OUR ENVIRONMENT

Who will protect the fragile & intricate web of life?

This page highlights some of the work WA Rangers carry out with regard to protecting the environment at a local level.  We wish at first, to bring attention to a far more profound global situation.  We encourage all visitors to this page to pause and give serious thought to the pollution and resulting "Climate Change" through "Global Warming" our Earth now endures.

Is our home, planet Earth overheating and changing from the beautiful blue we know, to a charred brown.

Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming & Climate Change

These are terms we hear every day now and the warnings are there!

Is Global Warming some conspiratorial hoax, crank science or an excellent script for some new science fiction movie.

None of the above!  Global warming is the real deal and deal with it we must or possibly perish!

What is the problem?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is gas released by cars, factories and other human activities.  The gas traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, which warms the planet. This heat from Earth is trapped in the atmosphere due to high levels of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.  This along with other heat trapping gases, prevent the releasing of heat into space creating a phenomenon known as the “greenhouse effect”.  Trees remove (sequester) CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis to form carbohydrates that are used in plant structure / function and return oxygen back to the atmosphere as a byproduct.  About half the greenhouse effect, is caused by CO2.  Trees therefore act as a carbon sink by removing the carbon and storing it as cellulose in their trunks, branches, leaves and roots while releasing oxygen back into the air.  Rain forests commonly called the lungs of the World, are being ripped from the ground at an alarming rated through the logging industry in different areas.

The “Anthropogenic Signal” – the visible signs of human activity and influence on the climate, has now emerged as a fact!  Global temperatures continue to rise with 11 of the 12 warmest years since 1850 occurring since 1995.  The warmest 12 month period in 348 years was recorded as at 7^th February 2007 in the UK.  It is virtually certain that human activity has played the dominant role in causing greenhouse gases over the past 250 years. 

The World’s scientists now say climate change is worse than they thought and we are now on a final warning!  A draft copy of the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that global temperature rises this century of between 2C and 4.5C are almost inevitable.  A warmer World is increasing evaporation from the oceans causing atmospheric concentrations of water vapour, a powerful greenhouse agent, to have increased by 4 per cent over the sea since 1970.  Water vapour in the atmosphere exacerbates the greenhouse effect.

Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes and hurricanes.  Other effects include higher or lower agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows and species extinction.  As a further effect of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier.

There is no doubt that our continually burning of fossil fuels is to blame for the situation.  In their studies, all the climate models used by the IPCC also found that rising global temperatures will erode the planet’s natural ability to absorb man-made CO2.

Another fact we must consider is the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.  The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single ice sheet on Earth and the Greenland ice sheet occupies about 82% of the surface of Greenland, and if melted would cause sea levels to rise by 7.2 metres.  The Greenland ice sheet has experienced record melting in recent years.  Apart from this, climbing temperatures are causing large areas of the Earth to become uninhabitable.

To the writing of words on this subject, there is no end.  We as Rangers and as the WA Rangers Association can do very little if anything at all to rectify this serious situation.  We can though, encourage people we meet, including school children to take a more responsible attitude through education programmes in the community.

The burning of fossil fuels is choking the atmosphere with carbon dioxide (CO2) causing heat to be trapped and the "Greenhouse Effect".

Cars, trains, aircraft contrails and factories are some of the human activities contributing to this problem.  We must change!

Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes and hurricanes.  These are events Rangers do become involved with due to our activities with emergency management and caring for the parks and reserves within our jurisdiction.

Rangers work hard to protect the environment by enforcing laws and conducting education programmes.  General littering, illegal rubbish dumping, graffiti and other anti social issues are a daily part of our general enforcement management.

As important as these issues are, they can be cleaned up or rectified but are hardly a threat to the Earth and the future of mankind.

We believe the time for rhetoric on the subject of global warming is at an end.  If we have not yet passed the point of "no return", World governments and the United Nations must now take serious action to reverse this global threat to the planet and our very future!

Who will protect the fragile & intricate web of life?

Who will care for "Mother Earth"?

WARA are happy to highlight companies we feel are contributing to environmental solutions.

WA Rangers are committed to environmental issues and will continue to assist and support other agencies in its protection.

Should you require information on matters relating to the environment, call your local Council or Ranger, they will be pleased to assist or at least signpost you in the right direction to obtain assistance from other departments.