WWF-Australia

Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:

• conserving the world's biological diversity;
• ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; and
• promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

While saving all creatures great and small is something we're very proud to be involved in, it's just one part of what we do. WWF works throughout Australia to stop dangerous climate change, end land clearing, and preserve and protect our fresh water, marine and land environments. Our work is focused on six main areas:

Climate change: Our reliance on coal-fired electricity is causing the earth to overheat, resulting in a massive change to the habitats all animals, plants and humans rely on to survive. Increases in average global surface temperatures must be kept within 2ºC to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Sustainability: If every resident of the planet consumed land, water and fuel at the same rate as Australians do today, by 2050 we will need two extra planets like earth to sustain us. The use of water, energy and our other natural resources in Australia must be kept within sustainable levels.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean is one of the last pristine natural areas on earth. We must put a stop to illegal fishing and create a network of sanctuaries covering the most biologically important parts of the Southern Ocean by 2012.

Managing our land: Currently land clearing in Australia kills millions of animals every year. We want to put an end to broadscale land clearing in Australia and conserve what's left of our forests and woodlands.

Weeds, pests and diseases: Invasive plants and animals are one of the greatest threats to species in Australia today. We want to stop the importation and sale of invasive plants in Australia and manage, or where possible, eradicate the pest animal invasion that is killing our native wildlife.

Protecting our seas and oceans: In 2005, the global fishing fleet was 2.5 times larger than could be sustained by what the oceans produce. We need a network of marine sanctuaries in Australian waters to ensure that endangered species, such as turtles, can survive. We also need a more sustainable approach to the use of our fisheries and other marine resources

We regularly promote campaign actions around our key focus areas. These actions are typically promoted online, and vary depending on the issue we are promoting. Some are awareness raising campaigns, some are practical things we all can do to help our planet, others are political in nature (writing to your local MP on a particular issue for example).

Our events and volunteering sections also highlight opportunities in each state, some of which are suitable and interesting to young people.

We are currently running a campaign entitled "The Future is Man Made"—the name alludes to the idea that we, collectively, can choose our path for the future.

On the one hand we can choose to continue "business as usual", which will have devastating consequences on the environment, on our health, and the global economy as irreversible climate change takes hold.

On the other hand, we can choose to rapidly change our ways, to reduce our CO2 emissions (the key driver of climate change), to live sustainably. If we move quickly—that is a drastic reduction in CO2 over the next ten years—scientists suggests we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

We hope that we can raise people's awareness of the dangers of climate change and to make people aware that we have a choice— that we have many solutions available to us right now that we can use to reduce our environmental "footprint". Our ultimate goal is to get people to act.

More information about the campaign can be found at: http://wwf.org.au/news/australians-encouraged-to-b...

The campaign website is: http://wwf.org.au/future/