Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 27 April 2022
LOGGING BURNS MUST STOP NOW
Today’s shocking reports show that smoke from logging burns has made the air quality in parts of Hobart and southern Tasmania worse and less healthy than in Beijing. This is the defining moment for Premier Rockliff to call off these appalling logging practices once and for all.
“While Federal Liberal and Labor MPs prepare this afternoon to attend a logging industry forum in Launceston and try and outdo each other on who supports the logging native forests more, people in Tasmania will be suffering from air pollution caused by logging. Every autumn, wildlife-rich native forests are hacked to the ground at a cost to the taxpayer of tens of millions of dollars. The forest remnants are then scraped into waste debris piles and burnt by incendiaries dropped from helicopters. This fills the atmosphere with the smoke we are experiencing today. This practice needs to end.” Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber said.
“Harming Tasmanians health is not acceptable by a logging industry that is taxpayer subsidised. It is and industry that is dangerous to climate, wildlife, and the environment,” Jenny Weber said.
“These post-logging infernos fill Tasmania’s air with toxic fumes. They release millions of tons of carbon into our struggling atmosphere,” Jenny Weber said.
“Premier Rockliff must stop this decimation of our forests, the carbon they store and their unique wildlife. Instead, native forests should be protected for their climate, wildlife, economic and water values,”
“These post-logging burns are not to be confused with fuel reduction burns. The extra smoke pollution from these massive post-logging burns is totally unnecessary. The plumes of toxic smoke are detrimental to human health, placing stress on people with respiratory issues,” Jenny Weber said.
Images courtesy Wilderness Society Tasmania.
