Draft 23/10
ON THE BRINK
Intro & Scene 1:
The video starts as if a fairy tale for small children with Koala speaking. Afte a while, it fades to natural history footage, continuing through under the David Voiceover ("David" will be shared between David Suzuki and David Bellamy both of whom have agreed to lend their Voicese plus David Attenborough who wants to see a draft of the video before deciding if he will contribute):
Koala:
When the world was young, Australia was separated by ocean from all the other lands. Because of this, over tens of millions of years the plants and animals here developed in unique ways, creating a land filled with the most wondrous creatures. Even after the first humans arrived more than sixty thousand years ago, we all lived in harmony together, no-one taking too much, even the humans… but that began to change a couple of hundred years ago, all in the blink of an eye really …David voiceover: Australia has an abysmal record on species extinction. More mammals have become extinct in Australia over the last 200 years than in any other country in the world. Many other species which live in Australia’s forests and woodlands are now in severe decline. This is particularly the case with most of the 300 Australian animals and birds that use tree hollows to nest and find shelter. Hollows only form in trees older than 120 years. Destruction of habitat and old trees has to stop if we want these species to survive. The Threatened Species Conservation Act lists 80 animal and 300 plant species in danger of extinction in NSW.
These words fade into a forest scene, starting on David Warth's pan down from the top of the tree, intercut with closeups of Eron's feet and Eron. When it reaches Quoll (hiding behind the tree), Koala's voice resumes…
Koala: …lately things have just been getting weirder…
Cut to quick flash of Owl on the tree branch…
Owl: Get him!!!
Cut to Quoll and Owl grabbing Eron (effects perhaps) fade out as Koala continues…
Koala: …and weirder and weirder…
Fading up to Quoll and Owl leaning over the bound and gagged Eron. They are hurling accusations against humanity represented by this hapless youth. There is a "mad-hatters tea party" feel to the frenetic recriminations they hurl at the human.
Quoll:
You never think of anyone but yourself, human, you think you own the bloody place!Freeze on closeup of Quoll morphing into "real" Quoll footage as David VOICEOVER continues
David voiceover:
Spotted-tailed Quolls, also known as Tiger Quolls, are the second largest of the world's carnivorous marsupials. They live in forests where they have very large home-ranges. They are solitary, mostly nocturnal animals, very agile both up in the trees and on the forest floor where they hunt for other animals, preferring medium sized mammals. A Tiger Quoll can bring down a wallaby three times its size. Sexual maturity is reached at one year and they live for around 6 years. They nest in rock outcrops, fallen hollow logs and tree hollows. The young are carried around in the mother’s pouch for the first 2 months and become fully independent at about five months old.Of the four quoll species originally found in New South Wales, the Tiger Quoll is the only one remaining, with the extensive oldgrowth forests left along the Great Dividing Range forming their principal strongholds. The principal threats to their survival are clearing of native vegetation, logging, the loss of large hollows which house their prey, competition from foxes and feral cats, and indiscriminate poisoning campaigns for dingoes, wild dogs and foxes.
…and Morphading back to "trial" footage…
Quoll:
You've heard of a kangaroo court? Well this is a Quoll court and its much, much worse.Owl: Who, whoo, WHOOOH do you think you are??? We were here long before you got here and look at what you've done to us… what you've done to the bush. You’ve wrecked the joint!
Freeze on closeup of Owl morphading into natural history footag of Owl as David voiceover continues
David voiceover:
Masked Owls are amongst the largest and most powerful owls in Australia. They live in forests and woodlands where they establish permanent home-ranges of 500 to 1000 hectares. Being nocturnal they are rarely seen, though their drawn out rasping screech can occasionally be heard as they hunt for small mammals in the dark of the night. They mate for life and nest in tree hollows, requiring the big hollows only found in large old trees. The male prepares the nest with decaying debris, and they raise one or two young each year which learn to fly when they are about three months old. When the young leave home they then need to find their own partners and an unoccupied home-range.The principal threats to the survival of the Masked Owl are clearing of native vegetation and the loss of large old trees and the nesting hollows they provide. They can continue to forage is partially cleared country, though are often killed on roads as a consequence.
