Lennon hypocrisy on climate change: fiddling at the edges while the planet warms

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc
Media Release  
17 October 2007

The Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon’s approach to climate change, released in yesterday’s State of the State address, is marred by hypocrisy while the Labor Party is ignoring Tasmania’s biggest contribution to global warming – logging.

“The Premier is fiddling with the window display while the shop is burning down,” said Mr Paul Oosting pulp mill campaigner for The Wilderness Society. “The State Government’s own figures show that logging and land clearing are by far Tasmania’s biggest contribution to global warming¹.”

“In Tasmania each year 30,000 hectares of carbon-dense forests are logged. Tasmania’s forests are some of the richest stores of carbon on the planet, yet all that carbon  is released as Greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by logging,” said Mr Oosting.

“If the Government truly wants to be a leader in combating climate change they should stop Forestry Tasmania from destroying those native forests which are massive carbon banks,” said Mr Oosting.

“It is hypocritical of Lennon to claim to aspire to be a world leader on combating climate change whilst at the same time ignoring Tasmania’s biggest contribution to the problem,” said Mr Oosting.

“International experts such as Sir Nicholas Stern have called for immediate action to protect native forests as it is the most effective and cheapest way of combating climate change immediately,” said Mr Oosting “But once again the Lennon government has ignored international scientific evidence.”

“The State and Federal assessment of Gunns’ proposed pulp mill totally ignored the impact the project would have on global warming,” said Mr Oosting. “Yet we know from very conservative estimates that native forest logging to feed to mill will result in the release of over 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, equivalent to putting a new 2.3 million cars on the road every year.”

The Wilderness Society welcomes the establishment of an Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for Tasmania but wants assurances that it will monitor logging operations including regeneration burns and impacts on streams and rivers.

¹http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/PMAS-6UF3SU?open