Australia will create a wildlife corridor spanning the continent to allow animals and plants to flee the effects of global warming, scientists said on Monday.
The 2,800-kilometer (1,740 mile) climate “spine” will link the country’s entire east coast, from the snow-capped Australian alps in the south to the tropical north. This distance is almost equal from London to Romania.
The corridor, under discussion since the 1990s as the argument in support of climate change strengthened, will link national parks, state forests and government land, and help preserve scores of endangered species.
The creation of the corridor was agreed by state and federal governments this year amid international warnings that the country — already the world’s driest inhabited continent — is suffering from an accelerated Greenhouse effect. Climate scientists have predicted temperatures rising by up to 6.7 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080 in the country’s vast outback interior. A 10-year drought is expected to slash one percent from the A$940 billion (US$803 billion) economy. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology last year said climate change was occurring so fast in Australia that cooler southern towns were moving to the warmer north at the rate of 100 kilometres each year.
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