[A-List] MSNBC: Scientists Urge Protection of 50% of Canada's Boreal Forest

[Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>]

To achieve the goals being set out by these scientists-- who are perhaps 
still acting *conservatively* in what they collectively state needs to 
be done to achieve a healthy biosphere-- we need to speak as plain as day:

Because of the extent to which the forests are being mowed down as 
"overburden" (the second highest rate of deforestation on the planet, 
behind the Amazon) to mine the tar from the sand, because the Boreal 
Forest will be decimated by a Mackenzie Gas Project that not only cuts a 
straight line to the Arctic Ocean but enables the decimation of forests 
in the vast NWT area around Colville Lake, north of Great Bear/The 
Sahtu, because this forest canopy cannot survive as "50% whole" and 
simultaneously allow this energy destruction to it-- for all of these 
reasons and a "little matter of genocide" that is already happening to 
nations in the way, we must urge a simple, phased shut down of the tar 
sands. We must "be realistic (about the environment), demand the 
impossible (from the energy corprations)."

--M

Protect Canada's boreal forest, scientists urge
1,500 sign letter urging that half be protected, up from 10 percent now

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18675703/
Updated: 2 hours, 15 minutes ago

OTTAWA - Canada's vast forests should be protected much more than they 
are now to preserve wildlife and water and to fight global warming, a 
group of 1,500 scientists from around the world said on Monday.

The scientists say Canada's boreal forest, stretching from the Alaskan 
border and running north of the plains all the way to Newfoundland on 
the Atlantic, is one of largest intact forest-and-wetland ecosystems 
remaining on Earth.

The mainly coniferous forest is the single largest terrestrial carbon 
storehouse in the world, which helps stem the greenhouse effect. It 
supports 3 billion migratory songbirds, the world's largest caribou 
herds and large populations of bears, wolves, lynx and fish.
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"We are losing so many of the world's great forests, despite the best 
efforts of conservationists," said University of Alberta ecologist David 
Schindler. "Canada's boreal forest offers what may be our last, best 
chance to do things right, but only if our leaders act decisively and 
act now."

The scientists called for half of Canada's boreal forest to be 
protected, up from 10 percent now, and for development in the rest to be 
carefully managed, particularly in the face of pressure from logging, 
mining and oil and gas operations.

For example, they said an area the size of Florida is slated to be used 
for the development of Canada's vast tar sands energy reserves.

Stanford University professor Terry Root said a stable forest system is 
particularly important for the survival of all kinds of species in the 
face of global warming.

"One of the ways that we can help species to survive is to be in a place 
where there are very few other stresses â things like habitat 
fragmentation and invasive species," she told a news conference.
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--
Macdonald Stainsby
Coordinator, http://oilsandstruth.org
--
moderated radical news & discussion list:
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In the contradiction lies the hope.
   --Bertholt Brecht.