…and Morphading back to "trial" footage…
Owl:
You’re just a strand in the web of life, not the spider in the middle. Wake up to yourself you arrogant fool!Quoll: You poor mangy mongrel, you got no fur, you got no feathers, you can't fly, you can hardly even swim or run...
Owl: You think you're so smart with your opposable thumbs and overdeveloped frontal lobes, you humans have had it your own way for far too long.
Cut to shot of Glider walking in, rubbing his eyes…
Glider
: YOU GUYS! What's going on? How’s a glider supposed to get any sleep with all the noise you're making? Respect, dudes… RESPECT!!!Freeze on C/U of Glider morphading into "real" Glider footage as David voiceover continues
David voiceover: Yellow-bellied Gliders are the most proficient gliders in Australia, able to glide 144 metres from tree to tree in a single bound. They live in tall, mature eucalypt forests where they establish permanent home-ranges of 30 to 65 hectares. Being nocturnal they are rarely seen, though as they are the world’s most vocal marsupial their high-pitched shrieks and throaty rattles can often be heard at night as they forage for tree sap, nectar, honeydew, manna and occasionally insects. They carefully choose select large trees to tap for sap, which they obtain by chewing grooves into the trunk that they regularly return to to lick sap from. They live in family groups of 3 to 6 and den in tree hollows, requiring the big hollows only found in large old trees. The mother carries around the young in her pouch for three months and it is not until they are 5 to 6 months old that they begin to independently forage.
The Yellow-bellied Glider is very sensitive to disturbance, often vacating an area when logging first begins. The principal threats to their survival are logging, clearing of native vegetation and the loss of large old trees and the hollows, sap and nectar they provide.
…and Morphading back to "trial" footage…
Glider: You carnivores are so aggressive and unevolved… relaaaax…
Owl:
Yeah, that's right, Glider. We’re so unevolved we're endangered. I overheard a human talking about it. We’re ALL endangered.Enter the ghost of
Gastric Brooding Frog to represent all those for whom its too late to hold an Endangered Species Project as they are already extinct:Frog: "Endangered? You think YOU'VE got problems! There’s worse things than being endangered you know. What wouldn't I give to be endangered again!"
Glider: Endangered? What’s endangered? I've never heard of it. Has it got anything to do with important stuff like gliding from tree to tree or yummy sap or sweet nectar to eat?
Owl: No. endangered means that we're almost extinct, like Gastric Brooding Frog who disappeared 20 years ago.
Glider: STINK???? I do not stink…
Owl: No no. Extinct means that we and all our relatives will disappear from the Earth forever. No more of us. None … not one … ever. Worse than death, extinction is the end of birth. We all die, sure … but extinction means that none of our kind will be born any more. No more young Tiger Quolls or Masked Owls, no more Yellow-bellied Gliders, ever.
Quoll: …and its all because of bloody humans like this one we’ve caught
Glider:
How could humans do that? They couldn’t climb up MY tree if they tried, and if they did I’d just glide to another one and they’d NEVER catch me.Quoll: They cut trees down you foolish, food-obsessed flying carpet. They cut whole bloody forests down.
Glider: They could never cut my tree down Wallaby-breath. Its far too big. Just chill out. Focussing on negativity only feeds the negative. Look, all our trees are fine so I'm outtahere.. Why don’t you two get some sleep?
Quoll and Owl start screaming accusations at the human again as Glider wanders off.
Quoll: You useless sack of meat! I'd eat you if ya didn't smell so bad!!!
Owl
: You narrow-minded, uptight, self-serving uprights. So many of our brothers and sisters have already gone… Lord Howe Long-eared Bat, Desert Rat Kangaroo… gone!Eastern Bettong, Pig-footed Bandicoot, Central Hare-wallaby… extinct! Lesser Stick-nest Rat, Lesser Bilby, Dwarf Emu, Paradise Parrot…
never to be seen again on this Earth!
