[Greens-Media] Bartlett's forest carbon ignorance costly for Tasmania: Greens

[Hollo, Tim (Sen C. Milne)]

Bartlett's forest carbon ignorance costly for Tasmania: Greens

Canberra, Tuesday 21 October 2008

Premier Bartlett's ignorance of the global significance of forest carbon
and the economic opportunities that it provides will cost Tasmania
dearly in both financial and biodiversity terms, Australian Greens
Senator Christine Milne, said today.

Senator Milne has just returned from the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature Congress in Barcelona where protection of
standing forests was seen as a global priority in the climate effort.
Investment in the ecosystem and climate services mature forests provide
is central to the "New Green Deal" that is to be launched in Europe
tomorrow by top global economists and UN leaders.

Premier Bartlett, on the other hand, told The Australian newspaper that
"I don't think the logging of old-growth forests is necessarily related
to climate change" and called the clear global position that standing
forests are more valuable than logged forests "bullshit".

Senator Milne said "Premier Bartlett's ignorance is matched only by his
crassness and crudity in dismissing world-leading scientific research on
our forest carbon stores.

"As the world recognises that old growth forests provide hugely valuable
services in providing clean air and water and storing carbon, Tasmania's
Government is moving to destroy our most valuable resource and the rich
biodiversity forests contain.

"Does Premier Bartlett think he knows more than Lord Stern, the IPCC,
UNEP, IUCN and the World Bank, who are all advocating ways to stop
logging in tropical and temperate forests across the globe? Does he
think he knows more than the countless entrepreneurs who are already
investing hundreds of millions of dollars in protecting those forests in
the voluntary global carbon market?

"Premier Barlett made much of generational change but it is now clear
that he is the younger face of the Bacon Lennon old guard with its
closed mind and open wallet logging industry policy. Ignorance is
neither kind nor clever."

"The world is changing. The old economic model of short term profit, of
'chop it down, dig it up and ship it overseas', is being swept aside by
the tide of the new, green economy.

"Just as Franklin D Roosevelt restored economic stability in the wake of
the 1929 stockmarket collapse with his New Deal, so too the Green New
Deal is designed to inject global investment spending into securing the
environment for future generations.

"If Premier Bartlett is unwilling or unable to get on board with the new
economy, he should get out of the way and let those who are ready to
embrace the future lead Tasmania into the 21st century."

Contact: Tim Hollo on 0437 587 562

Tim Hollo
Media Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
ph: (02) 6277 3588
mob: 0437 587 562

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