Jamu Barokahs

Rabu, 05 Februari 2020

'Australia Should Be Ashamed' After More Than 40 Koalas Killed on Logging Site - TIME

Scores of koalas — as well as many other animals — have been found injured or dead on a blue gum plantation in south-west Victoria, Australia after trees on the property were logged. Recent bushfires in Australia have taken the lives of thousands of koalas, a species already endangered in the country. This latest incident is yet another hit on their habitats.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has been conducting an investigation on-site.

Victoria’s environmental minister Lily D’Ambrosio called the event “devastating” and said her department was also investigating. “Every Victorian can rightly feel not only appalled, deeply saddened and heartbroken, but angry. I am absolutely angry,” D’Ambrosio told The Guardian on Monday.

More than 40 koalas have been killed, with investigators on the scene noting that the number could rise as felled timber is still being cleared.

Over 80 koalas have been assessed since Friday by veterinarians, and 30 were reportedly euthanized due to injuries suffered in addition to those found dead on the site. Koalas that survived the event are being treated for starvation and broken bones by vets or at wildlife centers.

The land was harvested for timber by South West Fibre, a logging company, in October 2019, but was handed back to the private land’s owners the following month. A company spokesperson for South West Fibre said 72 koalas were on site at the conclusion of its logging work; in a statement, the company added:

SWF left an appropriate number of ‘habitat trees’ for the existing koala population and provided details of such in a letter to the landowner noting that the koalas were uninjured and in good health.

It is understood that subsequent to SWF completing its work, the remaining trees have since been cleared. This is particularly concerning to the foresters and staff who worked assiduously to protect the koalas during the harvesting operation.

While authorities have yet to publicly identify a perpetrator, the Australian Forest Products Association told The Age that, “it is absolutely certain that this was not a plantation or a forestry company.”

Keith Troeth, whose family owns the land, also told The Age that he had approved the trees being bulldozed, and argued the response to the koalas’ deaths was being blown out of proportion. “There may have been one or two koalas killed and I’ll wear the responsibility,” he said. “But it’s not the big hoo-ha it’s been made out to be.”

“We made every effort to do it professionally, we made every effort to minimize any [fatalities],” he added.

Troeth did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.

D’Ambrosio said the government considers the act a breach of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Wildlife Act. “We will do everything possible to bring the people responsible for this to account and will throw every penalty available to us at them,” she said.

“Look at the destruction that they have done,” local resident Helen Oakley said in a tearful video that has gone viral. “There are mothers killed with their little babies. Australia should be ashamed of this.”

Beekeeper blamed for sparking massive Australian fire - New York Post

One of the latest wildfires to ravage Australia was accidentally sparked by a careless beekeeper, according to new reports.

The blaze was kicked up in the Pialligo Redwood Forest in Australia’s Capital Territory on Jan. 22 when a beekeeper’s “smoker” — a device used to keep bees calm — ignited the dry brush, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The fire has since shut down the local airport and threatened to engulf homes and businesses in nearby suburbs in the Canberra region.

A government spokesman told the Canberra Times that beekeepers “self-reported that they were involved in the ignition of the fire whilst undertaking bee surveillance activities around Canberra Airport.”

Dermot Asis Sha’Non, president of the Canberra Region Beekeepers, told the ABC that the beekeeper inspecting the hives was trying to finish his work on deadline and before a “total fire ban” went into effect in the region.

“The person inspecting wanted to keep in mind that there was a total fire ban, so worked to avoid that,” Sha’Non said. “But it didn’t work out.”

A plane taxis as Canberra Airport is blanketed with bushfire smoke on Jan. 23, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. — A plane taxis as Canberra Airport is blanketed with bushfire smoke on Jan. 23 in Canberra, Australia.Getty Images

Instead, fuel used to generate the smoker’s fumes, which allow beekeepers to safety approach the bees for inspection or to collect honey, accidentally ignited brush nearby and sparked the fire, the ABC said.

The bee colony was likely destroyed, the report said.

The hives are maintained by “hobby keepers,” but are part of a national bee pest surveillance program that serves as an early warning system throughout Australia to detect the exotic species that could threaten other bees.

It is run by Plant Health Australia, a national plant biosecurity coordinator.

The fire is just one of many infernos that have burned through huge swaths of Australia for months, scorching 21 million acres, killing at least 28 people and wiping out millions of animals.

Fire crews work to contain a fire near at the industrial suburb of Beard and residential suburb of Oaks Estate on January 23, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. — Fire crews work to contain a fire near at the industrial suburb of Beard and residential suburb of Oaks Estate on Jan. 23 in Canberra.Getty Images

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2020-02-04 22:47:00Z
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Selasa, 04 Februari 2020

Climate change: Australian TV audience boos sceptical senator - BBC News

In an incident that has got Australia talking, Senator Jim Molan was booed while speaking on a panel TV discussion on the bushfire crisis.

