Failure to protect nature is a bigger threat to humanity than inflation, Australian scientists warn

Tasmanian Devils remain listed as endangered. Australian scientists say the federal government’s funding to halt environmental decline is ‘grossly inadequate’. Photograph: Aussie Ark

Leading Australian scientists have accused the Albanese government of offering “grossly inadequate” funding to stop environmental decline, and warned that failing to protect nature would lead to “an existential threat greater than inflation”.

The Biodiversity Council, an independent research hub, said the limited funding for environment programs announced this week suggested that environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s promised target of ending species extinctions in the country was “still hollow”.