We can educate ourselves regarding environmental and social issues and talk with our friends, colleagues and fellow workers to raise our awareness of the importance of sustainable living strategies and lifestyles.
We can visit ecosystems that are under threat from industrialisation and poor environmental practices. We can support others who are giving their time and energy to direct action.
When the children of the future ask us what we did when the earth's ecosystems were being threatened, let us each be able to say that we gave our best at all times.
We CAN make a difference!
Writing letters and sending e-mails to politicians, bureacrats and industry bodies is one way which we can all contribute to the guardianship of our planet. So, pick up your pen, the telephone or go online and give your energy wherever you can to ensure a healthy and sustainable environment for all living beings.
As the saying goes, "Bad things happen when good people do nothing!"
Find out what the issues are, find out what the solutions could be and let us put them into action.
Get Educated and Get Active!
Tasmanian Pulp Mill
Knowing that their pulp mill would never meet
environmental standards and under intense pressure from Rainforest Action
Network (RAN) and our NGO allies in Australia, Gunns recently withdrew its
proposed pulp mill project from Tasmania's independent assessment process
(the Resource Planning and Development Commission). Gunns is now seeking to
bypass all legal requirements by fast-tracking the pulp mill through the Tasmania
parliament.
The unprecedented move has sparked massive protests and been decried as "cronyism and corruption" in the Australian media. If Gunns succeeds in its attempt to force the pulp mill through outside the legal process, it could get approval for the destructive project in weeks. If, however, public outrage is strong enough to defeat this shameful ploy, the Gunns pulp mill project may finally be abandoned once and for all!
You can make a real difference in the battle for the future of Tasmania's forests in two important ways:
Pressure Gunns' Banker:
Now is perfect time to escalate pressure on ANZ, the bank that is planning to finance the pulp mill project.
With your help, we have been pressuring ANZ to develop a new forests policy
that RAN had hoped would block investment in Gunns' pulp mill. Unfortunately,
we believe ANZ has bowed to industry pressure and failed to adopt meaningful
environmental standards.
With your support, RAN and our allies in Australia are helping to save Tasmania's old growth forests. The coming months will be critical to winning the campaign.
In addition to our continued focus on Gunns' banker (ANZ) and its pulp mill
project, RAN will be releasing a report on how the old growth forests Gunns
is clear-cutting in Tasmania feeds the paper industry in Japan. Please stay
tuned, as this will be a vital time to pressure companies in Japan to cut
their ties with Gunns!
Let's work together to finally put an end to these destructive actions that
Gunns is wreaking upon our beautiful Earth!
For the forests,
David Lee
Tasmania Campaign Director
Rainforest Action Network
www.treesnotgunns.org
www.ran.org
Australia challenges Global Ban on Terminator Technology:
Australia is doing the dirty work for the USA and
its genetic engineering industry at the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) meeting in Granada, Spain. Advised by the US, Australia is trying to
end the de facto global ban on GE terminator technology which will be used
to make seeds infertile, to prevent seed saving and enforce corporate seed
patents.
Read more here