We heard it from the Lyre Bird who heard it from a chainsaw. Our friend Brooding Frog is extinct and we're in danger of the same.
cut to split second of chainsaw
Quoll:
You two-legged drongo. I've been here for millions of years and now you little Johnnie-come-latelies pop up and ruin everything. I don't know why they let you off the ship. Why don’t you swim back to where you came from?cut to slightly longer chainsaw scene
As the camera follows Glider leaving it passes over the top of what we will soon learn is Koala’s ear. The camera follows Glider a bit further as he begins to climb a branch (morphing into the glider climbing a branch in our natural history footage) and then pans back to Koala’s ear and then down to the rest of Koala who steps forward and greets the other two. She has obviously been watching this drama for a while and now she steps out and shares her own tales of woe at the hands of humanity, cars, dogs, chlamydia and her own membership of the Endangered Species List in NSW.
Koala:
Hi guys, I know what you mean, the same things happened to my family. They’ve shot us and stuffed us, made hats and purses out of us, squashed us flat with their cars, torn us to bits with their dogs, and they’re cutting down the gum trees we need for our food!! Its stressed us out so much we’ve got sick and many of us are going blind. We’re in danger of extinction here and in many parts of Australia.Freeze on C/U of Koala morphading into "real" Koala footage as David voiceover continues
.David voiceover: Koalas live in forests and woodlands where they spend most of the day sleeping in the fork of trees, becoming active in the evening. They feed on eucalyptus leaves, preferring large trees from only a few select species in any area. They very rarely drink water, as they get all the liquid they need from the leaves. They are solitary animals, living in colonies with home-ranges of 1 to 2.5 hectares. They usually only have one young, weighing less than half a gram when born. The mother carries around the young in her pouch for the first 5 to 7 months, after which they ride on her back. By 11 months of age the young is independent.
The principal threats to the survival of Koalas are clearing of native vegetation, the logging of large trees of the species they prefer, predation and harassment by dogs, and being killed on roads.
Koala: The pale-skinned humans have already driven so many species to
extinction. We’ve got to do something about this. We’ve got to wake them up. Only
thing is, you've got the wrong human. This is one of the GOOD ones, one of our
friends."
Quoll: A good human? Yeah right! SURE!
Owl: There's no such thing. They went extinct long ago. I’ve never met one.
Quoll: The only good human's a dead one.
Koala: No, no, there ARE good humans, some of them are even trying to protect our
homes. My family and I have had a lot of experience with these humans and I tell you that
some of them are on our side. A few of them even know that trees are more than just a lump
of wood waiting to be cut down. Us Koalas have worked with them for years trying to save
forests…
Cut to archival footage of Koala suits in action plus possibly Blinky Bill , relatives of hers who have worked alongside humans for the conservation of their forest habitat and as she does so, archival footage emerges from a blurry fog as if in a dream, of various Wilderness Society actions, protests and fundraising involving Koala costumes. This culminates in the footage of her cousin, Kev Koala jumping up behind the then Premier of Queensland Rob Borbidge in a Queensland election campaign press conference last year with a placard saying "Don't Vote for Borbidge". Kev is heavily tackled to the floor by security guards, and dragged off by the fur.
Quoll: Yeah… a fat lot of good it's done.
Koala
: No, no… it HAS made a difference… at least some of the humans know about our problems now and a few are trying to help. They’ve even saved a few bits of bush. There’s many families alive today only because some humans stopped other humans destroying their homes … anyway, there's so damned many of them that it's pointless trying to fight them all. The dingoes tried that and look what happened to them. No, we've gotta work WITH the humans not against them. Now, let's stop wasting time. Let’s DO something. And please let that human go. Its my friend Eron and I'm sure he'll help us if you’re nice to him.
Eron: I’m so sorry for what my people have done to your people. Of course I’ll
help you and many of my friends feel the same way that I do. Just come and find me if you
need me. Now please excuse me, I’m late for my band rehearsal.
Shot of the three of them from behind walking off thru the trees.
David voiceover: In 1998, expert panels of scientists commissioned by the NSW and Federal Governments identified the minimum area of habitat that they considered must be protected from logging so that core populations of threatened animals could survive. These core areas were intended to be linked by wildlife corridors. The aim was to fully protect these core areas and corridors, while still managing the rest of the forest estate to maintain the species throughout their full ranges, though with logging allowed to also occur.
