Tag: lino print

Palm cockatoos in Cape York Peninsula Australia

When sea levels rose to the current levels, the New Guinea Palm cockatoo population was split away from the Northern Australian population, a subspecies.

While Palm cockatoo numbers in New Guinea are still relatively high (although in decline), the Australian sub species population (Probosciger aterrimus macgillivrayi) is endangered with a high estimate of 2500-3000 remaining (as of 2022).

Palm cockatoos are the only bird known to make and play a musical instrument. He makes his own drumstick by stripping off the bark and whittling it down. He then bangs it against a hollow in a rhythmical pattern as a sexual display.

See interview and footage of Palm cockatoos with expert, Robert Heinsohn from the Australian National University on Youtube BBC here.

The standard threats apply to Palm Cockatoos – mining, habitat loss, climate change, illegal pet trade and fire. (With only one successful offspring every 10 years)

Current conservation status and recovery plan

Below is an excerpt taken from:

Ecotone Flora Fauna Consultants 2022-1057 Rep01, Rev04

Ecological Report for Palm Cockatoo Habitat Survey 2022

Aurukun Bauxite Project, 22 March 2023 which is found in full here

This upgrading of status in Queensland is supported by a recent Population Viability Analysis (PVA) for the Australian subspecies of Palm Cockatoo, which estimates there are fewer than 2,500 individuals remaining in Australia at a best-case scenario (Keighley et al. 2021). Given the species’ endemicity to Queensland, it is likely the listing under the Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act will reflect this change in due course. Population instability is affected by slow life history characteristics, low breeding success, geographic and ecological barriers to dispersal and a sensitivity to habitat disturbance.

The Palm Cockatoo is categorised as both a Matter of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and a Matter of State Environmental Significance (MSES). Habitat critical to the survival of the species (in accordance with Commonwealth Significant Impact Guidelines) is not defined by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water (DCCEEW); however, MNES potential habitat mapping for this species encompasses all riparian and Eucalypt woodland forest communities over the Project Site (DCCEEW 2023).

There is currently no national Recovery Plan for Probosciger aterrimus macgillivrayi, although the DCCEEW ‘Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032’ (2022) include the development of such documents as one of their targets. It has been suggested that the current approved conservation advice provides sufficient direction for actions to be implemented, mitigating against further threat or impact to this subspecies (Threatened Species Scientific Committee 2015). The Primary Conservation Action includes implementing fire management regimes to protect tree hollows and ensuring impacts from mining activity do not further reduce the amount of available breeding and foraging habitat (Threatened Species Scientific Committee 2015).

How can you help?

Write! Ask the federal Labour Environment Minister Murray Watt (known for approving developments) who replaced Tanya Plibersek because of pressure from Western Australia (source View from the Hill The Conversation here )

Write to a politician:

Senator the Hon Murray Watt

Minister for the Environment and Water

https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/watt/contact

Endangered Emu-wrens and the South Australian rocket launching site

“Southern Launch has previously assured the general public that there would be minimal disturbance to birdlife beyond a “startled response”, where birds left the area during launch noises but returned soon afterwards.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-29/eyre-peninsula-rocket-launch-gets-tanya-plibersek-approval/104503048

This style of minimising the harm is typical of an impact assessment, where proponents make the case for development. In reality these sensitive, shy birds will most likely leave their nests and not find their way back in time to keep their eggs viable.

During nesting season at night when the endangered emu-wrens are sleeping, if they leave their nests and eggs, what is the likelihood of them flying back in the dark?

Page 111 of the Assessment report explains how frequently these terrifying launch noises may occur.

Rocket launches can occur every 24 hours during nesting season at night while the birds are sleeping.

The proposal has the potential to disturb fauna, nearby residents and visitors to the locality through the creation of noise and vibration impacts during construction and operation. In particular, each rocket launch event would produce a moderate level of operational noise over several weeks and a high level of noise for a very brief period during the launch itself. Noise impacts from rocket testing would also occur over a brief period. Vibration effects during a launch would be confined to within the launch pad. At the maximum operating scenario, the proposed facility will host in the vicinity of 36 yearly launches (one every 2-3 weeks on average), with a rocket launched at any time over a 24-hour period.

https://plan.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1423357/Assessment-Report-Whalers-Way-Orbital-Launch-Complex.pdf

The same article mentioned above by the ABC claims:

“Conservationists are concerned the launches will endanger 12 bird species, including the endangered southern emu wren, whose population stands at fewer than 750. “

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-29/eyre-peninsula-rocket-launch-gets-tanya-plibersek-approval/104503048

My question for Tanya Plibersek, the federal environment minister who approved this project, have you ever observed birds startle at night? And do you sincerely believe these birds would find their way to their safe perches and nests every time?

Mallee emu-wren Lino and woodblock print by Joanna Bradley

Regent Honeyeater

Regent Honeyeater

Anthochaera phrygia

Endemic to southeastern Australia.

Critically Endangered.

