<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/a865f6e5-93f8-40a3-bc04-a171e9fa8308/3C6A7011-78E4-4BDF-9836-B105366B5D1F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Howard-defends-his-environmental-record/2006/12/06/1165081014359.html" href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Howard-defends-his-environmental-record/2006/12/06/1165081014359.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.theage.com.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Howard-defends-his-environmental-record/2006/12/06/1165081014359.html"><DIV class="articleDetails"><DATE _moz-userdefined="">December 6, 2006 - 7:25PM</DATE> </DIV> <DIV class="articleExtras-wrap"> <DIV class="islandad" id="adSpotIsland"><SMALL>Advertisement</SMALL><SMALL>Advertisement</SMALL></DIV> </DIV> <BOD _moz-userdefined=""> </BOD><P>Prime Minister John Howard has defended his government's record after a report sounded a warning on the health of Australia's environment.</p> <P>The State of the Environment 2006 report, released on Wednesday, found biodiversity - the richness and abundance of life - would continue to decline due to the damaging practices of the past.</p> <P>It also warned Australians had to make decisions which would enable them to adapt better to where they live in the face of a changing climate.</p> <P>Mr Howard said the report outlined key achievements by his government in environmental management since 2001, including a four-fold increase in spending, a decrease in land-clearing, boosted protection for the marine environment, good air quality in capital cities and improved water management.</p> <P>But he said it also outlined challenges including increasing pressure on fisheries, waste reduction and recycling and the poor condition of inland waterways and coastal lakes.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3C6A7011-78E4-4BDF-9836-B105366B5D1F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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