Oct 6, 2022
Australia promised to dedicate at least 30% of its land and $224.5 million to protecting its threatened and endangered species over the next 10 years. It’s the largest conservation effort in the country’s history.
The “Zero Extinctions” action plan names 110 Australian plants and animals for protection. It also names 20 habitats for preservation. And it assigns 124,000 acres of land for governmental oversight.
“These are the strongest targets we’ve ever seen.” That's according to a government expert. “I will not ... accept environmental decline and extinction as inevitable,” she said.
The plan also adds 15 new species to the endangered or threatened list.
Australia’s unique wildlife has been hard-hit in recent years. Climate change fueled wildfires in 2019 and 2020. They became known as “The Black Summer” fires. In total, they killed or displaced about 3 billion animals.
Experts know that their goals will be tough to achieve. According to a nature program manager, the plan is key "if future generations of Australians are to see animals like koalas” in the wild.
Hidden Messages: Learning About Our Changing Ocean Through Coral Clues
This multi-day hands-on lesson will teach students about ocean acidification and its impact on coral reefs, helping them understand why most coral reefs are in danger of going extinct.
That Time Oxygen Almost Killed Everything
This informative and visually striking video thoroughly explains the role that photosynthetic microbes played in changing Earth's early atmosphere and oceans, from green oceans to red oceans and then global glaciations and extinctions.
Extinction
This resource discusses what it means for a species to go extinct, how species evolve over time, and why many species on Earth are going extinct at increasingly faster rates.