forests

Conservationists arrested protesting logging in Tasmania and Sarawak by Malaysian Company Ta Ann

Conservationists have today participated in a protest on Hobart's wharf, where a vessel is being loaded for the Malaysian logging company Ta Ann. The protest highlights the ongoing loss of high conservation value temperate forests in Tasmania and the rapacious logging of tropical rainforests of Borneo and destructon of habitat for Orangutan and dispossession of the indigenous Penan people from their ancestral forests and lands.

"Four conservationists have attached themselves to the vessel, we are participating in today's non violent protest to highlight the ongoing loss of high conservation value forests," Huon Valley Environment Centre's Jenny Weber said.

Youtube video | Photos of the action

Forests play a major role as carbon sink say scientists

The world's forests remove over one quarter of current annual human carbon emissions from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of about 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon according to the latest published scientific research. An international team of scientists, including from the US Forests Service and the Australian CSIRO, have quantified the greenhouse gas carbon sink provided by the world's tropical, temperate and boreal forests.

Conservationists halt logging in Tasmania's Weld Valley

On sunday night fourteen forest activists walked into the Barnback Creek area in Tasmania's Weld Valley to protest continued logging of threatened old growth forests. At least one person is pole sitting locked on to forestry equipment.

"Huon Valley Environment Centre is calling for an immediate end to logging of high conservation value forests, urgent protection is vital. We are loosing critical endangered species habitat and forests of immense value," Huon Valley Environment Centre's Jenny Weber said.

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electionWIRE on YouTube! Young Australian voices on the 2010 election

Vibewire and YouTube team up on electionWIRE to bring fresh video reporting to the Australian federal election

electionWIRE on YouTube is calling citizen reporters to report the election their way.

It’s Election Time! The airwaves are buzzing with politics. Who will win? What do the parties and candidates represent? Who cares?

Today, Vibewire Youth Inc announces the launch of electionWIRE on YouTube, a dedicated channel for young Australians to have their say and to report the news of the Federal election their way.

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National day of action highlights local forest furnace threats

Tasmanian environment groups will join with communities around the country tomorrow to voice concerns in a nationwide Day of Action against the burning of native-forest products in power stations to generate electricity.

Wood-fired power generators would adversely impact Tasmania’s clean, clever brand and represent a major new threat to both high conservation-value forests and the ability to reach agreement around a lasting solution to the forestry crisis in Tasmania.

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Proposed Eden biomass power station an environmental and climate disaster

In April Conservation groups on the South Coast of New South Wales called on the Keneally Government to immediately reject a proposal for a Wood Fired biomass Power Station, nick named by them as 'Dead Koala Power', at the infamous Eden Woodchip Mill. South East Fibre Exports, a Japanese owned company, plans to use chipmill timber waste to generate electricity in a 5.5 megawatt $20million plant. The power station would be an environmental disaster for native forests and a climate disaster with greater CO2 pollution than coal fired power. Public submissions online on the assessment for the biomass power station can be made until April 22.

Related: Traditional owners, Conservationists Protest far South Coast Logging |
SEFE BioEnergy Project | Chipstop: Forests in the Furnace | Online Petition

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Traditional owners, conservationists protest far south coast logging

On Wednesday, April 14, more than 100 local people, led by three Aboriginal Traditional Owners, held a peaceful demonstration in the contested logging area of Mumbulla mountain on the far south coast of New South Wales. Mumbulla Mountain is sacred to the Yuin people and stronghold of the last koalas in the region between Bermagui and Bega. Logging of Mumbulla Forest koala habitat near Bega started on 29th March 2010. The traditional owners present said "We, the traditional owners of Mumbulla Mountain, are distressed that woodchip logging is taking place on part of our sacred land. The land should be handed over to us to care for it, our sacred sites and the animals that live here. We need to preserve it for our culture and our future generations."

Related: Proposed Eden biomass power station an environmental and climate disaster |
Youtube video: Mumbulla Mountain traditional owners say 'no' to logging | Mumbulla Photoset

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Youtube censors Greenpeace parody video at food giant Nestlé's behest

Nestlé, the world's leading food and drinks company, has had Greenpeace's new video removed from YouTube on copyright grounds. The video is a response to Nestlé sourcing palm oil from companies involved in the destruction of rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia. Palm oil is used in many popular Nestlé brands. The destruction of rainforest and peatlands for palm oil plantations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere making Indonesia one of the highest emitters of CO2 and contributing to global warming.

Related: Palm Oil Action | Greenpeace KitKat Campaign | Climate IMC: Climate change and Indonesian peatlands
There is a continuing Global consumer boycott of Nestlé over infant formula marketing.

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Coalition Climate Policy just "tinkering at the edges" say academics and scientists

While the politicians debate 5% emissions reduction under Kevin Rudd's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme or Tony Abbott's incentive based Emissions Reduction Fund, it may be instructive to go back to what the scientists say we need:
25-40% reduction in emissions by 2020 for a reasonable chance to avoid dangerous climate change and stay under 2 degrees warming.

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