The GetUp TV commercial showing a tree and a koala being mulched to generate electricity is inconsistent, is in bad taste, and leaves an unanswered question.
The tree was a plantation tree. Therefore, under Greens policy, this tree was permitted to be mulched, and under Green policy was eligible for renewable energy credits.
It is in bad taste because no self-respecting arborist would put a koala through a mulcher.
It leaves unanswered, “Why don’t you create more sustainable plantations?”
The answer is that plantations must either replace existing native forest, or use agricultural land.
If we replace native forest with plantations, we create a monoculture which is expensive, labour intensive, and, I suggest, unnatural. Better the “natural” alternative of letting the bush grow back by itself. If the harvesting is done sensitively (like a small bit at a time) the regrowth forest duplicates what was there before.
If we put plantations on agricultural land, this causes social dislocation in farming communities. Existing agricultural land should be used for food.
Native forest, if logged sensitively and sustainably, provides an inexhaustible high quality natural timber source. Renewable energy credits should be granted for the timber waste from this process.
Paul Calvert-Smith
