Ontario Government Makes No Allowance For Warming In Boreal Logging Licensing

[hatrack]

here's a calculation the Ontario government doesn't do when awarding a logging licence in the old growth Boreal Forest: It doesn't ask about the impact on global warming. In particular, it doesn't ask about the impact over the next 20 years. Given the galloping rate at which temperatures are increasing in the north, this omission is foolhardy at best; derelict at worst.

It doesn't matter what computer projections show about forest regeneration over 100 years. If global warming isn't curbed, it won't matter. The path of global warming over the next 20 years will determine the future. As it happens, there's a perfect example of the problem about 250 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, where harvesting of old growth has commenced in the 10,876 square kilometre Ogoki Forest, the farthest north in Ontario that logging has occurred.

With help from the Wildlands League, I've tried to calculate the impact of what has already been cut. My figures are rough estimates, and if issue is to be taken with them, please blame me, not the Wildlands League.

About 500 square kilometres of the Ogoki have been logged, and the bottom line is that, over the next 20 years, this will produce about 60 per cent more carbon dioxide than new growth will remove. This net emission of CO2 is equivalent to what 218,644 average cars would emit in a year – a total of 1.03 million tonnes of CO2. If the old growth were left intact, there would be no net emissions of CO2. Old growth in the boreal takes up slightly more carbon dioxide than is released.

EDIT

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/467687