Migrates in flocks following nectar flow in ironbark woodland.

Major threat – land clearing.

Warragamba Dam Raising Project Offset* prices exceeded capacity for government to pay. Solution; reclassify flooding of honeyeater habitat as a temporary impact

•Offsets are deals done to allow for Destruction of the environment

As of 10th July 2023 the species credit price for Regent Honeyeater is $4,308.00.

Hand carved & printed on Japanese washi

USA et

Forestry offsets described at http://www.fsc.org

Double Dagger †† Art

† The dagger is a typographical symbol denoting a secondary footnote or extinction of a species

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Green Island Ono Tadashige tribute

Ume – Sea by Ono Tadashige 1959

36 Views of Green Island No. 29 RED Green Island

Tadashige Ono was born in 1909 near the end of the Meiji era; four decades of industrialisation and military expansion under the imperial eye of the emperor. Japanese military victory over China on the Korean Peninsula led to the Chinese revolution of 1911, overturning 2000 years of monarchy with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Other revolutions in Russia and Germany saw the rise of more REDS.

Communist posters and pamphlets were illustrated with proletarian art, seemingly carved from wood with a pen knife. Woodblock art, historically dismissed as plebeian, was now authentically primitive. The young Ono entering art school was energetically criticising industrial development and capitalism, while leading fellow artists to mount group exhibitions and publish magazines. His early black and white work was crowded with figures; at work, on strike, partying. He produced a 50-page graphic novel illustrating “the death of three generations”, a pregnant mother is seen pushing a coal cart, then dying while giving birth in the mine. As his work became more colourful Ono depicted landscapes and village life; cats and birds predominate as silent witnesses while the people go about their daily lives. Scenic views of Japan and abroad combine with comments on pollution, wreckage and warfare. Ono was a respected scholar of prints and a bold innovator. He developed a technique enabling multicoloured prints to be made from a single block.

Champion of the Japanese print tradition, which had always produced affordable art for the masses, he worked in universities teaching the history of prints and passing on printmaking skills. Always producing prints at incredible speed, Qno encouraged others to join his print revolution. He mentored many important artists, including Kiyoshi Saito. Although a museum opened after his death in 1990, that museum has now sadly been deaccessioned, perhaps an indication of a lack of respect for a RED rabble rouser.

These 36 views are presented in the Sosaku Hanga tradition: self-carved and hand printed. This print was made from a Linoleum floor tile, Japanese gampi washi, and Royal Talens water-washable oils, and backed with Thai kozo chiri. The seal indicates the Double Dagger project; prints from collaborating artists on environmental themes: Australia is an island continent producing rivers of RED iron ore and black coal.

This print in answer to Ono’s Ume (fT:) – Sea 1959

Tom Kristensen

2024

IMG_2401

Red Green Island by Tom Kristensen

Made in the style of Ono Tadashige on a single lino block. 25.5 x 20cm Number 29 in Tom’s Green Island series, this print is about how increasing global temperature is changing to once very stable climates and locations.

A$150.00

Print by Tom Kristensen
Backing
Verso of Red Green Island

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Horseshoe Crab blood harvest

Horseshoe crab: Family: Limulidae Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Merostomata (legs attached to mouth) Species: Limulus polyphemus. Status: Four very similar species endemic to Eastern Americas and the Indo-pacific. Two species vulnerable to extinction in 2016.

450 million years ago horseshoe crabs were almost identical to horseshoe crabs living today. They pre-date the emergence of the woody plants that formed coal beds. Their closest modern relatives are spiders and scorpions. They have 10 legs, blue copper-based blood and 10 sets of eyes – including 2 photoreceptors in their tail.

Harvested for fertiliser, fishing bait, and for biomedical bleeding.

For years, HC were unprotected, shovelled up by the dump-truck load, crushed, and spread to fertilise fields in Delaware US. They are now protected in New Jersey, so after 10-year maturation in the Atlantic off Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs return to the beaches to mate.

Their only defence is their strong shell. The stingless tail is used for navigation and balance, their eggs and hatchlings are essential food for migrating Red knots, another endangered species.

Horseshoe crab blood contains proteins that react to the presence of bacteria forming a protective gel. Most people will have benefited from horseshoe crabs because their blood is used by the biomedical industry to detect positive gram bacterial contamination in vaccines and IV drugs. One litre of blue blood was worth about $16000 USD in 2020, “one of the most expensive resources in the world”

A synthetic alternative has been available for many years but it is even more expensive than the crab blood because of the high profits available and a patent protecting intellectual property.

This Double Dagger lino and woodblock print was made by Joanna Bradley in collaboration with Tom Kristensen who carved the coloured background wood blocks and helped research.

This print is about how human greed and disregard can drive the most resilient and biologically perfect creatures to the brink.

Horseshoe crab blood harvest

By Tom Kristensen and Jo Bradley 4 shina woodblocks hand carved and 1 lino block hand carved. Hand printed on Japanese washi paper using a baren

A$100.00

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