From the Editor

WELCOME TO a new year and a new decade. As we put the finishing touches to this edition of Australian Geographic, outside my window the sun appears as an unearthly rosegold orb in an eerie ashen sky as bushfires rage across New South Wales shrouding Sydney in dense smoke.

It’s not the first time this extent and intensity of bushfires has gripped the country, but it’s barely summer and the crisis has already been unfolding for weeks.

In early November 2019, the Australian Geographic Society donated $50,000, on behalf of our members, to a raft of volunteer and not-for-profit organisations dedicated to bushfire-affected wildlife relief and rehabilitation. It’s these kinds of grass roots organisations that lie at the heart of our nation’s current response to climate change.

At AG we support many such organisations through the Society’s direct funding program and by publicising individuals and organisations engaged in this sort of work in the pages of the magazine and via our many other channels, as well as at our respected annual awards.

In this edition we bear witness to how smart collaborations can achieve landscape scale conservation outcomes. In the biodiversity hotspot of southwest Western Australia, the Gondwana Link program (page 92) unites national environmental organisations, farmers, traditional custodians, landowners, private philanthropy, communities and even tourists. Between them they throw an ambitious veil of protection over what is a vast and varied region of the country. It’s the ability of smaller organisations and individuals to tackle big problems that makes this program so fascinating and sets it as an example worth following.

Even our nation’s highest accolade, the Australian of the Year (page 48), formally acknowledges the urgent need to seek innovative solutions to a range of big environmental pressures by exploring less traditional pathways. These types of bottom-up efforts may be measured against a perceived lack of cohesive top-down responses both nationally and globally to climate change and other threats.

In contrast was the reaction to the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer back in the mid-1980s (page 18). This scientific discovery and the identification of its causes sparked swift and coordinated action at the highest levels of international government and business.The resulting Montreal Protocol, signed by 197 countries, is still seen as the most successful environmental agreement ever, and, as the ozone hole continues to shrink, offers hope for a way forward on the increasingly complex battleground of climate change action.

You may have noticed that your local Australian Geographic shop changed its name recently to Curious Planet.

By way of explanation, these shops had used the “Australian Geographic” name under licence from the Australian Geographic company, which is the publisher of this magazine, all the other Australian Geographic media products you see and also operates the Australian Geographic Society charity.

The media company and the Society have no relationship with Curious Planet and its retail business.We understand some of our members are experiencing issues with Curious Planet and regret this, but because it is a distinct and separate business there is little we can do.We apologise if these changes to the shops have caused any inconvenience to our valued members. If you have any queries, please contact us on editorial@ausgeo.com.au