11 September, 2010

Time of reckoning

Jill Redwood, co-ordinator, Environment East Gippsland Inc, Goongerah
The Age (Letter), 11 September 2010

WHY have governments fought so hard against public opinion on logging and woodchipping native forests? Gunns has finally succumbed to the moral argument and the demands of the market, but will Mr Brumby also move into the security of plantations and into the 21st century? He will look terribly backward if his government resists.

To continue to support forest destruction at a time of extreme climate conditions and carbon constraint is backward.

In the Supreme Court last month, logging was shown to be a threat to Victoria's endangered wildlife. It has also been shown to dry out water catchments, require subsidies, be unpopular and account for 20 per cent of our annual greenhouse pollution. Now that the logging union and Gunns are happy to move out of native forests, will our Labor government stop supporting the conflict and do what 80 per cent of the voters want - get out of native forests.

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