\'Crocodile Hunter\' Steve Irwin killed

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

As for semantics, I never heard of Bob Brown. In fact I can't name any environmentalists, though I follow the news daily.

Bob Brown is an Australian Senator who got his political start leading the campaign to stop the building of a hydro-electric dam on the Franklin River in the south-west wilderness area of Tasmania. He argued that not only would preventing the flooding of the Frankling and Gordon valleys save one of the natural wonders of the world in the heart of one of the last major tracts of untouched wilderness on Earth (which is also the home of several unique and endangered species) but it would also create more wealth through eco-tourism than the handful of jobs the dam would have provided.

He was proved right. The towns in that area were dying economically. Now they are booming.

I think Steve Irwin did infinitely more practical good for raising awareness of the intrinsic value of wildlife than any politician or environmental lobbyist.

And full credit for him for that. The paradox I was pointing out was that, while he was doing this, he was also supporting certain political leaders whose policies are directly responsible for the habitat destruction that led to him having to preserve that endangered wildlife in the first place.

You have to experience and know something to appreciate it, value it and want to save it. Someone can lecture me all day long that the Great Barrier Reef is worth preserving, but until I experience its beauty for myself, I won't necessarily believe. Steve didn't just tell us, he showed us -- and he brought millions of otherwise ignorant people to places worth saving, like the outback and the GBR.

So it will be ironic if the Great Barrier Reef dies by 2050 as a result of coral bleaching caused by Global Warming. Just last week it was revealed that Prime Minister John Howard - who Steve Irwin enthusiastically declared 'the best Prime Minister Australia has ever had' - deliberately suppressed a government commissioned report on the potential impact of climate change because it didn't suit his cosy relationship with the coal mining industry. 'Crikey!'