains Long Road Photography (formerly Aff)/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

The fate of wild horses in Australia’s alps is once again stirring passions, particularly the idea of shooting them. The suggestion has prompted street protests against it, and public statements from academics (including myself) endorsing the idea.

Victoria and New South Wales have not yet made decisions on what to do about the horses. In New South Wales, public comment has closed on the Kosciuszko National Park Draft Wild Horse Management Plan 2016, and now public servants have to weigh up the comments, take heed of political fears and sensitivities, and come up with a way forward.

Victoria’s Greater Alpine National Parks management plan has been tabled in parliament, arguing for feral horse control but leaving options open.

The evidence that wild horses need to be removed from Australia’s alps because of their impact on high country ecosystems and species is very strong. The debate now revolves around the ethics of how to remove horses, and their role in Australian culture.

Horse welfare

This issue of horse welfare has recently been substantially clarified in a report as part of reviewing the Kosciuszko plan. The report, prepared by an Independent Technical Reference Group, scores the welfare outcomes of a full range of horse control, considering pursuing horses, capturing and transporting them, and their ultimate fate.

Although a common perspective is that it would be nice to round up the horses and move them out of the national park, it turns out that this would result in one of the worst animal welfare outcomes.

The vast majority of horses captured (82%) in Kosciuszko National Park are not re-homed, but killed in abattoirs. The long journey to abattoirs in South Australia and Queensland was ranked as having a severe impact on horse welfare, rated seven out of a maximum score of eight.

In contrast, aerial shooting, when properly implemented by well-trained pilots and marksmen, had a moderate effect on horse welfare during the short chase (rated four out of eight), and there were no concerns about suffering when the horse is shot, as it is quickly killed.

Even fertility management had an impact rated six out of eight (and cannot be implemented at the scale needed to solve the Kosciuszko horse problem).

Animal welfare in the environment

There are around 10,000 wild horses in Australia’s alps, and 6,000 in Kosciuszko. By eating and trampling habitat, horses likely cause many individual native animals to suffer. These impacts are generally unseen, and are typically neglected when considering the ethics of culling horses.

Horses have a negative impact on alpine ecosystems, upon which native species depend, including the broad-toothed rat and the alpine water skink(critically endangered in Victoria).

In all arguments about culling invasive animals (or over-abundant native animals) it is a fundamental logical mistake to ignore the impacts of pests on the welfare of other animals, on the viability of populations and on the risk of species' extinction.

In his article A “Practical” Ethic for Animals, animal welfare expert David Fraser proposes four principles that, if applied, would ensure full consideration of the ethics of culling horses.

There are:

(1) to provide good lives for the animals in our care

(2) to treat suffering with compassion

(3) to be mindful of unseen harm

(4) to protect the life-sustaining processes and balances of nature.

This set of principles gives weight to both humane control methods, as well as suffering of other species if the culling is not undertaken, impacts on populations and risks of extinction.

While it is nicer if you don’t have to kill horses, when you weigh up the misery horses suffer if left in the wild, the unseen impacts on native animals, the damage to ecosystems and the likely heightened risk of extinction of already threatened species, leaving horses in the Australian alps is not a choice with ethics on its side.

Part of Australian culture

A cultural affiliation with horses is widespread around the world, including in the US, Spain and many South American countries.

Australia is no exception, epitomised by the poem “The Man from Snowy River)” by Banjo Paterson. This stock horse culture is widely celebrated in Australia. We saw it at the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony where stock horses were celebrated alongside those other classic Australian icons of lawnmowers and clothes lines.

Culture can be celebrated in a range of ways. We don’t celebrate the Gallipoli landing using actual violence, we don’t celebrate anniversaries of the moon landing by sending astronauts there.

We don’t need to celebrate Australia’s stock-horse culture by having horses in fragile alpine ecosystems where they cause environmental damage. There are other ways to celebrate culture, including through the network of mountain huts, many originally built for men rounding up cattle or horses. Indeed, there is already extensive signage highlighting this cultural history at huts around Victoria.

There may also be ways to maintain small wild-horse populations through collaborations across private properties around the mountains of NSW and Victoria. These would open up opportunities for tourism by providing “man-from-snowy-river” cultural experiences in places more appropriate than our national parks.

Australia has one of the largest feral horse populations on the planet, with 400,000 horses roaming the country. Areas set aside for nature cover less than 10% of New South Wales and 17% of Victoria. There is plenty of space outside reserves for horses, but conversely, very little area set aside for our natural heritage.

Considering the ethics of balance, one that takes into account humane treatment of horses, native wildlife, species and ecosystems, horses should be rapidly and humanely removed from alpine parks in Victoria and New South Wales.

Don Driscoll is affiliated with the Ecological Society of Australia and the Society for Conservation Biology.

Detection of ‘abundant’ magnetite particles raises concerns because of suggested links to Alzheimer’s disease

Toxic nanoparticles from air pollution have been discovered in human brains in “abundant” quantities, a newly published study reveals.

The detection of the particles, in brain tissue from 37 people, raises concerns because recent research has suggested links between these magnetite particles and Alzheimer’s disease, while air pollution has been shown to significantly increase the risk of the disease. However, the new work is still a long way from proving that the air pollution particles cause or exacerbate Alzheimer’s.

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John Harris provides, as usual, an excellent piece on what is wrong with British politics (Politics can’t heal until politicians stand clear of the revolving door, 3 September). However, former politicians and functionaries moving to lucrative jobs in the private sector and people from the private sector moving to less lucrative but influential positions in government is neither new nor a particularly British or European malady. What is missing from Harris and sadly from the Guardian in general is the recognition that this is how capitalism works at home, and is a key feature of how capitalism works globally.

How often do we hear the plea from politicians, functionaries, and corporate executives exposed for questionable practices that they were “doing nothing wrong”. In the strictly legal sense this is often correct, but it only highlights how capitalism and the state work hand in hand. Corporate sponsorship of the Paris climate change meetings is only the most important of recent manifestations of this phenomenon, in this case not only helping to explain why people around the world appear to be losing faith in conventional politics, but also why so little is done to get to the roots of why fossil-fuelled capitalist globalisation has been allowed to put the very existence of the planet at serious risk.
Leslie Sklair
London

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IUCN report warns that ‘truly staggering’ rate of warming is changing the behaviour of marine species, reducing fishing zones and spreading disease

The soaring temperature of the oceans is the “greatest hidden challenge of our generation” that is altering the make-up of marine species, shrinking fishing areas and starting to spread disease to humans, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of ocean warming.

The oceans have already sucked up an enormous amount of heat due to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, affecting marine species from microbes to whales, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report involving the work of 80 scientists from a dozen countries.

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Much of Earth's life-giving carbon could have been delivered in an asteroid collision about 4.4 billion years ago, a theory suggests.

Ice taken from a retreating Alpine glacier is moved into a freezer at the start of a mission to store it permanently in Antarctica.

Ice taken from a retreating Alpine glacier is moved into a freezer at the start of a mission to store it permanently in Antarctica.

Giant storms that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines have grown 50% stronger in the past 40 years due to warming seas

The destructive power of the typhoons that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines has intensified by 50% in the past 40 years due to warming seas, a new study has found.

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