Impact of Migration within Australia on Australian Ecology

There are numerous reasons for people’s migration. When we talk about migrations in Australia and its influence on Australia’s ecology we primarily think of immigration to cities. The activity which happens all over the world takes its toll on Australia’s ecology as well.

History:

Historical migration of human populations begins with the movement of Homo erectus out of Africa across Eurasia about a million years ago.[1] Humans in the past migrated due to many factors like changing climate and landscape, inadequate food supply or wars. Every migration left its trace on our planet in either positive or negative way. On one side we had beautiful cities with amazing architecture whereas on the other used up land, or cities destroyed in wars.

Present day migrations:

The reasons for moving nowadays have somewhat changed. According to ‘A Case Study
of Long-distance Migration to the Gold Coast, Australia’ by Robert J. Stimson and John Minnery the reasons are: specific attributes of a place; employment; climate/health; persona lifestyle/recreation; other. [2] Salt has used the concept of a ‘sponge city’ [3] which describes a small number of very big cities in Australia. The sponge cities are growing by drawing in migrants from the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns from the region and the whole process leads to rural depopulation.

The Impact of Migration on Ecology:

As mentioned in the text migrations leave trace on the land. Most usual movements are from villages to cities. Urban areas drive environmental change at multiple scales. According to the group of authors: Nancy B. Grimm, Stanley H. Faeth, Nancy E. Golubiewski, Charles L. Redman, Jianguo WuXuemei Bai and John M. Briggs[4] ‘Material demands of production and human consumption alter land use and cover, biodiversity, and hydrosystems locally to regionally, and urban waste discharge affects local to global biogeochemical cycles and climate.’ The waters are more polluted and when specific soil elements are used up the soil becomes deficient. With the bigger urban population more garbage is being produced leaving little space to preserving the clean environment.

Conclusion:

With an increasing wave of migrations rural areas are left unattended whereas the flow of people to cities leads to urban soil pollution [5], production of more pollution because of more cars being driven, more garbage produced and more buildings built instead of green areas. The migration of people cannot be stopped, however the effects of pollution can be diminished by raising awareness of the importance of preserving the environment through educating the population about their impact on the environment and introducing new taxes for polluting the environment.

References:

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migration#Pre-modern_migrations
[2] ‘Why People Move to the `Sun-belt’ : A Case Study of Long-distance Migration to the Gold Coast,
Australia’ by Robert J. Stimson and John Minnery, Urban Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2, 193±214, 1998
[3] The Big Shift, South Yarra: Hardie Grant Books, 2001a, 2003
[4] ‘Global Change and the Ecology of Cities’ abstract
[5] Australian Journal of Soil Research 30 (6) 937 – 957

AUTHOR: Josip Ivanovic

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