Ken Wu Speaks out for Old Growth at Copenhagen Climate Talks
Wilderness Committee campaigner Ken Wu is in Copenhagen, drawing attention to the value of our remaining ancient forests on Vancouver Island for storing carbon. This past week he joined hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for Canada’s government to take real action on climate change.
Ken spoke at the conference on climate change in Copenhagen on Monday, December 14, about Vancouver's forests and their effect on the environment. He based his most recent information on a report issued by the Sierra Club, ‘State of British Columbia’ Coastal Rainforest: Mapping the Gaps for Ecological Health and Climate Protection’ released Sunday, which noted that industrial logging over the decades has decimated old-growth tracts to below the level needed to preserve species.
Decades of "industrial logging" have reduced vast tracts of old-growth coverage to below the 30 per cent per ecosystem mark -- the amount needed to preserve species. More than two million hectares of rainforest ecosystems on BC’s coast, mostly on Vancouver Island and the south coast, are now below that critical limit.
Logging removes BC’s carbon-storage capability, and also contributes to the province's greenhouse-gas emissions, through heavy equipment and the release of carbon dioxide when trees are cut. Logging on Vancouver Island alone has caused the release of 370 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With climate change so important to face, we need more effort put into protecting our remaining old-growth forests.
Ken spoke at the conference on climate change in Copenhagen on Monday, December 14, about Vancouver's forests and their effect on the environment. He based his most recent information on a report issued by the Sierra Club, ‘State of British Columbia’ Coastal Rainforest: Mapping the Gaps for Ecological Health and Climate Protection’ released Sunday, which noted that industrial logging over the decades has decimated old-growth tracts to below the level needed to preserve species.
Decades of "industrial logging" have reduced vast tracts of old-growth coverage to below the 30 per cent per ecosystem mark -- the amount needed to preserve species. More than two million hectares of rainforest ecosystems on BC’s coast, mostly on Vancouver Island and the south coast, are now below that critical limit.
Logging removes BC’s carbon-storage capability, and also contributes to the province's greenhouse-gas emissions, through heavy equipment and the release of carbon dioxide when trees are cut. Logging on Vancouver Island alone has caused the release of 370 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With climate change so important to face, we need more effort put into protecting our remaining old-growth forests.
