Australian Government Unveils Plan to Fix Australia's Conservation Crisis

The federal government revealed its proposal today to solve the conservation crisis in Australia, by ensuring populations of species are kept to an acceptable minimum, and preventing the description of new ones.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has slammed the continued description of new species in the Australian flora and fauna, calling it "irresponsible" and "wasteful". "Australia already has more than enough species," he explained in a speech to the National Resource Optimisation Board. "All that these so-called new species do is take resources that could be more profitably used by the species that are already here". Responding to reports that over 500 new species had been described during the term of the last Labor government, Treasurer Joe Hockey commented that, "This is simply indicative of Labor's profligate attitude. Scientists should not simply assume that they are entitled to add new species to Australia's burden."

Abbott in particular accused the publishers of a monograph describing 45 new species of millipede in western Tasmania of being "blatantly political", explaining that "Australians will decide what species get to live in Australia". When the lead author of the monograph was asked whether he had had any political intent in his publication, he replied, "I didn't then. I do now."

When asked about rumours that the Liberal government planned to slash funding for endangered species, Abbott replied that, "It is not the responsibility of the government to fund the lifestyle choices of species that allow themselves to become endangered. Fortunately, we have devised a plan that will allow us to build up the population numbers of so-called endangered species for considerably less expense than any of Labor's hare-brained schemes. Any species complaining of a shortage of individuals will simply have individuals reassigned to it from another, more abundant species." As an example of his plan, Abbott exhibited a brushtail possum that had recently been rebranded as a western quoll. When asked whether he thought his plan would be passed by the senate, Abbott replied, "Unfortunately, the senate continues to refuse to accept the results of the last election and the mandate given to us by the Australian public. Nevertheless, we are confident in our abilities to get this legislation through. Ricky Muir has been presented with a Mustang GT, and Jacqui Lambie has been promised that we will fix the loose tile in the Senate ceiling."

The Minister for Science was not available for comment.

Voice of the Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher, bane of an entire generation of British liberals*, recently (Correction: not that recently, but in 1990) spoke at the 2nd World Climate Conference, and you can read a transcript of her speech online. Climate change isn't something I mention often at this site - it's really not my field of expertise. But I thought that I would like to share one excerpt with you:

Many of the precautionary actions that we need to take would be sensible in any event. It is sensible to improve energy efficiency and use energy prudently; it's sensible to develop alternative and sustainable and sensible ... it's sensible to improve energy efficiency and to develop alternative and sustainable sources of supply; it's sensible to replant the forests which we consume; it's sensible to re-examine industrial processes; it's sensible to tackle the problem of waste. I understand that the latest vogue is to call them ‘no regrets’ policies. Certainly we should have none in putting them into effect.

The thing that has always confused me about the climate change 'debate' is that I don't really see why there needs to be a debate in the first place. Ultimately, the best methods being proposed to combat climate change seem to come down to reducing pollution, and reducing waste. Irrespective of whether anthropogenic climate change is happening or not, these are good things in themselves. It strikes me as being a bit like the idea that bathing regularly reduces the likelihood that you will get sick. Maybe there's a chance that you won't become ill even if you don't wash yourself for a fortnight - but you would still feel better if you had, nonetheless.

*Does anyone else here remember The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman?

A Brief Moment of Politics

I don't normally do politics here - this is a biology blog, not a politics blog - but some things can't be allowed to pass by unnoticed. A prominent international figure recently made the following statement:

Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used … when it wishes to deliver a message, and that's its military power. That's not the way to deal in the 21st century.

The speaker? Condoleeza Rice.

Now, is this funny? Or horrible? Or is it horribly funny?

Three-Quarters of a Century, and We Still Care about a Dead Horse

Phar Lap at the Flemington race track in 1930. Photo from Wikipedia.

Overheard on the news yesterday evening - 76 years after he died in 1932, forensic investigations have fairly conclusively demonstrated that Phar Lap died of arsenic poisoning. The presence of elevated levels of arsenic in hair taken from the mane of Phar Lap's mounted hide was first reported back in 2006 but as the exact procedure that had been used to preserve his skin was unknown, it was uncertain whether the arsenic had been in his system before death or whether it had been added as part of the preservation process. Comparison with other preserved animals has allowed researchers from South Australia and Victoria to distinguish between pre-mortem and post-mortem doses of arsenic, and revealed that Phar Lap had ingested a large dose of arsenic in the last 30 to 40 hours before his death.

For those of you who are not from Australasia and may be wondering who exactly Phar Lap was, Phar Lap was a racehorse born in Timaru in New Zealand in 1926. He was bought by a Sydney trainer and taken over to Australia - though the colt appeared in such poor health on arrival that the invester who had ponied (hah hah) up the money for him refused to pay for his training and the trainer was forced to offer to train him for free, his only compensation being a share in any of the horse's winnings. Despite this unpromising start, Phar Lap ended becoming one of the most successful horses in Australia, winning 37 of the 51 races he was entered in, and becoming the only horse ever to start as the favourite to win in three successive Melbourne Cups (for the record, he came second in the first of these, won the second, and eighth in the third though he won every other race he was entered in that year). Such was the degree of Phar Lap's success that an assassination attempt was actually made against him in 1930. In 1932, Phar Lap was taken to America to race in the Agua Caliente Handicap, America's richest race. Despite the unfamiliar conditions and a hoof injury a few weeks before the race on March 20th, Phar Lap (dubbed the 'Red Terror' by the Americans) won by three lengths. In little more than a fortnight, he was dead.

