The black skies of Tasmania
Sun, 2008-07-06 02:50
#1
The black skies of Tasmania
Sun, 2008-07-06 02:50
#2
[url=http://www.growyourownfood.com.au/otherpages/tasmania.htm]This is incredible.[/url] I was looking at this site because I wanted to read about permaculture, and since this family is located in Tasmania, I stumbled upon their writings about the practice of clear-cutting and then burning entire areas, which blacken the skies.
Unbelievable! [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
Tue, 2008-07-08 10:23
#3
M. Spector
Environmental activists have been denouncing the rapacious practices of the forest industry in Tasmania for [url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/2004/588/32224]at least 15 years[/url].
Unfortunately, Australia's new Labour government is [url=http://www.climateark.org/blog/2008/04/alert_protest_australias_conti.as... to their concerns[/url].
Wed, 2008-07-23 18:34
#4
This is incredible as well. "You go first." "No, no, you go first."
quote:
KEVIN Rudd faces a delay in the introduction of his carbon emissions trading system until after the next election, with Brendan Nelson vowing last night that the Coalition will not accept a start-up date before "2011 at the earliest".The Opposition Leader told The Australian that the Prime Minister's plan to begin emissions trading in July 2010 was a threat to the economy and the Coalition would reject legislation allowing trading until it was clear whether China and the US would join a global pact to reduce their emissions.
[url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24063151-11949,00.htm... to stall on carbon emissions trading scheme[/url]
Thu, 2008-08-21 03:53
#5
M. Spector
quote:
The Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification has certified forestry operations in Australia, including those in Tasmania, as sustainable. Both levels of government and both major parties claim that Tasmanian forestry practices are sustainable.However, almost all current harvesting in Tasmania’s mature mixed native forest is done by clear felling an area with chainsaws and skidders, taking away the logs, piling up all the left-over wood and debris and using helicopters to drop incendiary napalm-like petroleum jelly onto it to create a high intensity fire, described by the industry as a “regeneration burn”.
The ash is then spread over the ground and new seedlings are sown to create a short-rotation eucalypt monoculture. On private plantations, the area is laced with 1080 poison that kills any wildlife — including common and endangered species — that dare feast on the young plants.
Forestry Tasmania claims to be reducing its reliance on clear-felling by phasing in a practice called “variable or aggregated retention”. Many regard this as clearfelling by another name. The practice leaves 20-30% of the trees in small clumps, or islands, in a sea of destruction. According to Timber Workers for Forests, these clumps are frequently scorched, burnt or wind thrown and fail to achieve their stated purpose of ecological preservation.
Massive “regeneration” burns conducted throughout the state by Forestry Tasmania this autumn have again ignited the debate about Tasmania’s forestry industry and its impact on our environment, health and society.
Letters to the editor complaining of the smoke and ash came pouring in from people living in the burn-off areas. According to Dr Fay Johnston, a respiratory health researcher from the Menzies Institute, “There is preliminary evidence that wood smoke could be worse for people’s health than car exhaust pollution”.
The complaints haven’t just been about the harmful effects to people’s health and quality of life, but about the release of carbon into the atmosphere. A growing awareness about the seriousness of global warming means that people aren’t prepared to watch their forests being turned into giant columns of smoke and ashes.
An article in the April 27 Sunday Tasmanian noted that the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from forestry burns could reach an estimated 1.54 million tonnes during this burn-off season. It quoted from the forest industry’s 2001 figures, which estimated that the amount of carbon in the smoke of a wet eucalypt regeneration burn averaged 196 tonnes per hectare (likely to be a conservative estimate).
[url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/763/39384]GreenLeft Weekly[/url]