From snowy Montreal, to London to Launceston, thousands are gathering today to stand up for the global climate and what better way to stand up for the global climate than to stand up against deforestation and  for the protection of old growth forests. For climate change is driven by deforestation as much as it is driven by industrial and transport emissions.  
Here in Montreal a bloc of developing countries is desperately asking the developed world to help them protect their native forests by investing in them as carbon sinks while in Tasmania the Lennon government, Gunns and Forestry Tasmania want to reduce them to pulp and carbon emissions. 
 
Tasmania's native forests, like the Amazon and the forests of Papua New Guinea, are major carbon sinks, reducing levels of carbon dioxide. To log them, burn them, disturb the soil carbon and convert them to plantations is a climate crime. Agreeing to a thirty year regime for logging native forests to feed them into a polluting pulp mill is abhorrent in a warming world.
 
There are moments in the history of the world that really matter; moments that set in train events from which there can be no going back, moments that determine the future of life on Earth as we know it and the first meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol here in Montreal is one such moment. December 3rd in Launceston is part of that global solidarity. To stand against the pulp mill is to stand up for the climate, for biodiversity, for clean air and clean water, and uncontaminated soil.
 
Congratulations for joining hands around the planet today. Your message will be heard in Montreal. I will take it to the heart of the talks as we say together 'Save the Climate, Save the Forests'.
 
 
Christine Milne
 
 
 
Contact: Katrina Willis 0437 587 562