The Liberal Party politician was talking about climate change on ABC's Q&A programme, and cast doubt on whether it was caused by human activity.

Mr Molan later said he wasn't "relying on science" for his views, and defended the government's climate change policy.

Government critics say human-induced climate change has been a major contributing factor to the bushfires, and that action must be taken to address rising global temperatures.

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2020-02-04 07:58:23Z
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There’s No Place Like Kangaroo Island. Can It Survive Australia’s Fires? - The New York Times

KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia — Kangaroo Island is Australia in miniature.

It is a wildlife haven, with its own varieties of kangaroos, echidnas (a spiny anteater) and cockatoos, as well as a koala population seen as insurance should disaster strike the species on the mainland. It is a tourism magnet, with luxury cliff-top lodges and beaches studded with sea lions. It is a farming hub, producing veal, wool, grain and honey for purveyors at home and beyond.

Now, Kangaroo Island is unrecognizable.

Wildfires that burned for weeks consumed half of the island — more than 800 square miles. Two people were killed, dozens of homes were destroyed, and wilderness parks were turned to cinders, littering the landscape with animal corpses. In a bush land once teeming with the activity of insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, there is only silence, and the scent of rot.

“Everything is dead,” said Simon Kelly, a farmer who lost more than half of his 9,000 sheep and was burying them in mass graves.

In this season of unimaginable infernos in Australia, perhaps no place is facing more daunting questions about its future than Kangaroo Island.

Tourism operators are fretting over an exodus of visitors during what is normally their busiest time of year, a problem only made worse as the coronavirus sweeping China has kept people from traveling. Farmers who lost everything must now reassemble herds, replace equipment and wait for land to regenerate. Many of the island’s 4,500 residents fear the community will suffer if people go to the mainland for work and never come back.

Before the fires, which raged from December to January, the island’s revenue was split about evenly between tourism and agriculture, with each worth about 180 million Australian dollars, or $124 million, a year, said the mayor, Michael Pengilly.

“This is going to savage both sectors of the economy, and I have major concerns for the social and economic fabric of the island,” he said in an interview. “If we lose people, it means a difference to everything. If you lost 10 families with children, that’s kids out of schools, that’s kids out of sports clubs.”

Everyone here knows that without both industries, the community cannot survive. But the people of Kangaroo Island, which sits just off Australia’s southern coast, are circumspect about their troubles. Farming has always had ups and downs, they say. Mother Nature is unpredictable; fires sometimes flare. They will find a way to rebuild.

Mr. Kelly, whose sheep provided wool and meat locally and on the mainland, was philosophical about his loss. His grandfather cleared trees to build the farm in 1936, and even though nothing like this had ever happened before, he refused to blame anyone for it.

“It’ll set us back a couple of years, but we’ll get over it,” he said, shifting sheets of corrugated steel onto the back of his truck with hands as big as dinner plates. The steel was from a shed that held two jeeps, a motorbike and $20,000 worth of hay, all of which went up in flames.

Not long before the fires, Mr. Kelly had set out golden-colored feed in the paddocks. The 40 miles’ worth of fencing around the property was brand-new. The farm was out of debt, and things had been going well.

“They were the best sheep, the best lambs. It was a good season,” he said. “The whole farm was the best it’d ever been. And we’re going to have to start all over again.”

The sheep, whose wool had gone black from the fires, died from smoke inhalation. Cows trapped together against fences also perished. In drives through paddocks, Mr. Kelly would find more wounded animals to put down, including a koala beyond help that was dispatched with a quick bullet to the head.

For days after the fires, friends would walk up the driveway and help him bury sheep. Mr. Kelly and the volunteers did the same for 10 other nearby farms that had lost everything. “We call ourselves the Dead Sheep Army,” he said.

As the blazes devoured his farm, Mr. Kelly spent a sleepless night shielding his home from exploding trees and flying embers. At least 65 other farmers lost their houses and much of their livestock, he said.

The toll on wildlife has also been terrible on the island, often referred to as Australia’s Galápagos. Since the fires ended, there have been no sightings of the island’s native bee, the green carpenter.

“Unfortunately, if it’s not extinct, it’s close to it,” said Bill Dunlop, the manager of Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. “Anywhere they would have been living would have been burned.”

About 30 percent of the population of a subspecies of the glossy black cockatoo, which is essentially extinct on the mainland and numbered about 500 on the island, is also gone, Mr. Dunlop said. Thirty to 40 percent of the island’s kangaroos are believed to have died, as well as a third of its 15,000 koalas.

Only weeks ago, koalas were considered pests on the island, devouring vegetation meant for native animals. But now they may be needed more than ever, given the devastation that has struck koala populations on the mainland, in fire-ravaged New South Wales and Victoria.