Needless to say, many have regarded the sudden death of the celebrated racehorse with suspicion. An autopsy after his death was inconclusive. Many suspected that he had been poisoned by American interests, a rumour that has persisted ever since. Others have suggested that he died of a rapidly developing bacterial infection. It now seems clear that he did die of arsenic poisoning, but it should be immediately added that this does not prove foul play. Racehorses at the time were often given tonics containing ingredients that seem incredible today, such as arsenic or strychnine, and records show that Phar Lap was no exception. It has also been suggested that arsenic compounds used in treating nearby orchards against insects could have been blown onto the grass Phar Lap was pastured on. The horse's death could well have been accidental.

Meanwhile, Phar Lap became more confirmed as an Australian and New Zealand icon. Like many icons, the reverence accorded probably seems illogical to one not raised with it - after all, who would believe that the death of a horse 76 years ago would be regarded as news? Mind you, the winning of an American race by an Australasian horse was then a remarkable achievement, perhaps surpassed in significance only by the Australian team winning the America's Cup yachting tournament in 1983 and becoming the first non-American team to take the Cup since its inauguration 132 years previously. The position of Phar Lap in Australasian popular culture has also been reinforced by the nature of his history - foaled in New Zealand, rose to success in Australia - which has led to his becoming a focus of the trans-Tasman rivalry, like Crowded House and the pavlova, as both sides stake their claims. Indeed, perhaps no better symbol of this rivalry can be seen than the fate of Phar Lap's remains - while his hide is on display in Melbourne and his heart is in Canberra, his skeleton is one of the most popular exhibits at Te Papa Tongarewa in New Zealand.

Blog Action Day - What Have We Lost?

Today is Blog Action Day. Thousands of blogs around the world are going to be commenting on a single issue, and this year's issue is the environment. Hardly surprising - the environment is rather a hot topic at the moment. Indeed, for perhaps the first time in history, the environment is practically overshadowing the economy as a deciding issue in the upcoming national elections here in Australia.

The concept of environmental awareness (at least in the modern sense) is actually a relatively recent one. There was a time when the world's resources seemed almost inexhaustible. Expectations were that production would rise ever higher as more and more of the world was turned over the cultivation, while "unproductive" ecotypes such as prairie and wetland would be drained, fertilised, and pressed into human service. Those who suggested forbearance were little heeded, with their warnings of future impacts usually dismissed as so much scare-mongering. It is only in more recent years that we have realised just how much effect the loss of these "wastelands" can have on our own livelihoods.

To fall back on Dicken's over-quoted opening to the Tale of Two Cities, we are currently in what are, environmentally speaking, the best and the worst of times. The cumulative effect of centuries of human impact means that we are perhaps the first generation in whose time the result of that impact has become obvious. Talk to someone of your grandparents' generation with experience in the fishing industry, and they will tell you of vast catches of fish pulled up in minutes in areas were searching for days will bring up a tiny fraction of the catch. Seafood catches such as crayfish and squid that are now widely sought were once tossed overboard as bycatch, thought only suitable for use as burley or bait. As one character says early in Frank Herbert's Dune, "We were living in a paradise for our species and didn't know it".

A number of years ago, my family went fishing for the day at the Poor Knights Islands in New Zealand. At the time, half the islands were a marine reserve, while the other half were open to recreational fishing (the reserve has since been enlarged to cover the entire area). In the area where we were sitting, just outside the reserve, the abundance of fish was something I had never seen before. Any line put down got a bite in a matter of seconds. Bits of bait tossed over the side barely even hit the water before being swallowed. Just think - once, almost the entire ocean was like this. There is a British TV programme hosted by the guy that used to be Baldrick called The Worst Jobs in History - in one episode, an explanation was given of how the Vikings used to transport ships across land barriers, rolling them across logs greased with the fat from fish. Think on how much fish that would have required, and how much must have been available to be considered for use in that manner.

We hear accounts of flocks of birds so large that they blotted out the sun. "If you simply closed your eyes and threw your spear, why, there would be something good to eat on the end of it", as someone says in Neil Gaiman's The Doll's House. Alexander Wilson observed a flight of passenger pigeons in Kentucky in 1806 for which he wrote: "If we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been much more) and that it moved at the rate of one mile a minute; four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again supposing that each square yard of this moving body comprehended three pigeons, the square yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would give two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons!" (Fisher & Peterson, 1964 - italics mine). Let me repeat that - roughly two and a quarter billion birds in a single flock!

And yet, it is precisely the loss of this abundance that has allowed the environmental movement to gain the force it has today. Those concerned with preserving the environment are no longer the lone voice of Elijah crying in the wilderness, they are - or should be - all of us who wish to live our lives able to see the beauty of the world that surrounds us. Genesis claims that God gave dominion over the world to Man - therefore, the preservation of the world is man's responsibility.

If I may end on a slightly lighter note, I recently overheard a conversation that seemed to sum up all the difficulties of achieving a balance between our modern lifestyles and preserving the world around us:

PERSON 1: "You know, if it weren't for the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, we wouldn't have all these problems - no pollution, no global warming..."

PERSON 2: "Yeah, but we'd be living surrounded by pig shit".

REFERENCES

Fisher, J., & T. T. Peterson. 1964. The World of Birds: A comprehensie guide to general ornithology. Macdonald: London.