Local conservation group asks province to cancel cutblocks containing ancient yellow cedars and unofficial bear sanctuary
A new plan plotting the course of the logging industry on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast over the next five years has placed a treasured forest, home to some of Canada’s oldest trees and an unofficial bear sanctuary, on the chopping block.
SARS, Ebola and now SARS-CoV-2: all three of these highly infectious viruses have caused global panic since 2002—and all three of them jumped to humans from wild animals that live in dense tropical forests.
Companies can cut down whole trees to be ground into pellets for fuel if they are “inferior,” says British Columbia’s natural resources ministry, a position that has led to concerns the government is "rebranding" old growth forests as low-quality in order to justify logging them.
When illegal logging turned their green, pine-covered hills into an ecological wasteland, the people of the Mexican indigenous town of Cheran decided to arm themselves with rifles and reclaim their land.
Today, eight years after rising up against illegal loggers and the drug cartel behind them, Cheran is practically an independent enclave tucked into the lawless mountains of western Mexico.
Bureau forecasts heatwave while fire authorities say dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks
• How big are the fires burning on the east coast of Australia?
• ‘Get the hell out of Dodge’: the fight to save homes from the NSW central coast inferno
Dec. 7, 2019
Dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks, fire authorities say, including a “mega-fire”, already the size of greater Sydney, that is too big to put out.
As is well known, the state of the forest industry and the forests themselves in British Columbia has deteriorated in the last 20 years, a culmination of longstanding bad policies and practices. Big corporations have shut down dozens of mills devastating workers and communities across the province. And there are many other problems.
The forests are unhealthy, plagued by insect infestations, decimation of old growth trees, poor planting practices, environmental deregulation, and so on.
While many Canadians are looking to the October 21st federal election for solutions to global climate disruption, the climate plans from the four major parties offer none.
Any genuine solution will require reining in an economic system that demands eternal growth in a finite ecosystem, mitigating or adapting to multiplying environmental and social disasters, and drastically reducing consumption. Deadline: yesterday!
Ted Hogg’s research usually takes him much deeper in Canada’s boreal forest — but on a chilly day strolling through Edmonton’s river valley, it doesn’t take long before he sees examples of the damage he’s looking for.
Pointing to several of the snow bearing trees, he indicates the deaths he’s already witnessing from climate change.
