[Pil-pc-oceania] Environment groups wary of Austn carbon sink schemes

[Deb Guildner]

 Breaking Rural News : AGRIBUSINESS AND GENERAL

     Doubts raised over trees for carbon plan
      By STEPHANIE PEATLING - Australia
      Friday, 21 September 2007

      Trees planted as part of a Federal Government scheme to make 
offsetting greenhouse gas emissions tax deductible will not have to be 
native varieties and there will be no legal mechanism to prevent them being 
chopped down.
      Legislation creating a tax deduction for the cost of carbon sink 
forests was debated in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens raising 
concerns about the extent to which the scheme would be environmentally 
beneficial.

      "This tax amendment provides for the planting of so-called carbon 
sinks, but there is no definition of a carbon sink . The important thing is 
that there is no requirement for the trees to stay in the ground for any 
length of time," Greens Senator Christine Milne said.

      The Greens want the legislation amended so that trees that are planted 
to create a sink are natives, must remain in the ground for at least 100 
years and must first be subject to an assessment of the amount of water it 
would take to sustain them.

      Senator Milne predicted a riot in rural Australia at the idea 
companies would "effectively use their profits to take land out of 
agricultural production and take water out of agricultural production" to 
create sinks.

      But the Government refused to back the amendments, accusing the Greens 
of being "anti-forestry and anti-trees".

      "Providing carbon sinks is either important or it is not . If we 
believe greenhouse gases are a real problem then we should be encouraging 
this type of activity," the Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Eric 
Abetz, said.

      The tax deduction was announced in the May budget as part of a 
Government response to the growing trend for carbon offsets.

      Companies globally are scrambling to offer offsets as a way of 
assuring consumers the firms' products are not contributing to climate 
change.

      But concerns have been raised about the lack of regulation of the 
schemes in Australia, with several companies found not to have planted the 
trees they promised to.

      Carbon sink trees also face the risk of bushfires.

      Ideally, offsetting allows companies to plant enough trees to trap the 
same amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that would be 
created by the manufacture of their products.

      Environment groups remain wary of the schemes, fearing profiteering in 
the new market and claiming there is too long a lag time between when the 
pollution is generated and when the tree absorbs carbon dioxide.

      SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald, a Fairfax Media publication.

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tamara griffiths" <scarletwoman at hotmail.com>
To: <pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 3:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] books/lesson plans for kids permaculture


>I am wondering how we'd teach kids/young adults a PDC?
> What is the youngest anyone has heard of someone doing a PDC?
>
> I have two girls that come round most days and we make compost, plant, dig
> swales, feed chooks etc, and I explain stuff to them but it's not the same
> as doing a PDC...
>
> Love Tamara
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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