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According to the official five-year scorecard on the state of the environment, Australia has suffered catastrophic losses of wildlife and habitat with scientists pleading with the government to ramp up protections to halt the escalating rate of extinction.
More than 80 per cent of Australia’s nearly 400 mammal species, from furry greater gliders that fly across treetops to egg-laying, poisonous platypus, are found nowhere else.
Already, 39 mammal species have disappeared since colonisation, representing 38 per cent of the world’s mammal population.
Since 2016, when the previous State of the Environment was released, 17 mammal species were either added to the endangered list or upgraded to the critically endangered list, as well as 17 birds and 19 frogs.
Today on Please Explain, climate and energy correspondent Mike Foley joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the threat to Australian wildlife. Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. |