For most threatened species these core populations have still not been adequately protected. For example, in north-east NSW alone the scientific experts recommended inclusion of sufficient habitat in reserves for;
Yet less than a quarter of the minimum area of habitat identified by the experts as essential to be excluded from logging for the survival of each of these species has since been reserved. There is still no wildlife corridor system in place and the essential core areas are still being logged today..
At least 4,000 hectares of undisturbed contiguous forest should be protected for each Koala population to ensure that a minimum population of at least 500 individuals is maintained. Corridors are required to link smaller isolated populations to bigger populations to prevent local extinctions. There has not been sufficient habitat protected to meet these requirements. As a result, only about 5000 Koalas remain in the state of New South Wales.
Koala: We weren't really too sure about what we could actually DO about saving our lives and homes, but we knew we had to do something So we set off on what was to become a huge adventure and an amazing journey for us. We felt as though we'd all just woken up… seems that EVERBODY has to wake up sooner or later…
Cut to Glider asleep in his tree hollow when the chainsaw starts growling again, this time sustained. His hollow starts to shake and tilt and he bolts for the opening and leaps thru. Cut to Gary Steer’s spectacular footage of Yellow-bellied Glider’s daytime glide sequence. When Glider lands on the tree trunk he morphs into costumed glider and runs off crying out.
Fade out.
Scene 2:
Fade up to the four critters walking through the bush. Pauline McLeod a Koori auntie who tells stories on "Playschool" is sitting on a bench and they walk up to her
.Auntie: Koala! Quoll! Owl! Glider! Its good to see you.
Koala: Hey Auntie, we've always had a lot of respect for each other, your mob and ours even if you DID eat us occasionally. We've known you since the beginning of time and we’ve never been ENDANGERED before. Our forests are fast disappearing, what should we do? Can you help us?
Auntie: I know, I know, but we’re endangered too. Things have changed so much.
All I can say is that you’ve got to go to the white man.
You’ve got to speak to those people (pointing).
Go down that way.
Poor little Koala, awww, hang in there.
The critters walk off.
The critters come running in across the dance floor, Koala carrying a placard saying "Only 5000 Koalas Left in NSW", Quoll carrying the Brooding Frog poster. Cut to a Red-eyed Frogs poster on the door of the Nimbin Bush Factory, lots of young people bopping inside, camera weaves thru them and lingers on each of the young men before finding Eron belting out
"All Hands Strong"
"Action not apathy, don't trust the law
The law is made to suit the criminals
All hands strong, lock on, lock on
They won't get away with the crime, unless you're blind
Action now people, come on, come on
Selflessly, put yourself on the line
My hands are tied, to your bulldozer
A thin line to the land, we are the lifeline
We are the lifeline..."
The critters come running in across the dance floor, Koala carrying a placard saying "Only 5000 Koalas Left in NSW", Quoll carrying the Brooding Frog poster.
Glider:
Eron, Eron, you’ve got to help us. Now they’re cutting down OUR forest. I’ve lost my home. My tree! My poor tree! We’ve got to stop them.Eron (to the crowd): We’ve got to get to the forest friends and stop the bulldozers and chainsaws, there’s no time to lose
Newsreader: .... To-day at Ewingar State Forest, conservationists stopped work by locking onto logging machinery ....
THE ACTION.
To be shot late October. The young human accompanying the 4 costumed creatures is Eron Young, lead singer of the Red-eyed Frogs, an accomplished acrobat and forest activist. As well as playing Eron, he will perform stunts in Glider’s costume including swooping down an invisible rope (completing another glorious Glider swoop in Gary Steer’s natural history footage) to capture a bulldozer or lock onto a tree. . Could have more of "All Hands Strong" playing behind the action scenes.
Ending with:
Logger
: Look, we only work here. We couldn’t do what you ask even if we wanted to. You need to speak to State Forests NSW. They make the decisions.So, our heroes move to the State Forests offices in Coffs Harbour and set up camp in the park outside. Cut to State Forests action, the critters at the Peace Bus, occupying State Forests offices, we need to write various lines for the critters to speak here.
