Gorbachev urges Aussies to save planet

FORMER Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has urged Australians to change their attitudes about the environment or risk the future of the planet.
     
      In Brisbane for the Earth Dialogues forum, Mr Gorbachev said 60 per cent of the world's environmental systems had been undermined by inappropriate attitudes towards nature by human beings.
      "Even if we make every effort, many ecosystems cannot be restored to health," he said through an interpreter.
      "This is a very severe problem. I very much would like you to enjoy nature, to enjoy the environment that surrounds us but you have to be very careful, you have to be very prudent."
      A draft plan of action released by participants of Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006, including Mr Gorbachev, called for every person to become an environment activist.
      Concerned citizens should call on their governments to transfer resources away from military expenditure towards areas such as environmental protection, reducing poverty, education and tackling infectious diseases, the delegates said in their resolutions.
      The conference also called for all scientists, including those funded by governments, to be free to carry out research and report to the public without political control.
      Mr Gorbachev and his fellow delegates said the key to saving the environment lay in education.
      They also warned that poverty, human rights violations and a sense of powerlessness among the public were major obstacles to the sustainable human development and the achievement of lasting peace.
      They called for more action to address to such problems.
      At a local level, city councils should put ordinary residents at the centre of urban design and planning, and make cities more pedestrian-friendly, inclusive, equitable and respectful of biodiversity.
      The conference also found that solutions to the water crisis that is facing many cities would be reached only through a combination of measures, including: supply and demand management; recycling and re-use; water harvesting; elimination of wasteful consumption; and more sustainable pricing mechanisms.
      Mr Gorbachev also expressed alarm at Australia's dwindling koala population during a private visit to Brisbane's Lone Pine Sanctuary.
      Mr Gorbachev spent 90 minutes at the animal sanctuary with daughter Irina, taking a particular interest in the koalas and their babies.
      Although he was initially reluctant to cuddle a koala, the 75-year-old was eventually won over by 33-month-old Hazel, posing with her for the cameras and talking to her in Russian.
      Lone Pine senior wildlife officer Karen Nilsson, who accompanied Mr Gorbachev on his visit, said he was particularly concerned when she told him only 100,000 koalas were left in the wild.
      Australian Koala Foundation chief executive officer Deborah Tabart said she was delighted to have Mr Gorbachev on board in the fight to save the national emblem.
      "It's a great thrill to me that he felt so strongly about it," Ms Tabart said.
      "I think that people around the world understand how important koalas are. They're an iconic species like pandas and whales. Sometimes I think Australians take koalas for granted."
      Ms Tabart said southeast Queensland's koala population had dropped to around 10,000 with an estimated 2000 to 3000 being killed by cars or dogs in the past year.
      "There's not going to be any koalas in southeast Queensland in the next 10 years unless we do something dramatic," she said.
      "They're very vulnerable. They're a bit like a barometer of the health of the environment.
      "When you get large numbers of dead koalas, it usually means that you've got highly fragmented habitats.
      "We've been saying this for such a long time but you can never be a prophet in your own land.
      "To have someone of Mr Gorbachev's statute express exactly what we're saying is wonderful. I just hope that it resonates in the hallowed halls of government."
      Ms Tabart said her experience of government scientists was they were generally gagged from speaking out about unfavourable findings.
      "We are the largest funding body of koala science in Australia. But for our complete independence, none of this science would get out," she said.
      Key points Mr Gorbachev made during the Earth Dialogues
•       Everyone needs to be an activist
•       Education results in informed policy
•       Scientists must be free of political control
•       Poverty is an obstacle to saving the environment
•       Money should be shifted from the military to the environment
•       More pedestrian-friendly, inclusive cities
•       The solution to the water crisis will be found in multiple methods

The Sunday Mail, July 25, 2006