Australia’s push to meet its net zero targets is fuelling a new wave of environmental destruction, according to conservationist and photographer Steven Nowakowski, who says pristine wilderness areas are being bulldozed for “so-called green energy”.
Speaking to Sky News’ Chris Kenny on the Kenny Report, Mr Nowakowski said vast tracts of old-growth forest in Queensland are being cleared to make way for industrial-scale wind and solar farms, including the Lotus Creek Wind Farm in the state’s central region.
“It’s what we call high elevation refugia forest. It’s the mountain tops that have escaped the clearing in the past,” he said.
“So, it’s considered as old growth forest. It’s never been logged or selectively logged, it’s never been cleared.”
Mr Nowakowski described the destruction of the untouched bushland as “hypocrisy of the highest order”, arguing the same activists and politicians who once fought to protect these habitats were now endorsing projects which were tearing them apart.
“It’s these areas that are now being targeted by the wind industry in Queensland because this is where there’s a scarcity of wind along the coastal ranges,” he said.
“So, what we’re seeing is vast amounts right now being cleared for green energy. The hypocrisy is outstanding.”
Mr Nowakowski, who helped develop the newly launched National Renewables Truth Map with Rainforest Reserves Australia, said the scale of the planned rollout was “beyond comprehension”.
“We’ve done some recent mapping and, in the pipeline, we’re going to need around 31,000 wind towers, close to 500,000 hectares of solar, well over 500 million solar panels,” he said.
“This is a reckless rollout, there is no transparency, and it’s about time that the Greens and also all the conservation groups start waking up to what’s going on and calling out some of these really shocking proposals.”
According to the Truth Map, the projects would require 44,000 kilometres of new haulage roads – longer than Australia’s coastline – and tens of thousands of kilometres of new transmission lines, many cutting directly through national parks, farmland and coastal wilderness.
Mr Nowakowski said the long-term ecological impact of the developments remains unknown, but evidence was already showing devastating consequences for wildlife.
“I’ve ground-truthed the bases of many wind turbines in north Queensland and am guaranteed to see dead birds and bats,” he said.
“In fact, on a number of occasions I’ve seen Pacific swifts under the turbines in Caban Wind Farm. These are critically endangered migratory birds.”
He warned the construction and maintenance of these projects was “fragmenting forests”, introducing weeds and altering fire regimes across once-pristine landscapes.
“What we don’t know is the cumulative impact of all this,” he said.
“We’ve got around 31,000 wind towers potentially proposed. The cumulative impact of that is huge.”
Mr Nowakowski said the Truth Map aimed to expose the true environmental cost of the renewables transition and give Australians a chance to see what was being built “in their own backyard”.
“After decades photographing Australia’s wild places, I have never seen a threat like this,” he said.
“The Truth Map empowers every Australian to see what is really happening – zoom into your backyard and see what is coming.”
The Lotus Creek project alone will see 46 turbines, each up to 230 metres tall, constructed across 3,000 hectares of previously untouched forest north-west of Rockhampton – land Mr Nowakowski says was once among the most pristine in the country.
“This isn’t just about economics,” he said.
“It’s about the kind of country that we leave for future generations.”