Australia

From Envirowiki

Australia is the large landmass between southeast asia and antartica. It's a single nation, in white man terms, but is also home to many hundreds of groups of indigenous australians. it's often called the world's biggest island, or the smallest continent, and is home to hundreds of species of animals unique to the land mass.

[edit] Politics

Australia is becoming world renowned for it's Bush Administration-supporting, pro-war, anti-refugee, anti-indigenous, economic rationalist politics. the Howard government, the incumbent government of Australia for the last 10 years or so (since 1996), is a far-right administration, and is anti- nearly everything that any left/enviro/social jsutice groups stand for. It is pro Big Business, and all for the quick buck. Many members of it's government are influenced by far-right christian groups, such as the hillsong church, and as such the majority of them are anti-abortion, and anti-queer marriage.

[edit] Environmental record

australia has the highest per capita greenhouse emissions of any country at 27.2 tonnes CO₂ equivalent per person per annum^[1], although the Pew report has australia ranked at #5, at 6.8 tonnes of carbon-equivalent per person per year^[2]

In 2005, Australia exported 5,915 trillion Btu of thermal and coking coal^[3], more than any other country, (the next closest is Indonesia at 2,846 trillion btu). This was over a quarter of the world's annual exports.

see also: Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Australian Greenhouse Office.

[edit] Geography

mostly desert, except for the densley populated eastern seaboard, whch was once covered with rainforest and woodlands.

[edit] Resources

Australia has around 40% of the world's usable Uranium deposits^{[reference needed]}.

[edit] Sources

1. ↑ Greenhouse gas emissions in industrialised countries - Where does Australia stand? p.5, The Australia Institute
2. ↑ CLIMATE DATA: INSIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS, by Kevin Baumert Jonathan Pershing, Pew Center on Global Climate Change
3. ↑ World Coal Supply and Disposition, 2005, Energy Information Administration, September 17, 2007