Fw: FOREST ALERT UPDATE: Tasmanian 'Gunnerment' Approves Pulp Mill as Federal Environment Minister Extends Approval Process by Six Weeks

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ACTION ALERT UPDATE PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

 

Tasmanian 'Gunnerment' Approves Pulp Mill as Federal

Environment Minister Extends Approval Process by Six Weeks

 

By Climate Ark & Forests.org, projects of Ecological Internet

http://www.climateark.org/ and http://forests.org/

August 30, 2007

 

TAKE ACTION

Please register your opposition NOW to the proposed Tasmanian

pulp mill as part of the public commenting period required for

federal environmental approval

http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=tasmania

 

UPDATE:

The Tasmanian state parliament has, as expected, approved the

proposed ancient forest fed pulp mill. However, in a positive

development, the Australian federal Environment Minister

Malcolm Turnbull has announced that he is extending the time

available to decide whether to grant federal environmental

approval for the project for another six weeks. This comes as

Australian and international protest is surging against the

ill-conceived, fast-tracked doubling of logging in Tasmania's

ancient forests for throw away paper products.

 

This provides extra time to let federal politicians know that

Australians and the World do not want or need this polluting

forest-hungry pulp mill. The momentum is on our side! The

alert has been updated and is now targeting the Environment

Minister. Please send or resend in order to have your concerns

registered within the federal public commenting process, which

offically ends on Friday, August 31st (but this alert will

remain live nonetheless). YOU MAY WANT TO NOTE WHETHER YOU ARE

AN AUSTRALIAN OR GLOBAL CITIZEN BY EDITING THE SAMPLE LETTER.

 

ORIGINAL ALERT:

Tasmania, Australia's woodchipping giant Gunns Ltd. is poised

to be granted fast track approval by the Tasmanian government

to build a massive chemical pulp mill in northern Tasmania.

This forest-hungry pulp mill will be a disaster for

Australia's ancient forests, climate, wildlife and future. If

built, the US$1.4 billion project would need four million

tonnes of logs a year. It would double Gunns' current rate of

clearcutting in Tasmania's native forests. It will also dump

thousands of tonnes of poisonous effluent into Bass Strait

every day, threatening marine life, tourism and the fishing

industry. For way too long Tasmania's ancient forests - some

containing massive eucalyptus trees - have been clearcut to

produce paper pulp, mostly for the Japanese market...

Continued markets for paper pulp from ancient forest

liquidation depend upon this disastrous pulp mill being forced

through the Australian legal system... the impact of this

massive pulp mill on Tasmania's ancient native forests, much

less regional and global climate, have not been considered.

Additionally Minister Turnbull has acknowledged there is

insufficient data available to assess the impacts of 64,000

tonnes a day of poisonous waste being released into Bass

Strait... (the) Gunns had already signed a contract with

construction firm John Holland to start building the pulp mill

" in the first week of September " ... At a time when Australia's

federal government is proposing funding ancient forest

protection and conservation internationally as a measure to a

combat climate change, it is hypocritical and repulsive that

Australia continues industrially clearing its own native

forests. Australia's ancient forests will still be logged,

even clearcut, for throw away consumer products; even as the

Australian government calls upon less developed and poor

nations to protect their forests for the climate.

 

TAKE ACTION NOW:

http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=tasmania

 

DISCUSS ALERT:

http://www.climateark.org/blog/2007/08/protest_australias_ancient_for.asp