We taxpayers are helping fund the polluting fossil fuel industries to the tune of about $10 billion in annual subsidies, compared with a tiny $330 million to renewable energy. This was revealed in reports released in April by Greenpeace and the Institute for Sustainable Futures. We are also paying for propaganda on climate change. Instead …
Penny Wong’s cool response to the Garnaut report could have something to do with her past, which includes working in the Forestry Section of the CFMEU and as an advisor on forests to the NSW government. The Garnaut report is gutsier than we were expecting, but forests still only rate a very small mention. In …
Prime Minister Howard’s $200 million offer in March 2007 to slow logging in South East Asia was hypocrisy in neon lights. Certainly, forests are being destroyed in South East Asia, but whether you call forest logging legal or illegal, it has the same impact on carbon emissions. While John Howard handed out money, he should …
Bali still dawdles on forests The December 2007 two-week long meeting of the UN Climate Conference in Bali made a commitment to include emissions from forests as part of the Kyoto Protocol.But for the next four years, there can only be $ rewards in storing carbon in regrowth forest, not forest protection. Think about that! …
Two hundred years ago the Sooty Owl was abundant and fed on 18 ground species of prey in Gippsland. Today they have two or three to choose from. Other wildlife’s ability to thrive is similarly threatened by decades of habitat change. The conversion of habitat to farmland, decades of mining, logging and grazing, as well …
At the time of going to print, there are FIVE CREWS working on a GOVT SANCTIONED 70 mts x 256 kms CLEARING that cuts across the Thomson catchment. The DSE claimed it learnt from the squandering of the Yalmy Road and the Snowy National Park in the 2003 fires. Now we understand how! The Minister …
Of the million-plus hectares of forest that burnt in last summer’s fires, DSE’s Chief Fire Officer, Ewan Waller, admitted they lit up 100,000 ha of that area in back burns. Many of which got away and threatened the towns of Bruthen, Tambo Crossing and Swifts Creek. This autumn, another 100,000 ha of forest that didn’t …
We can expect the logging fraternity and their friends in government to frantically paint themselves as having a major role to play in combating climate change. Joe Helper, the Victorian Minister for Agriculture, said new carbon trading markets and the consequent value given to carbon soaks could be big business for our logging companies. In …
A History of Campaigns to Save Victoria’s Native Forests This 340-page book documents for the first time major Victorian forest campaigns from the earliest times up to 2005. It was written and collated by Dr Rod Anderson, a past Environment Victoria forest campaigner, (disappointingly, EV no longer supports a forest campaign). This book looks at …
On the 3rd February 1997, the $830 million Regional Forest Agreement process signed over its first casualty – the much sought after forests of East Gippsland. Other areas around Australia followed suit. Gazillions of dollars profit have gone into the pockets of overseas woodchip and paper companies and a few of their middlemen here in …
