Global warming, threats to whale protection and increased talk of uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps were some of the issues highlighted by 17 green groups on World Environment Day, Sunday June 5.

“We are united as the voice of the millions of Australians who care about the future of the planet and its people,” said the group, which included Greenpeace, The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth Australia, and conservation councils throughout Australia.

“We speak for those that cannot speak—the oceans and atmosphere, for the land, plants and animals, and for future generations. We will not be silenced.”
“On one hand the impacts of global warming are gathering pace and the hard-won victories of whale protection are under attack,” said Danny Kennedy, Greenpeace Campaigns Manager.

“On the upside there has also been some progress on protecting our priceless forests in Tasmania and NSW,” said Andrew Ricketts of Environment Tasmania.

“The 2004 federal election showed historic levels of public concern and support for the environment, and even those governments with a poor track record have been forced to deliver some improvements,” noted The Wilderness Society’s National Campaigns Director Alec Marr.

The annual World Environment Day is one of the principal ways the United Nations raises worldwide awareness of environmental issues and enhances political attention and action.

To mark this year’s event, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released an atlas of satellite pictures which graphically display the environmental changes which have swept the earth in the last few decades.

The “One Planet Many People” Atlas shows widespread rainforest deforestation in South America, forest fires across sub-Saharan Africa, rapid oil and gas development in Wyoming, United States, and the retreat of polar icecaps.

The atlas also contains some fascinating anomalies, such as an animal-like head at the mouth of China’s Yellow River which has formed due to increased sedimentation, and dots of lush green in Saudi Arabia’s barren Wadi As-Sirhan region due to the introduction of high-tech irrigation techniques.

“The classic environmental catchphrase has been ‘think globally, act locally’”, said opposition Environment Minister Anthony Albanese. “Every industrialised country, except Australia and the US has ratified the Kyoto Protocol…The extended four-year drought gripping Australia is the most dramatic example of climate change to hit our nation.”