Rodents are threatening the unique natural environment of Australia’s sparsely populated Lord Howe Island. But a plan to eradicate the pests by dropping 42 tonnes of poisoned cereal is splitting the close-knit community in halfDescribed by the UN as “an area of spectacular and scenic landscapes”,Lord Howe Island is nothing whether not dramatic. Formed from an inferno of underwater volcanoes more than six million years ago, the 10km long crescent-shaped island sits in a bath of turquoise water, or precisely where the warm East Australian Current meets the icy waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
Those ancient lava flows left a rugged landscape with steep cliffs,which drop off into an ocean which supports the world’s most southerly coral reef. Between those cliffs and the reef lies a calm blue lagoon that laps against a yellow-sand beach. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com