Open letter – various doctors, 6 June 2023
End native forest logging: Doctors urge Tasmanian Government to follow Victoria
Victoria’s state government recently announced an end to all native forest logging in their state by January 2024. Just over two years ago 250 Tasmanian doctors and medical students signed an open letter to the then Tasmanian Premier and Minister for Climate Change Peter Gutwein calling for an end to native forest logging to protect their patients from climate change related health threats.
Native forests provide vast carbon stores critical to the mitigation of climate change. Climate change is widely acknowledged, including by the World Health Organization, to be the greatest threat to human health this century.
We, as the group of doctors who organised the original open letter, were pleased to see the leadership shown by the Victorian Government in announcing and budgeting for an end to native forest logging. This follows Western Australia’s plans to similarly end native forest logging.
Sadly we are yet to see this wisdom and foresight from our own Tasmanian Government. We are concerned that the clear evidence of climate related harms from native forest logging is being ignored. The lack of a plan to end to native forest logging and for a just transition for forestry workers represents a missed opportunity, when we in Tasmania are so well-placed to be a global leader in climate solutions.
As doctors, we have an ethical obligation to stand up for our health, just as our profession has done in the past when it came to smoking, HIV/ AIDS, and recently during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The medical evidence is clear: climate change is the biggest threat to our health this century and is affecting us now, in variable ways including the increasing adverse weather events such as bushfires and storms, the untold mental health burden from the trauma of these experiences, increased deaths from heat waves, and increased rates of asthma, emphysema, heart attacks and strokes from bushfire smoke, to name a few. It is time we act upon the evidence for the health of future generations.
Ending native forest logging is an essential prescription to safeguard our climate and our health. We must join Victoria and WA in ending the destruction of our native forests.
Dr Darren Briggs, General Practitioner
Dr Lydia Birch, Emergency Medicine Registrar
Dr Fiona Beer, Rural Generalist Registrar
Dr Chester James-Smith, Resident Medical Officer
Dr Felicity Rea, General Practitioner
Dr Jim Duff, retired General Practitioner
Dr Elizabeth Haworth, Public Health Physician
Open letter – Vets for Climate Action, 6 June 2023
VfCA writes to Tasmanian Premier and Minister for Resources calling for a halt to logging of native forests
VfCA Chair Dr Jeannet Kessels, volunteers Dr Janet Berry and Dr Mariska Hall, and former Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Ron Glanville, have written to Tasmanian Premier and Minister for Resources. VfCA is calling for a halt to the logging of native forests in Tasmania
We highlighted the value the natural environment provides to our economy and society, the importance of biodiversity to the threatened species of Tasmania and the urgency posed by the climate crisis. VfCA is urging the Tasmanian Government to recognise its responsibility to future generations, acknowledge the full value of the old forests in Tasmania, and declare a date for the end of native logging in the state.
We hope Tasmania will follow the lead of the Victorian Government who recently announced the end of native logging by 2024.
A copy of the letter is available here.
If you would like to write your own letter to your MP, here are some tips to communicating on climate.
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The Honourable Jeremy Rockliff MP Premier of Tasmania Email: j[email protected]
The Honourable Felix Ellis MP Minister for Resources Email: [email protected]
6 June 2023
Dear Premier Rockliff and Minister Ellis
We write to you, representing over 2000 subscribers, mostly from Australia’s veterinary profession, together with a group of 34 retired Chief Veterinary and Senior Government Officers from most states and territories of Australia.
We ask you to call a halt to the logging of native forests in Tasmania.
The natural environment lays the foundation for our economy, our society, indeed our very existence. The forests, rivers, oceans and soils provide us with the clean water we drink, the clean air we breathe, the resources for food production and a source of medicines. The world now recognises the need to value nature1. The full capital value of Tasmania’s native forests and trees should be determined, publicly acknowledged and balanced against the short-term profit from chopping them down for pulp.
