2008-12-16
Seven activists were charged with trespass today after shutting down Gunns’ Triabunna mill for over seven hours this morning. Fifteen people occupied the woodchip mill at 4:45am, with seven activists attaching themselves to a conveyor belt and other machinery.
“The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme White Paper makes it plain that the Federal ALP is not committed to ‘serious and credible’ emissions reductions. There is a failure by policy makers to grasp that we are facing a climate emergency – the policies proposed by the White Paper will result in the disappearance of Tasmania’s unique alpine ecosystems, the collapse of the Barrier Reef, and the salination of Kakadu,” Huon Valley Environment Centre spokesperson said.
“Targets of a 5% reduction by 2020 are pitiful and internationally humiliating. The Australian Government’s increased assistance to large emitters provides a clear demonstration that their priorities lie with heavily polluting big business, and not with Australia’s people and natural environment,” Warrick Jordan said.
“In Tasmania, the logging, burning and woodchipping of old growth forest releases massive quantities of carbon. Gunns Limited is the driver of this grossly irresponsible and morally reprehensible situation,” Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson said.
“Gunns hides this immense climate crime behind official carbon accounting figures which exclude the logging of native forest. Tasmania’s old growth forests are globally significant as unique ecosystems and carbon stores, and their protection can play a significant role in Australia taking real climate action,” SWST
“The Tasmanian Government has publicly expressed a will to address climate change. If the Bartlett government is serious about addressing climate change then it will legislate an end to old growth logging” concluded SWST.