Like the threat of nuclear war, rapid climate change and global warming, have become one of the biggest issues of concern for people all over the world. Yet, the feeling that governments are not up to the task of dealing with this problem has been recently highlighted by the collapse of the Global Climate Change Conference in The Hague. The main reason for the collapse of this summit was because of world anger with perceived greenhouse target cheating by wealthy countries like Australia, the US, Japan and Canada, who have advocated the use of plantation forestry as “carbon sinks”.

Global Warming: A Summary.
Global warming is mainly caused by a build up of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, as a result of burning fossil fuels (oil, gas & coal), and clearing forests. It has already become part of our lives, and enough scientific evidence is around now to ensure it can no longer be denied.

Direct consequences of global warming include:

•  Global sea levels have risen about 10 centimetres during the last century.

 (US Geological survey. 1999)
 
• Parts of the Antarctic have had a mean annual increase in temperature of about 2 degrees Celsius since the 1940s (British Antarctic Survey. 1999)

•  A special layer of the outer atmosphere (its lowest part starting about 300 kilometres from the Earth’s surface) has thinned in concentration by about 8 kilometres, over the past 38 years as a result of global warming. (British Antarctic Survey. 2000) It’s these special outer atmospheric layers, which among other things, help protect us from the sun’s harmful UV radiation.

• The 1990s were the hottest decade since record keeping began in 1866, the Greenland icecap is thinning by 2.5 centimetres every year, and European glaciers have lost around half their volume since 1850. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1995 report)

How have Australian Governments reacted to global warming?
The recent Climate Change conference in The Hague has highlighted how governments like Australia. Canada, Japan and the US have now resorted to “carbon trading” which is to say that instead of stopping land clearing and reducing fossil fuel dependence, they are now promoting tree plantations as “carbon sinks” as a way of meeting the already watered down greenhouse reduction targets set at the Kyoto Summit held in 1997.

In short, these countries have argued that they don’t need to cut fossil fuel emissions or land clearing because they’re establishing massive plantations to “soak up” the carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industry and land clearing. The big fossil fuel and forest industries must be very supportive of such an argument!

Plantation forestry has been welcomed and assisted by all tiers of government in Australia.

The 2020 Vision Strategy: A Cheat’s Charter?
To promote “carbon trading” Governments have given us the document called “Plantations for Australia-The 2020 Vision” which is the blueprint for the massive campaign of plantation forestry now sweeping large parts of Tasmania.

You would also think conservationists would be ecstatic about a blueprint to put in more tree plantations, but like a lot of things, closer examination of an attractive idea can reveal a far more sinister story. Predictably, conservationists have agreed with farming groups in expressing alarm at the way plantation forestry has been conducted in Tasmania.

The “2020 Vision” has its main goal of trebling Australia’s plantation area by the year 2020, to more than 3 million hectares, which means planting around 90,000 hectares per year. It is a joint initiative of three major forest industry associations, along with Commonwealth, State and territory governments.

There are around 16 Regional Plantation Committees, which are funded by the Commonwealth Government to promote and facilitate the development of plantation forestry. There’s no mention of any environmentalists on these committees, which are being charged with adopting the “2020 Vision” goals and objectives. This committee is also charged with investigating issues around local and state government land use and planning laws, and how they can be adjusted to facilitate plantation expansion.
 

The 2020 Vision: The Juggernaut Doctrine? The partnerships in this “2020 Vision” strategy obviously mean business, because there’s a very disturbing sentence in the “Summary” section at the very beginning of the document, which says “The (2020 Vision) strategy aims to remove legislative, technical, commercial and cultural impediments to plantation establishment”. Stanton R, Plantations for Australia- the 2020 vision. International Forestry Review 1999; 1 (3); 189-193.

Such a statement can only be read as meaning that nothing can stand in the way of this strategy, not even the people’s rights, expressed through democratic institutions forming legislation on their behalf!

Weakness in the "2020 Vision" Plantation Argument
Closer examination of this plantation strategy reveals some important weaknesses, and inconsistencies.

•  We already have enough plantations in Tasmania to cater for demand (nearly 180,000 hectares). Competing States and countries are also beefing up their plantation activity, which is soon likely to result in a huge worldwide timber glut. The world demand for timber products is predicted to continue heading down, therefore the current plantation drive doesn't make economic sense!

• In Tasmania, huge tracts of more mature forests (which are the most efficient greenhouse gas eaters) are being cleared to make way for plantation forests, which in itself results in the release of more greenhouse gases. Large amounts of  forest material is heaped up and burned, pumping further greenhouse gases into the air.

• The new plantation trees are nowhere near at good as absorbing carbon dioxide as the forests systems they replaced, and in 10 to 15 year cycles, they too will be clear felled releasing still more greenhouse gases. (Remember, these plantations have no understorey or mid leaf stories, like old forests, to absorb carbon dioxide).

• 10 times the amount of carbon stored in forests, is still in the ground as fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal), therefore forests are physically unable to absorb all the carbon we could release.

A Remedy Ignored.
It's accepted that only reductions in fossil fuel emissions and destructive land clearing activities will begin to turn around the greenhouse gas problem. Failing to address these twin causes will be seen by many as merely window dressing.

In the mind of opponents to the current style plantation forestry, governments appear only to be listening to the voice of big fossil fuel and forest industries. It is hard to dismiss this view while governments, which should know the truth about this issue, make no efforts to tackle the real causes of greenhouse gasses, and cunningly invent things like the "2020 Vision" strategy to appear to address the problem, when in fact they're adding to it!

Australian governments are showing no leadership in fighting one of our Planet’s most pressings problems, and appear to only have 2020 vision for seeing a way out of doing what they know to be responsible!