Global Warming: Destruction of Australias Forests

[warmtone]

A recent camping holiday has left me in no doubt that both political parties have failed miserably to manage our scarce and diminishing forest resources.:!

It doesen't matter whether you visit so called National Parks in Victoria or NSW they ARE being relentlessly clear fell logged. If anyone is in doubt please have a look at Victoria's Errinundra Plateau - a showcase of disastorous logging practicies and political ineptness.

Ironically it contains the last remaining Victorian Rainforest with trees that are over 300 years old - a valuable state asset that is being plundered.

I am left wandering what does the status of National Park reallly mean??

The answer seems to be "what's left after all commercial exploitation has been satiisfied". At the bottom of the list is the despicable practice of clear felling forests for woodchips.:!

So it is not surprising to me that we now have a global warming problem, ongoing drought and a mounting list of endangered species.

Surely in 2007 we can do better to manage the balance between demand and supply of scarce timber resources?

Individually we can do nothing, but as a community we can do a lot!:2tsup:

Does anyone out there share my concern ??

[echnidna]

well maybe its in the true interest of conservation that we do clearfall

Existing forests won't survive without human intervention due to the projected dramatic reduction in rainfall.

So we ought be introducing suitable seed trees into the forests that will survive & prosper in the new climate. This means that as the old forest dies a new one is springing up to take its place.

[dazzler]

Hi warmtone

Yep I share your concern. However, commercial exploitation is a little harsh. Most of the loggers I have meant honestly believe thier practices are sustainable and most are nice down to earth people. I doubt its the last remaining rainforest but might be wrong.

But we are our own worst enemies. We vote for who will give us what we want. how does a politician in a logging community not support them. If they dont they are out on thier butt.

Look at Garrett. i am sure he went into politics with the right heart but his kahoonis were cut off quick smart.

I think we jump on the logging industry a little quickly cause its easy. Trees look nice. But we dont rush down to the docks and protest the latest bunch of citroens or toyotas or whatever that cost the earth tonnes more than the asthetics of losing trees for a while. We dont protest the power man hooking up our houses, or those slime bags at the service station selling us the evil drug carbon. :wink:

So I agree with you. Sadly though IMO its all of us slowly killing ourselves. Mother Earth wont worry though, she'll replace us and those we kill off with something else :2tsup:.

cheers

[pawnhead]

Mother Earth wont worry though, she'll replace us and those we kill off with something else :2tsup:.Strangely enough, I find that a reassuring sentiment.

Good post there Daz.
You've got your eyes open on the situation IMO.

[glock40sw]

Here we go again...Bash the Sawmillers by the touchy feely warm & fuzzy brigade.

[Andy Mac]

Here we go again...Bash the Sawmillers by the touchy feely warm & fuzzy brigade.

No, bash the the mongrel CEO's and multinationals who's only interest is making higher profit margins, regardless of the cost.:((
Cut down trees by all means, just don't waste them by filling rich bustards pockets.
Clear felling should be stopped, so yes warmtone, some of us do share your concern.

[dazzler]

Just as a reverse side, on ABC National Radio the other morning a scientist was saying that in areas of NE Tas where lots of bluegum has been planted on former grazing land that the land is getting dry due to the huge water they consume.

All too complicated for me :rolleyes:

[matildasmate]

The real problem is the human population growth , the human race is like a mouse plague , keep's growing until it is too late and finaly nature take's care of the problem . No one is going to solve the problem until they get the population growth problem under control , what do you reckon the chance's are of that happening? Why do I say population is the real problem , it is very simple , if my planet is 1 acre and has the resource's to support only 10 people and then I think I am going to support 20 people , no brain's needed to work the rest out eh . Cheer's MM

[Master Splinter]

The growth rate (http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html) of our species peaked in the 1960s and has been dropping since then - the growth rate has dropped some 10% over the last 20 years, and is actually negative in most of central Europe.

Current trends indicate that human population on the planet will level off at about 10 billion in the year 2050.

[matildasmate]

The growth rate (http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html) of our species peaked in the 1960s and has been dropping since then - the growth rate has dropped some 10% over the last 20 years, and is actually negative in most of central Europe.

Current trends indicate that human population on the planet will level off at about 10 billion in the year 2050.
All I got to say about that , is whoopy doo . That realy give's me a warm feeling . Thank's for the info though , very interesting . Cheer's MM:U:U:U

[Sebastiaan56]

Im just glad Im not in Tassie, Gunns would give the whole joint a haircut if they could. This issue is verry complicated. Issues to consider,

- wood is a beautiful, versatile material that deserves to be produced for the length of our species stay on the planet
- cutting and processing timber keeps food in the mouths of a lot of people
- recently in NSW the issue has been clearing for pasture, also QLD I believe
- corporations like Gunns are basically ammoral, they have one criteria for existing, profit. If the profit shifted to hamster breeding thats where they would go
- the hardwood at Bunnies is from Gunns, now Im not advocating any knd of boycott, just buying with your morals. I wouldnt buy Gunns shares BTW, lousy return for a lot of risk.

Global warming is a seperate though connected issue Warmtone. It will cause lots of deforestation in certain areas where native species are very closely adapted to their environment. Luckily crapiata, paulownia,etc grow anywhere. Good forage for the cockroaches after they have eaten all of the human corpses......

