GetUp: The fake environment group …

Next week the World Heritage Committee meets in Doha, Qatar to decide the future of Tasmania’s World Heritage forests. We have received some troubling news: there’s a fake environment group founded by the IPA getting in the ears of key international negotiators, making an “environmental case” for the delisting of Tassie’s World Heritage forests. We need to send an urgent and unmissable message to the 21 delegates who make up the Committee. Click here to take immediate action: https://www.getup.org.au/cover-doha

Dear Member,

It’s a low, dirty, deceitful trick. The so-called “Australian Environment Foundation”, founded by anti-environment, conservative think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), has been lobbying the World Heritage Committee1. This ultra-conservative group are pretending to represent the Australian environment movement, urging Committee members to support the Federal Government’s proposal to remove Tasmania’s ancient forests from the prestigious World Heritage listing — so that the loggers can move in.

The future of Tassie’s forests are on the table at the World Heritage Committee meeting next week in Doha, Qatar, which means we’ve got to act quickly and boldly to make it crystal clear that Australians want our World Heritage sites to remain protected.

If the IPA-founded “Australian Environment Foundation” succeeds in confusing the Committee they could either keep Tony Abbott’s anti-forest-protection proposal on the table for years to come — or worse still, vote to support it.

Here’s the plan: we cut through this conservative deceit by purchasing 60 billboards saturating the area around the Doha airport and conference centre. This will ensue the delegates won’t forget the real beauty of Tasmania’s forests and the widespread public support their protection. We managed to find a great last-minute rate and can get the billboards for $583 each, but with the conference next week we need to lock them in fast. Can you chip in?

https://www.getup.org.au/cover-doha

The “Australian Environment Foundation” sounds like a friendly, credible group of conservationists — you might expect such a group to have a cute leafy logo and run brilliant campaigns to protect stunning old-growth forests. Their misleading branding couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather, they’re a collective of climate sceptics, deforestation enthusiasts and conservative spin doctors. Besides fighting against our forests, they support cattle grazing in national parks, claim our Reef is healthier than ever, and are “of the firm view that there is no evidence to support a significant link between CO2 emissions and global warming”.3

Their deceptive name is allowing them to claim they are rational environmentalists — we can’t let them get away with it. If we move swiftly we’re certain that we can drown out their lies – because we are 50,000 times bigger than they are. The “Australian Environment Foundation” are reported to have only 120 supporters4, while the total sum of people campaigning to maintain Tassie’s World Heritage protection adds up to over 6 million world-wide5. Yet even with their tiny supporter base they’re managing to stir things up – we need to respond, fast.

Our campaign has involved epic petitions, domestic advertising campaigns and powerful letter-writing efforts – but now it’s time to go international. We’re hoping to make this our largest international advertising campaign ever, because we know we can win this if we pull out all the stops.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature just released its formal recommendation to the World Heritage Committee. They said the Australian government’s proposal was “clearly inappropriate for consideration” and that it would “impact negatively on the outstanding universal value of the property”.2 If we can build enough pressure and eliminate any confusion we can make sure the Committee heed their advice.

Click here to chip in to cover Doha with images of Tassie’s beautiful forests to set the record straight. Each billboard is $583 and we need to book all sixty of them.

Like you, we’re furious that a conservative right-wing think-tank believe that they can get away with pretending to represent us. But I know that we’re much more powerful than them when we come together – luckily that’s what we do best.

We’re more powerful than them – let’s prove it,
Paul, Michael and the GetUp team

PS – We need to cover Doha with 60 stunning billboards of Tassie’s forests. That’s why, if you buy a whole billboard yourself, to say thanks, we’ll send you a photo of it and a map, showing you its specific location in Doha! Delivery may take a few weeks. Chip in here: https://www.getup.org.au/cover-doha

[1] IPA-founded group lobbying for forest world heritage delisting, The Guardian, 15 May 2014
[2] AEF Online, 5 June 2014
[3] Fourteen wind energy myths debunked, Reneweconomy, 19 June 2012
[4] Joint Statement on Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, The Wilderness Society, 28 May 2014