4 November 2008
Environmental Triage
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The term Triage is usually associated with emergency medicine - there's a major accident with a lot of people injured. Medicos systematically assess the severity of each one's condition, and organize their treatment according to a set of priorities. The idea being that with an effective system, you can save as many lives as possible. But triage is increasingly being applied in conservation to decide what species should be protected and what management systems should be adopted for threatened eco systems. And in Australia there's a lot to choose from. The WWF's Living Planet Report says we have the fifth largest ecological footprint per capita in the world, one in five Australian mammals is in danger of dying out - the highest of any developed country. So could triage be a useful guide in deciding how best to manage the environment and its diversity? Or will competing interests, like economic, emotional and political factors, affect our priorities for future environmental management and species protection?
Guests
Hamish McCallum.
Professor of wildlife research, University of Tasmania
Ann Henderson-Sellers
Former director of the World Climate Research Program, research fellow in the Department of Geography at Macquarie University
Hugh Possingham
Director of the Ecology Centre, Queensland University
David Pannell
Professor, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia
Further Information
Ecology Centre, Queensland University
Murray Darling Basin Commission
Professor Ann Henderson-Sellers
Presenter
Paul Barclay
Story Researcher and Producer
Debra McCoy
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