Other animals on Kangaroo Island are facing questions about their survival: the dunnart, a small, possum-like marsupial; the Rosenberg’s goanna, a lizard for which the island was considered a final stronghold before extinction; and the short-beaked echidna, which was classified as endangered in 2017.

Since the fires, the wildlife park has transformed itself from a tourist attraction into a makeshift animal hospital.

Inside a large white plastic tent one recent day, a volunteer tended to the bleeding paws of a pregnant koala. Nearly all the creatures there had bandaged paws. Some were too stunned or medicated to move; others lashed out in fear and stress at handlers.

Humanitarian groups have also been at work, scouring soot-filled forests to pluck wounded koalas from trees and cut baby kangaroos, called joeys, out of their dead mothers’ pouches.

Sam Mitchell, the wildlife park’s owner, has raised more than $1 million to help care for the wounded animals. But with no tourists around, he has no idea how he will continue to pay his staff, which cares for the 700 animals he owns here.

“The tourism industry is about to die,” he said.

Mr. Pengilly, the island’s immensely popular mayor, has been at the heart of its quest to rebuild, though he briefly gained wider attention for his disapproving reply to a tweet from Barack Obama attributing the bush fires to climate change. He has spent much of his time trying to help his constituents.

When his phone rings, it sends a signal straight to his hearing aid. Since the fires began, he has barely been able to complete a sentence without reaching for his phone.

At a town meeting, he called on every person, by name, who had a question, and he knew the situation of everyone who had faced misfortune over the past few weeks.

“It’s been terrifying for us,” he said.

The fires peeled away so much of the island’s dense scrub that they unmasked hills and other terrain that had been hidden for years. Melted signposts now droop toward the road.

Still, Kangaroo Island is keeping its arms open. Local residents and tourism operators have been at pains to assure the public that there is still much worth seeing. Most of the eastern coast remains pristine, its waters clear and the seafood abundant.

“I think Kangaroo Island will resolve to stay the same, but it will go through a tough time,” Mr. Pengilly said. “I’m confident we’ll get there, but there’s going to be a lot of heartache in the meantime.”

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2020-02-04 07:15:00Z
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Senin, 03 Februari 2020

Australia coronavirus: Hundreds evacuated to Christmas Island - BBC News

Australia has begun evacuating its citizens trapped by the coronavirus outbreak in China to an immigration detention centre on a remote island.

Evacuees from Wuhan are en route to Australia's Christmas Island, where they will be quarantined for two weeks.

Canberra said 243 citizens and permanent residents, including 89 children, were on board. A second flight is also scheduled for this week.

Pictures on social media showed queues of families waiting to board on Monday.

"We have prioritised vulnerable and isolated Australians," Foreign Minister Marise Payne told reporters in Canberra.

The nation's flagship carrier, Qantas, is operating the chartered flight.

All those on board would wear masks and other protective clothing, and interactions between staff and passengers would be minimal, said chief executive Alan Joyce.

The flight was due to arrive at an air force base in Learmonth, Western Australia on Monday afternoon. Passengers would then be placed on another flight to Christmas Island.

The external territory, 2,700km (1,680 miles) from the mainland, is best known for its immigration detention centre.

Since 2003, thousands of asylum seekers have been detained there under Australia's hardline refugee policy. It currently only houses a family of four Sri Lankan who are fighting deportation.

Evacuees had previously expressed concern about the plan, and some have chosen to stay on in Wuhan. There are over 600 Australians in the locked-down city and surrounding Hubei province.

One passenger, Gloria Zeng, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she decided last minute to board the flight with her three children after initial resistance.

"I'm really nervous... it will be a long journey," she told the broadcaster.

The Christmas Island facility was closed in 2018 but re-opened the following year.

Critics had last week questioned the state of medical facilities on the island, and the holding of citizens in an immigration detention centre.

Nations such as the US, France, and Japan have repatriated their citizens to the mainland.

Some Chinese-Australian evacuees feared they were being treated differently to "white Australians".

However, Canberra strongly rebuffed suggestions of a bias on Monday.

"[The plan] is only founded on medical advice and any suggestion otherwise I absolutely reject," Ms Payne said.

Evacuees will also no longer have to pay A$1,000 (£500; $670) fee for the evacuation after Canberra reversed an earlier decision.

The government has previously said it could not "quickly accommodate" hundreds of evacuees in mainland hospitals.

It has deployed a specialist team of 24 doctors and nurses to the island, where a tent field hospital has been set up.

"This will allow [the medical team] to operate independent of clinical facilities on Christmas Island," authorities said.

There have been 12 confirmed cases of the virus in Australia. Of those, three people have recovered and been released from hospital in Sydney.

Globally, more than 360 people have died from the virus and there are over 17,000 cases.

On Saturday, Australia joined several other nations in imposing an immediate travel ban on foreign nationals entering from China.

Experts have warned that the 14-day ban, if continued, could have a significant impact on the tourism and university sectors.

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2020-02-03 12:30:27Z
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