PLANET (d)ARK SELLS its soul
Planet Ark or Dark as some say – famous for loo paper, soap powder and advocating we recycle our Xmas cards – has accepted a large parcel of cash from the logging industry, in exchange for its ‘green’ endorsement of forest destruction.
No genuine green group would go near the AFS with a bottle of phenyle. But we hear that Planet Dark was in dire financial straits so sold their light green soul for some dark green paper. The logging industry thus bagged a cheap ‘enviro’ group to give AFS certified native forest timber some green cred.
They explain to us, in phrases disturbingly similar to those used by logging groups’ PR spin doctors, that bulldozers and fire management of our forests for the odd chair or floor board (and Xmas card?) will actually store more carbon than is lost.
Planet Dark is endorsing the industry’s very own certification scheme. Called the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS), this scheme is so pro-industry it even endorsed Tasmania’s blitzkrieg logging as eco-friendly. Planet Dark has had to say that AFS is not perfect but they hope to see it improve. As one wag said – they might as well try to turn Gina Rinehart around.