As they enter the office, Glider l carries a placard with frogs photo on it.
Eron (to State Forests guy behind counter): "My name’s Eron and these are my endangered species friends Koala, Glider, Owl and Quoll and we’ve come here to ask for your help. They’re in danger of becoming extinct due to forest destruction and habitat destruction. NSW Government scientists have found that a large percentage of forest needs to be protected in order to save these creatures from extinction. So far, only a quarter of that has been protected and we’ve come here so we can protect the rest and stop them from being endangered."
State Forests officer: You’re hassling the wrong people, these decisions are made in Sydney, by the State Parliament, if you want things to change, you’ll have to talk to them…
Fade to black…
Scene 3
Fade up to Koala as narrator, sitting in the forest (as in the opening scene)…
Koala: Humans are such strange creatures. Everywhere we went no-one seemed able to help us… even when it was them doing the cutting… I guess they just can't think for themselves, poor creatures. It seems they leave that up to a few special people called "politicians"… they live in a place called Sydney…
Fade up on Bondi dawn with a soundtrack of waves crashing. Snores are audible as we cut to long shot of critters asleep. Quoll's head pops up, looks around…
Quoll: (distracted, almost traumatised) Oh, this is weird… this is seriously weird…
Glider: (waking up also) …where are we? I'm hungry… what's that noise?
Quoll: …oh this is just plain wrong…
Koala: (also waking up)… no, Quoll… this is a city…
Owl: (also now awake) …spelt with an "s" and an "h"…
Glider: Shitty???
Owl: No, CITY. It's what the humans call this giant road they've decided to sit down in the middle of.
Koala: Yeah… I've been to a city once before… another city, years ago…
Fade up to real Koala footage
my family's original patch of forest was long gone and I was trying to find a quiet safe place to live.
Fade from real Koala footage to Koala walking past "Save the Koala" poster from Gold Coast footage, followed by Koala moving through Gold Coast interspersed with surreal, sped-up images of cars and city, including apparition/Benny in extinction costume appearing/disappearing below "money exchange" sign
Somehow I got lost… and found myself in the middle of the worst nightmare I've ever had…. Cars and concrete everywhere… so many people… and no trees anywhere, I just wanted something to eat and somewhere to live but it all costs money…
Quick fade back to…
Quoll:
What's Money?Glider: Can you eat it?
Koala: No, but you need it to eat AND to sleep anywhere in the city…
Glider: O Koala, I’m so glad you’re with us. You know about these things, about the ways of humans. We’d be lost without you.
Quoll: They’re so weird and twisted …
Koala: Look, the humans are weird and twisted. There's no getting away from that… most of 'em have never even seen a forest …
Quoll: You're kidding…
Back to Koala in GC footage… this time at the Paradise Property real estate agent as she stares at photos of skyscrapers…
Koala:
No, they cut most of the forests down long ago and built these weird little boxes in mid-air that they live in.Cut to…
Quoll:
Arrghh, this is getting ridiculous…Owl: No, it's true Quoll. They do the same with food.
Koala: So anyway, like I said…
Fade back to Gold Coast footage…
I was just looking for a spare gum tree, you know? And all these humans kept wanting to hug me … they all thought I was very CUTE… but none of them could HELP me.