[astrid]

what I dont understand is why Gunns need to clearfell and pulp old growth timber in tas when there is so much plantatoin pine grown in vic and i assume elsewhere,
surly it makes better sense to judicially cut high value old growth timber to sell as premium manufacturing timber, than to go to the expence of felling this stuff for pulp.
The plantation stuff is much easier to get to and transport?

Astrid:?

[glock40sw]

G'day.
Where does it say that Gunns will be clearfelling old growth forests?

I haven't seen that.
Can you please supply creditable links to this?
By creditable I mean not from the environazis with an axe to grind.

[Ashore]

G'day.
Where does it say that Gunns will be clearfelling old growth forests?

I haven't seen that.
Can you please supply creditable links to this?
By creditable I mean not from the environazis with an axe to grind.
for goodness sake don't ask for real links or facts that can be proved lets stick with I knew , or my mate said , or the old....... my brother lived next door to a bloke who worked with a woman who's hushand knew a man who had a sister who was married to a guy who was ordered to cut down a tree at night so the council wouldn't know.
rather than facts , cause the truth ain't nearly as good as "the droppings of male cows"

[woodbe]

It sure seems someone is doing it.

http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/tas-forests-google/

Got google earth?

http://www.oren.org.au/tassie/data/Tassi_logging.kmz

I've watched hundreds of acres of native forest being destroyed right on the border of the world heritage area in Tasmania. Don't take my word for it though, if you want to see it for yourself, head on down there in late summer and watch the place light up.

woodbe.

[Toymaker Len]

Clear felling old growth is just the tip of the iceburg mate and you should do all you can to stop it but there is much worse happening...
Its true, human beings have started an extinction event by our sheer cleverness and success. We have defeated our predators, discovered fossil fuels and our population has exploded over the earth. Unfortunately our sheer stupidity has seen us destroy vast amounts of the biosphere and that destruction looks like it may be about to run out of control.If it does none of us have a chance. Everybody should read "The Weathermakers" by (Australian of the Year) Prof. Tim Flannery and you will begin to get a bit of the big picture, then read "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas and that will scare the crap out of you. Briefly...the worlds atmosphere is at nearly 400 ppm of CO2 now. About a third of that put there by human activity since the beginning of the industrial age. This CO2 ensures that we will have about a 2C. increase in global average temperature. Thats the best case scenario, a few more cyclones, a few more droughts and polar bears disappear in the wild. However if the world continues to pour CO2 into the atmosphere at current rates or increasing rates then the picture get horribly worse. Positive feedbacks begin. CO2 starts coming out of soils, methane hydrates start to evaporate in the tundra, the icecaps melt, the oceans rise more than 100 metres and life as we know it... civilisation... ceases to exist.
The crazy thing is that the earth got that hot at the end of the Permian age about two hundreds and fifty million years ago and ninety-five percent of the life on earth disappeared. That time it took ten thousand years to get that hot. This time it will take less than two hundred years. The window of opportunity to contain runaway global warming is closing rapidly. We probably have less than ten years to act to turn the situation around so put on your thinking and doing caps fellas because what you do really matters right now. Take a good look at the kids and grandkids and see what you can do to use less power, less oil and make your politicians wake up. This is the greatest threat we have ever faced.

[matildasmate]

what I dont understand is why Gunns need to clearfell and pulp old growth timber in tas when there is so much plantatoin pine grown in vic and i assume elsewhere,
surly it makes better sense to judicially cut high value old growth timber to sell as premium manufacturing timber, than to go to the expence of felling this stuff for pulp.
The plantation stuff is much easier to get to and transport?

Astrid:?
Let's just say I know a few thing's about pulp and pulpmill's . You cant make eucy pulp from pine tree's , you need eucy tree's and yes there is a big difference between eucy pulp and pine pulp , each product is used for many purpose's in the manufacturing of tissue and dunny paper . One thing the greenie's dont tell anyone , is the fact that sawmilling a log leave's you with around 60% of the log as waste , so what do you do with the waste , turn it into chip's for pulp . But the pulpmill bloke's dont tell a lot of thing's either , such as the amount of water they use , one mob used 70meg a day , also a lot of old growth tree's are no good for timber prossesing , just pulp . Then there is the pulpmill waste , prosessing the chip's , either cooking or grinding , then bleaching , washing and so on and lot's of realy nice chemical's used . Cheer's MM

[matildasmate]

Len McCarthy ....... I beleive it is way too late already , population alone is our biggest problem , then getting everyone to do the right thing , forget it , it's not going to happen , many poor people cant even afford to do the right thing , they are busy just trying to staying alive , as for rich country's helping the poor one's , dream on I say , there is just too much resistance , too many flat earth people on both side's of the argument , for or against global warming and then there are all the people around my age not old or young 47 , I heard it all before , ???? I have only got on average 30 year's left to live , what do I care what happen's after that . We needed to start a hundred year's ago , you could imagine what they would have thought back then , if anyone mentioned global warming back then , off to the loony farm with you , not much has changed even now , rich people still control the world . Cheer's MM

[roy clarke]

the growth rate has dropped some 10% over the last 20 years, and is actually negative in most of central Europe.


Of course the population in central Europe is falling. They are all moving to ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and WALES!!!!