Ecosystems Under Threat
- Words by Peppermint
If you’ve ever perused the International Union for Conservation of Nature‘s (IUCN) Red List, you’ll know that it’s not exactly light reading. Designed to help classify, monitor and ultimately aid in conservation, it ranks the extinction risk of species including mammals, birds, sharks and reef-building corals. It was announced today that a similar system would be implemented to rank the world’s ecosystems, offering a more holistic picture that includes plants and animals, as well as their interactions with land or water habitats. Preliminary research saw the IUCN team scrutinise 20 ecosystems, including eight Australian locations.
Under the new classification system the organisation is hoping to complete by 2025, Coorong Lagoons (pictured) and SA’s Karst Rising Springs would be named as ‘critically endangered’, while the Murray-Darling Basin, the Coolibah-black box woodland and the floodplains of South-Eastern Australia would be classed as either ‘endangered’ or ‘vulnerable’. The Aral Sea in Central Asia – a long-suffering victim of cotton production – was the only ecosystem to be given the label of ‘collapsed’, a status equivalent to an extinct animal on the endangered species list. Let’s hope better knowledge about our ailing ecosystems and a clearer way of classifying them is the starting point for more concentrated efforts toward environmental conservation.
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Disillusioned by the realities of fast fashion, design grads Emily May and Sidonie Moore ditched clothing for a business that finds fun in the everyday. Enter @TheNonsenseMaker: a collection of unique homewares, fun wall art, greeting cards and more that breathe life into Emily’s illustrations: “I love the idea of taking real-world objects and changing your perspective in a way that brings magic and whimsy into everyday life!”
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#PeppermintMagazine #TheNonsenseMaker #LocalMakers #SustainableCraft
Any New Year’s resolutions on your list? We love this from @OtterBeeStitching - “be brave enough to suck at something new”.
There’s no points for perfection, but you’ll get a trophy for trying. If nothing else this year, take the leap and try something new.
#OtterBeeStitching #Embroidery #BeBrave #TrySomethingNew #EmbroideryArt
Sunday serving suggestion ☀️
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#PeppermintMagazine #SlowSunday #SwitchOff #Unplug #ReadAMagazine
A toast to the old you 🥂
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“2026: Reinvent, burn it down, let it go (whatever it is). Year of the Snake it up. Exercise your boundaries, exercise your body, take one teeny step every day towards a life that feels better to be in.
But don’t you dare shit on your old self while you do it.
Hold yourself with reverence and tenderness and respect, because you got you this far. You did your very best with the information and tools you had at the time. You scraped yourself together, you made it work, you survived what felt impossible to survive: again and again and again.
You are perpetually in the process of becoming, whether you can feel it or not, whether or not you add it to your 2026 to-do list.“
Some very wise words from @Damon.Gameau to take us into 2026 🙌🏼
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Happy New Year, friends. To those who smashed their goals and achieved their dreams, and to those who are crawling over the finish line hoping to never speak of this year again (and everyone else in between): we made it. However you got here is enough. Be proud.
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Ok 2026: let’s do this. 💪🏼
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