Thread by @raywilton4

“Stripped bare: Australia's hidden climate crisis. The old easement to Fitzgerald’s cottage across the sprawling Beefwood property has been planted over with crops.” theguardian.com/environment/ng…

“His letterbox has mysteriously disappeared on several occasions, making it hard for visitors to spot the entrance to his farm. But it is the extent of land clearing by his neighbour, Beefwood’s owner, Gerardus Kurstjens, that has upset him the most.”

“Fitzgerald says the microclimate of the nearby Welbon plains has moved a kilometre further on to his property since losing a tree line on Kurstjens’ property that once sheltered his land.”

“Pockets of remaining vegetation have been ripped from the grey soil to expand cultivation and square up paddocks – and the first Fitzgerald knows of it is when the bulldozers arrive.”

“Clearing vegetation has potential to add millions to a property’s value, as well as yielding high returns in a good year.
That alone enough for farmers to risk $1m in fines for illegally clearing, according to 1 former NSW Office of Environment & Heritage compliance officer”

“But while land clearing might benefit individual farmers in the short term, the loss of native vegetation comes with enormous costs for the rest of us.”

“Australia is among the 11 worst countries when it comes to deforestation, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Queensland has the highest clearing rate but NSW is rapidly becoming a hotspot.”

“Land clearance & degradation 1 of the greatest crises facing Aust & the world,” says Bill Hare, chief executive & senior scientist with Berlin-based Climate Analytics. “

“It undermines the basis for food production, is causing species loss and ecological decline, destroys climate resilience, degrades water resources and reverses carbon storage on the land.”

“Pollution from land clearing is projected by the federal government to remain at about 46m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year to 2030, roughly equivalent to emissions from three large coal-fired power plants.”

“The rate at which we are clearing land in Australia is almost immediately wiping out gains being made under tax-payer funded schemes to address climate change.

Australia is among the 11 worst countries when it comes to deforestation, according to the World Wildlife Fund.”

“Queensland, with its vast swathes of untouched land on Cape York, has the highest clearing rate, but NSW is rapidly becoming a hotspot – and there is less to lose, with only 9% of the state’s vegetation in its original state.”

“What is becoming clear is that successive NSW governments have failed to explain the science behind preserving native vegetation – both in relation to climate change and protecting the landscape and endangered species – to farmers and the public.”

“visit to north-west NSW an eye-opener. From black soil plains of Tamworth west to Bourke & Cobar & north to border with Qld there’s been an epidemic of clearing,”

“as farmers indulge in a kind of arms race to convert remnant bushland into acreage suitable for cropping: wheat, soyabeans, chickpeas and cotton.

But increasingly the question must be asked: is this viable country for large-scale crop farming?”

“I’ve sat in meetings where arguments have been put that driving a tractor around a tree is a significant cost in diesel for farmers,” Walmsley says.”

“There’s no valuation of the ecosystem services these trees provide: clean water, clean air, healthy soils and hosting pollinators. There’s no dollar value put on vegetation.”

“With that we have seen a ruthlessness with the landscape that we hadn’t seen before. Our ecology has just collapsed and with it has come a loss of a sense of community.”

“Anderson says her friends attended a meeting on the native vegetation laws where one farmer stood up and said: “It’s our land, we can do what we want” – to loud applause.

Getting farmers in the region to go on the record is difficult. Both sides fear reprisals.”

“The scientists working in the area are also fearful.

One talks about how her kids have to live in the community, how she needs to keep working for the state government, and how she has received death threats. So, sorry, she can’t go on the record.”