Tasmania
has permitted
logging in 1500 square miles of currently protected forests.
They claim that this is justified by "creating jobs", which is
standard bullshit for right-wing governments that decide to loot the
environment. (The same has been said to argue for
the Keystone
XL pipeline.) Of course, the same right-wing governments destroy
far more jobs through austerity. Take away a lot, give back a little
while screwing you, and say you should be grateful.
I do not consider trees sacred. If most of the Earth's wild forests
were still here, it would make sense to cut parts of them, just not
too much. But we've already come close to wiping out many ecosystems,
and now it is time to stop.
As we get closer to catastrophe, the money pressure attacking every
protected area or possible resource will grow. The plutocrats who
hope to profit will promise trickle-down to some of the masses they
have made desperate, so as to get them to support the looting. By the
time civilization can no longer support the sort of trade that makes
it profitable to cut down forests and ship the wood across the world,
we may have wiped out every last bit of forest in the final frenzy.
Mining threatens
to poison
the Scandinavian Arctic.