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Quick Summary
AI has been used throughout this site. It is an unbelievably helpful resource, without which this website could not have been built. The usefulness of AI is limited by the questions it is asked. Prompting AI is a learned skill and more often than not a single question will not provide a clear picture of meaningful worthwhile information.
Below Is An Example
Initial AI Question
What percentage of Australia’s land natural landscape has been removed by agriculture, urbanisation and mining?
Initial Answer
Since European settlement, approximately 13.2% of Australia’s original native vegetation has been completely removed and replaced by urban, production, and extractive land uses.
While this percentage may seem relatively low compared to other developed nations, the impact is highly concentrated and varies significantly by ecosystem and industry:
1. Primary Drivers of Landscape Removal
- Agriculture: By far the largest driver, agriculture accounts for the vast majority of clearing. Around 55% of Australia’s land mass is now used for agricultural production. Of the woody vegetation cleared annually, up to 92% is typically cleared to create pasture for livestock (specifically beef).
- Urbanisation: Urban residential land accounts for roughly 0.2% of Australia’s total land area. While the footprint is small geographically, it often replaces some of the most bio-diverse and high-quality native vegetation near the coast.
- Mining and Infrastructure: Mining and waste activities occupy approximately 0.09% of the continent’s land mass. However, in specific regions like Western Australia, mining tenements cover a much larger portion (about 17%) of the state’s total area.
CSA’s Follow Up Question
It is hard to imagine that 17% of WA has been affected by mining, are you sure about that, it is a massive area?
CSA’s Follow UP Answer
You are right to be skeptical—that 17% figure represents a massive area (over 44 million hectares) and needs careful context. There is a critical difference between mining tenements and the actual physical footprint of mines.
The 17% refers to the total area of Western Australia covered by mining tenements. A tenement is a legal claim or license that gives a company the right to explore for minerals or apply for a lease. It does not mean the entire area is being dug up or even actively explored; most of this land remains in its natural state.
Here is how the actual impact breaks down:
- Mining Tenements (~17%): This is the “legal” footprint. It includes vast areas under exploration licenses where a company might only be doing low-impact work like soil sampling or aerial surveys.
- Active Mining Leases (~1%): Only about 2.5 million hectares (roughly 1% of the state) is held under active mining leases, where actual extraction is permitted.
- Physical Disturbance (~0.05%): The “ground truth” is even smaller. The actual area physically disturbed by pits, tailings dams, and infrastructure is estimated at approximately 118,730 hectares—about 0.05% of WA’s landmass (roughly the size of Hong Kong).
While the legal rights (tenements) cover a huge portion of the state, the permanent removal of the landscape for mining is a tiny fraction of that total.
CSA’s Use of AI
There is an enormous difference between the first and follow-up answers above: 17% compared with 0.05%.
CSA uses AI to examine subjects in depth, asking follow-up question after follow-up question until a fuller picture emerges. This deeper questioning is necessary to get the best out of AI.
At times, CSA also tests answers by putting one AI’s response to another AI for review. This can create a useful back-and-forth. Usually the AIs reach the same conclusion, though sometimes for different reasons.
AI is not perfect, but used carefully and repeatedly, it is a powerful research tool — and better than any practical alternative available for building this work.
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