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CO2 is released when soil is disturbed

What the experts say

The world needs our native forests more than ever now as carbon sinks, and yet Commonwealth and State Governments continue to subsidise their destruction as woodchips.
Greenhouse gases generated by logging are immense, far more than what the efforts of individuals, families and whole communities can save by living sustainably. 
In spite of this, the Australian Government's current intention is to deem greenhouse emissions from logging to be "zero."

NSW and Victorian forests logged for the Eden chipmill produce between 10 and 20 million* tonnes of CO2 per year. This is equivalent to:

More than every car in Sydney or Melbourne off the road for a year from just the NSW logging.

approximately 20 times the greenhouse emissions saved by the whole of Australia per year from the recently announced ban on the incandescent light globe (source: media statement, then Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, 20 February 2007 which says the ban will save 800,000 tonnes per year from 2008 to 2012).

257 times the greenhouse emissions saved by the Bega Valley Shire Council moving to renewable electricity or giving up electricity altogether (source: CleanEnergyForEternity plan: 7,211 tonnes CO2 per year generated by BVSC).

In addition to direct CO2 and/or equivalent emissions, there are also major greenhouse emissions such as:

• 14.5 million truck kilometres per year for log deliveries to the chipmill, a further 2 million tonnes.

• The power used to chip and process the logs

• Post logging burning
• Shipping of chips to Japan, approximately 0.5m tonnes per year.
   

Sendai Paper Mill, Japan
LINKS

Woodchipping Sux: campaign materials on forests and global warming. http://www.woodchippingsux.net.au/global warming.htm

Zero Emission Network - Forest and Climate Change http://www.zeroemissionnetwork.org.au/facts-and-figures-forests

Vote Climate http://voteclimate.org.au/

Australian Greenhouse Office http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/ http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/nav/databases.html

Rising Tide Australia Grassroots climate action
http://www.risingtide.org.au/

Clean Energy for Eternity http://thebegavalley.org.au/cefe.html

Australian Conservation Foundation http://www.acfonline.org.au

Green Carbon Counts  http://www.naturalnativeforests.org/

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*This figure may be subject to some fine tuning as more research is undertaken. In SE NSW there is approx 14,500 ha logged per year (source: ForestsNSW) to supply the chipmill. A further 1,000 ha is logged in the Tumut region and 5,500 ha in East Gippsland.  Estimates of CO2 equivalent released into the atmosphere range between 700 and 1,000 tonnes CO2 per ha logged, depending on the forest type. This equates to somewhere between 10 and 20 million tonnes CO2 from NSW  and Victorian forests.

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"Simulations of carbon storage suggest that conversion of old growth forest to young fast growing forest will not decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in general, as has been suggested recently. During simulated timber harvest, on-site carbon storage is reduced considerably and does not approach old growth storage capacity for at least 200 years. Even when sequestration of carbon in wooden buildings is included in the models, timber harvest results in a net flux of CO2 to the atmosphere." Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests, Mark E. Harmon; William K. Ferrell; Jerry F. Franklin Science, New Series, Vol. 247, No. 4943. (Feb. 9, 1990), pp. 699-702. click
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