[Commpsych] Gunn's proposed pulp mill in Tasmania

[Anne Sibbel]

Dear Colleagues

I have forwarded the email below for any who are interested in the campaign to stop the proposed pulp mill in Tasmania's Tamar Valley.

Cheers

Anne Sibbel


Subject: If a tree falls in the woods, will anybody hear?


 

Dear friends, 

You may have missed it, but the Tasmanian Government last week unbelievably signed an agreement handing over Tasmania's forests to the Gunns pulp mill for the next 20 years - in the very same week Professor Garnaut warned them of the dire climate change consequences facing us.

If we don't act now, bulldozers will start clearing land for the mill that will contribute 2% of Australia's greenhouse emissions - at a time when we're being told we need to drastically cut our emissions. But unfortunately Australia's forests were largely left out of Garnaut's recent interim report.

We have only one opportunity to put them in the picture. A proper assessment in his impending Climate Change Report of our native forests' climate change value may just sink the mill project. Click here now to sign the petition asking Professor Garnaut to examine the full climate impact of this mill madness and the logging of Tasmania's native forests:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/DontPulpOurClimate

There's a real risk the Garnaut report won't include a comprehensive assessment of native forests - despite new research finding the stopping of deforestation a "large, immediate and perishable opportunity"* to massively reduce emissions. Costing out the real value of native forests will not only prove Tasmania's trees would be better left in the ground but make this teetering project financially unviable when Gunns realises they will have to pay for the carbon embedded in our forests.

Native forests are invaluable sources of carbon storage - and it costs nothing to leave them in the ground. But 80% of the 4.5 million tonnes of wood needed to supply the pulp mill each year will initially come from Tassie's native forests - permanently destroying forests that can hold 10-20 times the amount of CO2 than plantations.

A proper assessment of their climate change value will undoubtedly make the arguments in favour of the mill, whose climate change impact has never even been assessed, untenable. Take action to protect nature's lungs before the bulldozers move in:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/DontPulpOurClimate

Professor Gaurnaut can expose this ill-conceived pulp mill as the carbon disaster that it is. The report is the most important study for Australia's future, and this is only the first step in our efforts to ensure it adequately prepares us for the challenges ahead - by taking into account all relevant factors.

We only get one shot at averting climate disaster - let's make sure that shot includes an appreciation for the carbon carrying capacity of our forests.

Thanks for being a part of the solution,
The GetUp team

PS - Over 700 fellow GetUp members have committed to visit their ANZ branch manager to express their concerns to the bank considering financing the mill. Are you a customer? Click here to find out more! 

PPS - GetUp is now hiring! Click here for details. 

*"An Australian cost curve for greenhouse gas reduction" McKinsey & Company February 2008 (http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/)


__________________________

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here.


Authorised by Brett Solomon, Level 2, 294 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000
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