As climate change inflicts its greatest and most visible impact on Australia with deadly floods lashing Queensland and New South Wales, a new study from a respected research institution says Australia’s environment is… in good shape and getting better. What?
The Australian National University’s report found the nation’s environment health during 2021 scored 6.9 out of 10, up from 3 in 2020. Much of this was down to high levels of rainfall late last year and increased tree cover, plant growth and leaf area.
But many indicators, including the amount of biomass burnt — down by 51% — come after years of climate devastation. There’s also been a 1% increase in the hole in the ozone layer, a 0.09-degree increase in ocean temperature, an 11% increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 and an 18% increase in the number of threatened species from 2000-20 average conditions.
Both the ANU’s media release and an overwhelmingly positive news story in The Australian highlight the positive aspects of the report, but leave out any mention of the ozone layer, ocean temperature and “fragile” recovery of coral after mass bleachings — not to mention the recent deadly floods in Queensland and NSW.
Despite an overall better environmental score, the report says Australia is still “not a good news story”, flagging we’re not on the right trajectory to celebrate.
The report’s findings
Although our environmental condition score is much improved on the result for 2020, the scores for 2019 and 2020 were the lowest for the past decade. Australia’s highest environmental score since 2000 was reached in 2011 — a score above 9.5.
The rankings take into account soil moisture, rainfall, the amount of biomass burnt, population and mean temperature. So what does the data say? Compared with 2000-20 averages, there has been:
The good
- 10% increase in rainfall
- 51% reduction in burnt biomass
- 0.17-degree reduction in mean temperature
- 12% reduction in days over 35 degrees
- 29% increase in river flows
- 17% increase in plant growth, 7% increase in tree cover, 8% increase in soil moisture and 7% increase in leaf areas
- 1.9% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions — but still among the highest in the world per person.
The bad
- 1% increase in the ozone hole
- 0.09-degree increase in ocean temperatures — the sixth-warmest on record
- 16% increase in population
- 9% reduction in wetlands
- 3% reduction in soil protection
- 18% increase in the number of threatened species; 105 species declared extinct.
La Niña’s effects
A lot of the good news has been down to heavy rainfall caused by La Niña. The report’s lead author, Professor Albert Van Dijk, says in Australia heavy rains were overwhelmingly a good thing.
“For Australia’s environment rain is generally good news — there’s a conversation around whether you can actually have too much water,” he said.
Although floods have been deadly and devastating for communities across NSW and Queensland, and can cause soil erosion and sediment to wash into rivers and coral systems, Van Dijk says after a year of fires it benefited the environment.
And although there were no mass coral bleachings in 2021, he stressed there might be one this year and it was difficult to measure the full impact of decreasing biodiversity. The report showed Australia had a good year but is not on a good trajectory.
“Climate change keeps happening,” Van Dijk said. “Degradation of our ecosystem keeps happening. And all these feral invasive species that are killing off our native species … the underlying problems still exist.
“It’s more like a patient with a good day but the patient still keeps getting sick. It’s not a good news story in the long term — it’s just because it was a relatively cold, wet year that it was not as bad as the previous.”
A positive step, but temporary
Deakin University ecologist Euan Ritchie found the commentary surrounding the report “odd”, painting a picture that Australia was doing really well — which simply isn’t the case.
“Especially for threatened species, the picture is very grim and trending absolutely the wrong way,” he said, adding increased ocean temperatures and Great Barrier Reef bleaching was a massive concern.
“There’s plenty of empirical evidence out there to suggest that things aren’t going anywhere near as good as we would like.”
When it comes to floods, the effects they have on biodiversity and species extinction aren’t clear; many animals could benefit from increased river flows, but many don’t survive, become displaced or struggle to find water. Water contamination is also a big worry.
“The rainfall is genuinely welcome, but that’s only a small part of the picture with the environment,” Ritchie said. “There needs to be more acknowledgment of the other issues.”