The climate is now in crisis as global temperatures threaten to exceed 1.5C of warming within the next five years. The Climate Council recommends that Australia cuts its greenhouse gas emissions 75 percent by 2030 (based on 2005 levels), and aim to reach net zero by 2035, in order to play our part in avoiding a global climate catastrophe2. Tasmania already claims to have reached net zero, a claim that relies on the value of the trees and forests and their role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Biodiversity, the range of animals, plants and microorganisms, is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including human life. A United Nations report has determined that about one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history 3.
1 https://www.un.org/en/can-we-measure-value-nature
2 https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-does-net-zero-emissions-mean/
3 https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
The Tasmanian Threatened Species Lists 4 documents more than 650 species of plants and animals that are currently threatened in Tasmania, including well known examples, the Tasmanian devil, spotted-tail and eastern quolls, eastern-barred bandicoot, wedge-tailed eagles, masked owl, swift parrot as well as lesser-known invertebrates and plants. Logging operations destroy the habitat for many of these endangered species, resulting in their death or displacement.
The agricultural industry recognises the importance of climate mitigation, renewable farming, and conservation of the environment. Food exports from Tasmania in the future may depend on sustainable production systems. Hence it is vital that the Tasmanian government supports these next-generation farming practices by having a full and robust policy to protect the environment.
Tasmania attracts many visitors, whether to explore the wilderness areas, visit wildlife sanctuaries, engage in mountain biking, or enjoy the good food and wine produced. If the old growth forests continue to be violated, the eco-friendly reputation of Tasmania will be forever tainted.
At the UN Climate Change conference in 2021, Australia was among 145 countries that reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable management and restoration of forests 5. The Western Australian Government has announced native forest logging will end from 20246. The Victorian Government has announced native timber harvesting in state forests will end in 20247.
We urge the Tasmanian Government to recognise its responsibility to future generations, acknowledge the full value of the old forests in Tasmania, and declare a date for the end of native logging.
Yours sincerely
| Dr Jeannet Kessels BVSc Hons
Dr Ron Glanville BSc, BVSc, MVS Chair, Vets for Climate Action Convenor, the Former Chief Veterinary Officers Group 0423 018 678 |
| Dr Mariska Hall BVSc
Dr Janet Berry Phd BVMS Volunteer, Veterinarians for Climate Action, Volunteer, Veterinarians for Climate Action, Tasmania Tasmania |
4
5
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230418175226/https://ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and -land-use/
6 https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/protecting-western-australias-native-forests
7 https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/delivering-certainty-timber-workers
Helen Adkins
June 7, 2023 at 12:53
We should end native forest logging to not only save the ancient trees which are thousands of years old, but also to reject the advice of uneducated people.
The British colonists started logging all the Australian forests in their own determination to produce sheep for wool and meat. This devastation has inflicted more burdens on our doctors for consuming gluttonous amounts of meat, not venison which is far healthier. The Indigenous people are far from happy with this insatiable greed for logging, and must surely be laughing at the IQ of these people about all the flooding caused by that logging and ridding the topsoil of all the boulders and nutrients from trees.
We should learn a lot more from our indigenous people through their attitudes to burning and logging. Soon there will not be a planet Earth for us any more.
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Helen, please do not use the ampersand symbol as you did several times in your Comment above. The ampersand symbol is appropriate terminology for terms such as Matthew & Son, but not as a shorthand abbreviation for the word “and” within a body of text.
— Moderator
Teresa Maddox
June 7, 2023 at 18:51
Both Tasmania’s major political parties continue to support this state’s forestry industry despite the climate crisis the world is facing and the decades of taxpayer handouts! Why? The current Liberal government is even intending to open more reserves for logging!
There must be a lot of voters in favour of logging native forests here in Tasmania, for how else can you explain such stupidity?
Thinker
June 8, 2023 at 12:35
What are the actual formal and verifiable qualifications of worthiness and suitability for a person’s election to Parliament?
What are the actual formal and verifiable qualifications for a politician’s elevation to a Ministry?
What is the mandatory minimum Intelligence Quotient level, and the mandatory schooling educational levels, required for both?