Kids cuddling Koala cuts to real estate guy sending Koala up the road to the Koala shop… Koala in shock at the shop gradually knocking things over, lots of closeups of stuffed Koalas and back to Koala walking away as she tips over the sign…
Finally this one guy sends me up the road a bit where he says I’ll find food … real friendly-like. I thought he was trying to be nice but it turned out he was just having a cheap laugh… sent me to a place FULL of koalas… but none of 'em were alive. It seems we're so damned cute to the humans that we've become a national symbol to 'em. Every year they make and sell millions of tiny, cute, cuddly-wuddly STUFFED koala bears… their kids just love 'em and so do the tourists … They make all this money selling our image but won’t do a thing to protect us or to stop us from becoming extinct. So this guy had sent me to a shop FULL of the horrible little monstrosities. There I was surrounded by a thousand dead koalas and not a single living gum tree in sight… I just snapped. Since then I've pretty much avoided the city…
Back to…
Glider:
I'm hungry…Koala:
Yeah, c'mon… let's go…
Music starts (perhaps a slow hip-hop beat) as we cut to the footage of the critters at Bondi, the music continues as we view a collage of the Koala, Owl, Quoll and Glider in various situations around Sydney- Kings Cross, Bondi, walking around the harbour… Quoll trying to get into a garbage bin to find food… interactions with people. As this continues, there is periodic dialogue between the critters… question, answers and stunned disbelief about the scenes they're witnessing… Koala's voiceover also explains…
Koala: Luckily Eron turned up and we went looking for some food… it wasn't so bad for me… Eron knew where there were some gum trees… but Quoll was finding it difficult…
Shots of barking dogs on Bondi…
Quoll:
What's that smell?Quoll lunging for a bin…and then reeling back in disgust
Koala;
It was all a bit of an eye-opener for them…The critters at Lady Macquaries chair… battleship in the background…
Glider: What's that over there?
Koala: That's a battleship… every so often the humans have these big fights called wars where they cross the sea in those things and kill each other.
Quoll: (dawning realization) …oh yeah… and then do the winners eat the losers?
Koala: Well, no actually…
Quoll: Aw… that's sick! What a waste of food!
Kings Cross footage…
Koala:
We adapted pretty quickly though and Eron went off to find one of those "politicians" everyone kept telling us to go and see while we continued to explore…Kings cross footage… last shot being the critters walking away down the street under the sex shop sign…
Quoll: What's this place, Koala?
Koala: Forget it, Quoll just FORGET it.
Fade out.
"
Scene 4:Fade in to…
Eron:
Ian, these are our endangered species friends, Quoll, Koala, Glider and Owl.Ian: Hello, you beautiful animals.
Eron: friends, this is Ian Cohen, green member of parliament…
Koala: At last! A politician! Do you live in parliament? WE live in the forest and
it's all being cut down. Can you help us?
Ian: I am here to help you, I’ll do whatever I can to save your forests, to save
your homes. Yes, I am a member of parliament, here to help all endangered species of NSW.
Quoll: Do you speak for the Quolls of NSW too? Is there someone here who speaks for
the Quolls?
Ian: Yes, I represent Quolls, I represent forests, I represent all you endangered
species. But unfortunately many people in this state of NSW don’t realise what you’re
suffering under. We want to see as much forest saved as possible so that you Quolls can
live in peace in your forest.
Owl: That's why we've come here. We want someone to remind them about us. Our home
are crashing to the ground and we've found out that we might become extinct!"
Ian: I’ll try but you’ve got to help me, you’ve got to get the message out…
…Some of us are doing what we can, but most of the Members of this Parliament have
forgotten that they owe a duty to you species as well as to humans.
If enough of the Voters in NSW let their representatives know that they want the
parliament to do whatever is necessary to ensure your survival, then the parliament may
act and protect your forest homes to make sure that you don't become extinct.
Glider: We'll do what we can, but can you speak to the parliament for us?
Ian: You tell me what to tell them. What do you want me to tell the Parliament
to-morrow?
Owl: Tell them that that the forests are our homes. Tell them
that we live here too, we have a right to be here too.
Glider: Tell them that protecting the forests is good for them as well as for us.
The trees make the air we ALL breathe… it's really that simple…
Quoll: … and what about the water? Tell them "where do you think the bloody
water comes from?"
Koala: Tell them also that "if only you can think beyond your own narrow
interests and include US in your concerns, that this will benefit you too. We're all
strands in the same web of life. If you allow us to disappear, the web becomes frayed and
tattered and humans will die of a great loneliness of spirit."
Parliament House rally, banners, police car.
Glider carries a placard with frogs photo on it.Glider: "Our friend couldn't make it to the endangered species rally
Footage of the critters walking through the ornate and pompous corridors, stopping by a picture of Captain Cook raising a flag in Sydney Cove with a number of stumps in the foreground.
