Cutting down forests is good for you
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 March 2007, Minister Helper gave the opening address to a seminar that was sponsored by the woodchip/paper company, Australian Paper (remember the A Team?) and the Victorian Association of Forest Industries. He said that:
- logging forests was a carbon-sink industry (?!)
- woodchips and timber were far better than other alternatives
- there was potential for burning or distilling forests for ‘carbon-neutral bio-energy’ newsprint and packaging, even though shorter term, may be recycled or remain inert in rubbish tips (!?)
- logging offered the ‘most ecologically sustainable forms of employment’.
- Oh and—elephants fly.
In May, NSW’s Eden export woodchip mill was also spruiking the great benefits gained by flattening thousands of hectares of forest and turning it into paper and greenhouse gases.
Jill / Philip Hopkins at The Age (who else would print this stuff?)