AUSTRALIA: Woodchipping 'absurd relic'
Copyright 2001
The Mercury, Hobart
November 21, 2001
By JOHN BRIGGS
AWARD-winning Swedish environmentalist Dagmar Nordberg has described the destruction of Tasmanian native forests for woodchipping as appalling -- "an absurd relic of the past".
"I cannot believe that Tasmanians will continue to allow their unique heritage to be so callously shredded," said Mrs Nordberg, last year's Swedish Environmentalist of the Year and winner of many other environmental accolades in Europe. Mrs Nordberg, an architect, is visiting the state for the second time, having contributed to the Basslink project debate earlier this ear.
She is staying with friends in Fern Tree while working on writing projects.
"Europeans like me have an image of the clean, green state of Tasmania, and we celebrate people like nature photographers Peter Dombrovskis and Olegas Truchanas," she said.
She could not believe it when she was told how Tasmania's tall trees "leave the country in woodchip carriers, becoming Japanese copy paper or burnt for energy production".
"I could not believe a civilised country, rich and forward-thinking like Australia could do that," she said.
Mrs Nordberg queried what road Tasmania was taking when she saw a World Heritage sign on the right side of the road and signs warning her of 1080 poisoning on the left.
She said this "short-sighted Third World economic thinking by governments is destroying your heritage".
She said: "At the beginning of the 21st century this is inconceivable and it
would not happen in any part of Europe lucky enough to still have trees in abundance."
She said no argument could justify woodchipping native forests to save jobs, because "there are so many more jobs in preserving some of the great forests left in the world -- woodchipping should be an absurd relic of the past".