Yes!!!! Thanks to the #ACCC, our email from @microsoft.com arrived today with the option to choose 'Classic' 365. Can't wait to say goodbye to the meddling, "helpful" #Copilot. The fact that we will be recompensed for the charge levied on us for a program we didn't want is icing on the cake.

Gazanias are spreading from plantings, on roadsides outside #Ballarat. I put a reminder in our local community newsletter recently of how they destroy indigenous biodiversity. Ironically, at the same time locals mow the heck out of indigenous kangaroo grass, preventing it seeding.

6. So the questions I want to see asked re the #EPBC, & the political response, are:
* Would the proposed amendments save globally valued scientific marvels like #Nilpena?
* Would they save our human heritage, like #Murujuga?
*Would they save Asterolasia, or #Wollemi pines?
@abcnewsbot.bsky.social

5. Time for the media to interrogate the cost of unabated rapid climate change and biodiversity loss. There are good stories to celebrate - like the Nilpena conservation, protection of native species like Asterolasia (article below) & the #Wollemi pine. /6 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

4. Adaptation to climate is something humans have managed across diverse ecosystems. We can adapt (at a cost) to the speed of #AGW. But we risk the catastrophic further loss of biodiversity (the B in 'EPBC Act') as species disappear, unable to adapt fast enough to changed conditions. /5

3. Then the lead story, on how the coal-baron-owned National Party have decided to ditch #NetZero & go for "climate adaptation" instead.
What the heck? We can "adapt" all we like (see Tim Winton's "Juice" for what that looks like), but nature takes longer. /4 share.google/images/ExVgS...

2. As Nate put it so succinctly, the fossils were protected "for Australia and the world". That's the essence of stewardship, and it's at the heart of our responsibility for living things as well as fossils. There lies the challenge for all in current debates over the review of the #EPBC Act. /3

Presume you know this one? Tony Rinaudo's "The Forest Underground". Definitely Australian and with a global impact.

catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2901...
Illustration attributed by the National Library of Australia to Henry C Richter.

A brilliant, excoriating summary of the political and strategic situation in the "forever a colony". What we've come to expect from @ronnisalt.bsky.social .

Our resident thornbills provide free aphid control on our roses. Beautiful, chatty and this year nesting in an orchid by our back verandah.

Brilliant writing indeed by @timhollo.bsky.social. The aim is surely not just to "wedge" the Greens, but also to leave dispirited those working their butts off for the #environment our kids & grandkids will inherit: @knitnannassyd.bsky.social
@foe.org.au @ausconservation.bsky.social and more...

Good. @microsoft.com #Copilot is an intrusive village idiot, foisted on us without choice. To have to cancel your subscription to get rid of it is *not* acceptable when #Microsoft365 doesn't provide customer support for family customers. They can just make "classic" a subscription choice. Please.

They could even consult with ecologists and traditional owners. Radical stuff, but at his heart, wouldn't Murray Watt prefer not to be remembered as the Minister for Extinctions?