What Malcolm Turnbull told me

Barnaby Drake

Malcolm Turnbull in one of his replies to me stated …
The pulp mill will not add 2% to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Australian Greenhouse Office advises that because the mill will use renewable wood waste for energy it is likely to be either carbon neutral or have a low emission profile compared with the “business as usual” base case of woodchip production and export to pulp mills overseas. Remember power stations fuelled with renewable fuels (biomass) qualify under the MRET scheme in many circumstances. That is why ethanol and bio-diesel are regarded as green fuels.

The Mill WILL add 10.2 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, even though it burns wood waste. The CO2 doesn’t simply disappear if it comes from wood. The world figures are that forest burns actually cause 20% of the total greenhouse gases, and this is no exception. They are offsetting it against plantations, and plantations actually are carbon positive for the first ten years of growth. There are many reports on this, including a large article in the Manchester Guardian la short while ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/03/food.climatechange

However, it is a pretty serious situation for the people of the Tamar Valley and Launceston, as this adds into the inversion layer of the area and has been estimated by the AMA to be a direct cause in an increased death rate from pulmonary diseases in the area, including asthma, etc.

MRET has refused to accredit the scheme and it does not have a green profile. It has nothing whatsoever to do with ethanol or bio-fuels which are produced from a yearly crop, and even they are starting to create environmental problems throughout the world. (See above article.)

I cannot believe that the chief scientist of Australia was unaware of these facts. This misinformation has been taken straight out of the mouths of John Gay and Paul Lennon.

Maybe the subject for an ICAC report?