Brown responds to loggers' lobby

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has put logging of Australia's native forests on the negotiating agenda with Prime Minister Rudd and the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong.

"I have explained to the Prime Minister, in detail, the latest research from the Australian National University showing the carbon emissions from logging native forests in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, could be more than ten times (1000%) above government estimates," Senator Brown said.

"I have also outlined the compound disaster awaiting many rare Australian plant and animal species if both logging and global warming proceed as projected - for example, one third of Australia's bird species may be extinct this century," Senator Brown said.

"Not surprisingly, the native forests destruction industry has come out with its twisted barrel blazing. At recent Senate hearings, the industry was unable to provide any figures on the greenhouse gas emissions from cutting down and burning wild forests. The industry is into studied ignorance.

"The Tasmanian Minister for Forest Destruction, David Llewellyn, has no idea of the emissions from logging the Upper Florentine, Styx and Weld Forests and his claim that it is a ‘carbon-positive' process which increased carbon uptake would fail a primary school test on climate change," Senator Brown said.