Is it really a choice between "owls and jobs", do we really need to log our forests to save them, or is that just corporate spin to justify continuing subsidies for logging companies? What will be the future of our national forests...commodity or living legacy?
Forest protection is not only our obligation, but our responsibility as guardians of nature's treasures for future generations. By defending our forests from further destruction, we are protecting Mother Earth's health, her fragile eco-system (the forests are Mother Nature's lungs!) and ourselves.
Through different articles and events posted in this section, help us figure out how to secure the safety of our forests and ourselves. Please send us any and all pertinent information to: mamaearth@voiceyourself.com.
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Tropical Forest Aid Planned by Brazil, California
Remaining rainforrest in Brazil.
California pledged financial aid for efforts to curb logging in Indonesia and Brazil, aiming to slow deforestation that scientists say adds to global warming. State officials and governors of the two rainforest nations reached a preliminary agreement that become a part of California's 2006 climate-change law. Polluting companies in the state would get credit for meeting emissions-reductions rules by investing in forest-conservation efforts, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and officials from the two nations said at a climate-change conference.
By Adam Satariano - Bloomberg News , November 19, 2008
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Prince calls for rainforest bills
Prince Charles has called for rich countries to pay an annual "utility bill" for the benefits given to the world by its rainforests.
Speaking in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, the prince called rainforests the "world's greatest public utility".
They act as an air conditioner, store fresh water and provide work, he said.
The proposal by the Prince's Rainforest Project would generate funds allowing rainforest countries to change their practices and halt deforestation.
BBC News , November 3, 2008
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Seeing beyond the trees in the riddle of carbon capture
For our children's future.
Putting a price on carbon stored in the landscape is a double-edged sword. If implemented with foresight and planning it could be a critical tool in the fight against climate change and also a dynamic mechanism for breathing new life into restoration of our rural landscapes. If implemented poorly, its effectiveness in combating climate change will not only be reduced but will lead to less water for our parched rivers, the loss of productive farmland and more pressure on our declining biodiversity. While emissions reduction is the centrepiece for reducing climate change, there is good evidence that retaining and increasing vegetation cover, particularly of forests and woodlands, is an effective way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as an essential element of restoring the water and thermal balance of the planet.
By John Williams - The Canberra Times | Australia , October 01, 2008
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Of Mt. Kilimanjaro ice waving us good-bye due to deforestation
Melting ice caps of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The recent scientific theory linking the loss of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro to increased deforestation on the mountain`s foothills is more than sad news as far as the welfare of the mountain`s biodiversity is concerned. The theory is highlighted in a recent study report compiled by two researchers from Britain's Portsmouth University, who took eleven days to survey the mountain's glaciers. The researchers, who revealed their findings at a news conference in Dar es Salaam recently, said the mountain`s glacier surface had shrunk from 20 kilometres in 1880 to two kilometres in 2000.
By Emmanuel Kihaule - The Guardian | UK , September 05, 2008
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Truce Is Reached in Battle Over Idaho Forest Land
I do miss the forest...and the trees!
Legal and political battles over the future of national forest land have raged since 2001, with the Clinton administration’s “roadless rule” protecting millions of acres from loggers, miners and development, and the Bush administration pushing for less-restrictive rules. On Friday, Idaho, one of the most forested states in the country — and one of the most conservative — announced an unlikely truce. With the support of hunters, fishermen and some environmental groups, the state and the Bush administration agreed on regulatory safeguards for 9.3 million acres that had been designated as roadless areas by the Clinton administration — and thus free of commercial activity.
By Felicity Barringer - The New York Times , August 30, 2008
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Corruption 'threatens China rainforest'
Income from rubber has brought badly needed development.
Farmers in the tropical region of Xishuangbanna in China's south-west Yunnan province recently staged a protest, accusing local officials of colluding with the rubber industry to destroy the local rainforest. The BBC's Jill McGivering investigated their allegations, which the government denies.
BBC News , August 21, 2008
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World's tallest in arboreal witness protection
Young tree-huggers stretch in Prairie Creek Redwood State Park,
Hartley, executive director of the Save the Redwoods League, is one of a tiny group of people privy to a secret that I - and quite a lot of other people - would dearly love to know: the location of the tallest tree on the planet. Named Hyperion, it's a coastal redwood that soars 379 feet, 1.2 inches into the foggy North Coast sky. For comparison, stand on the corner of Fifth and Howard streets in San Francisco and crane your neck up at the new 32-story InterContinental Hotel. Put Hyperion next to it, and it would tower over the high-rise by 40 feet.
By John Flinn - The San Francisco Chronicle | Humboldt County, CA , August 17, 2008
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Court Ruling Threatens Protections for 58 Million Acres of...
Loging in our National Forest?
A Wyoming federal district court late Tuesday blocked the federal government from enforcing a landmark rule that protects more than 58 million acres of pristine national forest land from development. Judge William Brimmer’s decision against the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule attempts to remove protections for some 58.5 million acres of forest land to road-building, logging, mining, and oil- and gas-leasing. But today’s ruling directly conflicts with a 2006 ruling reinstating the rule by district court Judge Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco. The conflicting rulings both have national implications.
By Taylor McKinnon | Flagstaff, AZ - The Center for Biological Diversity , August 13, 2008
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Scientists warn forest clearing more harmful than thought
A forest fire in Victoria.
Clearing natural forests in Australia would pose a greater danger to the global climate than previously thought because they hold three times as much carbon as estimated, a report released Tuesday said. The Australian National University report warns that all nations, not just those in the developing world, should prevent the clearing of their forests because this could release huge amounts of harmful carbon into the atmosphere.
Agence France-Presse | Sydney, Australia , August 05, 2008
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Reshaping Society's Relationship with Nature
Does this look like a "resource"?
When nature is defined exclusively as “resource”, intrinsic value evaporates. “Worth” becomes understood strictly in terms of usefulness and economy, so that any right of wild nature to prevail on its own terms ends. No longer “our true home”, as described by Edward Abbey, nature depicted predominately as commercial engine isolates humanity from the rest of creation. No industry has had greater influence on society’s understanding of nature than the forest products industry, which, by reshaping the concept of "forest", distorts understanding of the larger natural world itself.
By William Willers, PhD - CounterPunch.org , July 28, 2008
