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CO2 is released when soil
is disturbed
Make Green Carbon Count t What the experts say
The federal Government's carbon tax announcement to make native forest wood ineligible for Renewable Energy Certificates is a welcome recognition of the importance of forests in mitigating climate change. The carbon cost of native forest logging to supply the Eden chipmill at Australia's price of $23 a tonne of CO2 would be over $1 million a day if the industry paid. The bill for a whole year would be $415,647,640.
Native forest logging generates almost 10 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and yet is being exempt. It is treated as if it were carbon neutral.
Recent scientific research enables us to calculate more accurately the cost of carbon pollution generated by native forest logging for the Eden chipmill.
Professor Brendan Mackey’s “Green Carbon - The role of natural forests in carbon storage” released by the Australian National University in August 2008, provides figures on the carbon carrying capacity of SE Australia’s eucalypt forests.
From this data we can calculate that over 18 millions of CO2 is generated every year by logging for woodchips in SE NSW and East Gippsland.
calculation
This is equivalent to:
More than every car in Sydney or Melbourne off the road for a year from just the NSW logging.
In addition to direct CO2 and/or equivalent emissions, there are also major greenhouse emissions such as:
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14.5 million truck kilometres per year for log deliveries to the chipmill, could generate as much as a further 2 million tonnes.
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The power used to chip and process the logs
- Post logging burning
- Shipping of chips to
Japan, approximately 0.5m tonnes per year.
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Post logging burn in Badja Forest
Sendai Paper Mill, Japan
LINKS
Woodchipping Sux: campaign materials on forests and global warming. http://www.woodchippingsux.net.au/global warming.htm
Zero Emission Network - Forest and Climate Change http://www.zeroemissionnetwork.org.au/facts-and-figures-forests
Vote Climate http://voteclimate.org.au/
Australian Greenhouse Office http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/ http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/nav/databases.html
Rising Tide Australia Grassroots climate action
http://www.risingtide.org.au/
Clean Energy for Eternity http://thebegavalley.org.au/cefe.html
Australian Conservation Foundation http://www.acfonline.org.au
How does woodchipping compare with other big GHG polluters such as driving a car or household elecricity use? The Worst Polluter is an animated quiz show that helps the viewer understand the relativities of Greenhouse gas emissions. View
"Simulations of carbon storage suggest that conversion of old growth forest to young fast growing forest will not decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in general, as has been suggested recently. During simulated timber harvest, on-site carbon storage is reduced considerably and does not approach old growth storage capacity for at least 200 years. Even when sequestration of carbon in wooden buildings is included in the models, timber harvest results in a net flux of CO2 to the atmosphere." Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests, Mark E. Harmon; William K. Ferrell; Jerry F. Franklin Science, New Series, Vol. 247, No. 4943. (Feb. 9, 1990), pp. 699-702. click
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INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBALEcological Internet, Inc. http://www.ecologicalinternet.org/New version 2.0 sites:Climate Ark Climate Change and Global Warming PortalEcoEarth.Info Environment Portal http://www.ecoearth.info/Water Conserve: Water Conservation Portal http://www.waterconserve.org/
Rainforest Portal http://www.rainforestportal.org/
Forests.org http://forests.org/Solve Global Warming www.solveglobalwarming.com