Australia’s unique wildlife is being devastated by bushfires, drought, habitat loss and global warming, a government report said Tuesday, warning that more species are headed for extinction. The five-yearly State of the Environment report prompted calls for dramatic action to reverse the “poor and deteriorating” state of flora and fauna depicted by scientists on land and at sea. The damage is being hastened by a climate that has warmed Australia’s average land temperature by 1.4 degrees Celsius since the early 20th century, the report said. An undated handout photo received on May 30, 2016, shows dead coral in shallow waters at Cygnet Bay in Western Australia. Photo: AFP / James Cook University / Chris Cornwall A failure to manage the pressures “will continue to result in species extinctions,” scientists warned in the report. Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said it was a “shocking document”. “If we continue on the trajectory that we are on now, we will see more threatened species, we will see drier rivers, we will see degraded landscape, we will see reefs dying,” she told journalists. “The path we are on is not sustainable.” Plibersek, a member of the...
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