Ian Cohen in Parliament: Good altercation Ian and interjections
.Ian: "We know exactly where the opposition stands on this matter … when we’re dealing with something as important as endangered species we can’t leave it up to the opposition."
"… home to many species in danger of extinction including Koala. Yellow-bellied Glider, Spotted-tail Quoll and Masked Owl.
On behalf of the endangered species on NSW such as Koala, Glider, Quoll and Masked Owl, I am calling on the NSW Government to protect additional areas of forest and woodland including Chaelundi in National Parks to avoid the extinction of the Masked Owl, Yellow-bellied Glider, Spotted-tail Quoll, Koala and other endangered species.
As Ian continues, natural history footage replaces the parliamentary footage and is in turn replaced by CUs of each of the critters either in parliament or outside earlier with Ian. As each critter fades in, a line from their earlier conversation with Ian is repeated…
Owl:
Tell them that that the forests are our homes.…and back to Ian…
Ian:
Those species are Australians just like we are. They are losing their homes, we humans shouldn’t take everything for ourselves. We should leave enough for other species to ensure that they don’t become extinct.Fade to… Glider: The trees make the air we ALL breathe… it's really that simple…
…and back to Ian…
Ian:
Protecting the ancient forests is for the benefit of humans as well as the species that live in them. The forests are the lungs of our planet. They maintain the stability of climate.Fade to…Quoll: … and what about the water?
…and back to Ian…
Ian:
They protect water catchments, ensure clean drinking water as well as protection from floods and droughts. And they contain the gene pool that contain the foods and medicines and industrial products of the future.Fade t0: Koala: Tell them also that…
…and back to Ian…
Ian:
If only we humans think beyond our narrow immediate interests and include the other species in our concern, this will benefit us as much as it will benefit them. We are all strands of the same web of life. If humans allow these creatures to disappear the web will become frayed and tattered.I put it to the house that without these wonderful creatures, humans will die of a great loneliness of spirit. It is the job of this parliament to protect these critical habitats and species. We know what must be done, all that is missing is the political will. Extinction is the choice of this house, thank you madam president."
Our heroes watch this speech on TV and cheer when Ian gives them Voice..
Koala as bag lady wheeling a shopping trolley of eucalyptus leaves thru the streets,
over 
chalked on the sidewalk followed by "Extinction" in
the same script. Koala caught in headlights. Screech of brakes, sound of collision, empty
costume on the road with mangled shopping trolley. "Only 5000 Koalas left in
NSW" placard nearby with "5000" crossed out and replaced with
"4999"
Quoll: Koala was supposed to say this but now she’s gone. We can’t rely on her and I guess each of us will have to take the lead from now one, even me, even you. The way this story ends is still unknown, its up to all of us to decide really. It could be devastation and extinction, nothing left of us but memories and images on a video screen, an impoverished planet in which humans die of guilt and shame for what you have made of the pristine world that was placed in your trust, die of a great loneliness of spirit.
Or it could be that you can wake up in the morning and smile at yourself in the mirror having hit the brakes in time to save great wild spaces of how the world used to be, spaces where I and my friends can live out our lives and continue to evolve alongside you into the bright future, sharing the solar journey some more, one more dance wheeling thru the Milky Way together. Extinction? You choose."
David voiceover:
Worldwide more than 11,000 plant and animal species face their imminent demise. Humanity has initiated the first major extinction spasm since the end of the Mesozoic Era 65 million years ago which witnessed the end of the dinosaur epoch. If a state as wealthy as NSW can't find the means and the resolve to protect the native creatures entrusted in our care, what hope for the rest of the world? Please, people of NSW, on behalf of the whole world, speak up, demand a fair go for all species and seize this last opportunity to put the brakes on this slide to oblivion. The necessary legislation already exists in the Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Native Vegetation Conservation Act, the trouble is that it is not being implemented in a forceful manner. Call on politicians of all persuasions to move strongly to protect habitat on private as well as public lands. Your descendants and all of creation will sing your praises if you do.
WHAT YOU CAN DO section at the end of the video, before the credits.
Maybe some more on what you can do: animals giving suggestions to helpful humans: tell
your friends, ask your candidates, read the background; send a postcard etc.