I was sent this Action Alert today and wanted to post it up here so that more people can help.

TAKE ACTION!

Please register your opposition NOW to the proposed Tasmanian pulp mill as part of the public commenting period required for federal environmental approval.

http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=tasmania


UPDATE:
The Tasmanian state parliament has, as expected, approved the proposed ancient forest fed pulp mill. However, in a positive development, the Australian federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced that he is extending the time available to decide whether to grant federal environmental approval for the project for another six weeks.

This comes as Australian and international protest is surging against the ill-conceived, fast-tracked doubling of logging in Tasmania's ancient forests for throw away paper products. This provides extra time to let federal politicians know that Australians and the World do not want or need this polluting forest-hungry pulp mill.

The momentum is on our side! The alert has been updated and is now targeting the Environment Minister. Please send or resend in order to have your concerns registered within the federal public commenting process, which offically ends on Friday, August 31st (but this alert will remain live nonetheless).

YOU MAY WANT TO NOTE WHETHER YOU ARE AN AUSTRALIAN OR GLOBAL CITIZEN BY EDITING THE SAMPLE LETTER.ORIGINAL ALERT:

Tasmania, Australia's woodchipping giant Gunns Ltd. is poised to be granted fast track approval by the Tasmanian government to build a massive chemical pulp mill in northern Tasmania. This forest-hungry pulp mill will be a disaster for Australia's ancient forests, climate, wildlife and future.

If built, the US$1.4 billion project would need four million tonnes of logs a year. It would double Gunns' current rate of clearcutting in Tasmania's native forests. It will also dump thousands of tonnes of poisonous effluent into Bass Strait every day, threatening marine life, tourism and the fishing industry.

For way too long Tasmania's ancient forests - some containing massive eucalyptus trees - have been clearcut to produce paper pulp, mostly for the Japanese market... Continued markets for paper pulp from ancient forest liquidation depend upon this disastrous pulp mill being forced through the Australian legal system... the impact of this massive pulp mill on Tasmania's ancient native forests, much less regional and global climate, have not been considered.

Additionally Minister Turnbull has acknowledged there is insufficient data available to assess the impacts of 64,000 tonnes a day of poisonous waste being released into Bass Strait... (the) Gunns had already signed a contract with construction firm John Holland to start building the pulp mill "in the first week of September"...

At a time when Australia's federal government is proposing funding ancient forest protection and conservation internationally as a measure to a combat climate change, it is hypocritical and repulsive that Australia continues industrially clearing its own native forests. Australia's ancient forests will still be logged, even clearcut, for throw away consumer products; even as the Australian government calls upon less developed and poor nations to protect their forests for the climate.


TAKE ACTION NOW:http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=tasmania

An ancient rainforest logging operation in Peru recently certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme by Rainforest Alliance SmartWood has been implicated in massive cross-border illegal logging.

Workers from the Peruvian company Venao Forestal are reported to have been crossing into Brazil and building an extensive road network to illegally fell CITES-listed mahogany.

FSC and big green logging apologists including Greenpeace and WWF are facing tough questions following this and other inappropriate and illegal certifications. Support for FSC's "certified" ancient rainforest logging continues to crumble, as calls to protect all remaining ancient forests for climate and biodiversity values intensify.

Peru is now added to a list of countries that already includes Guyana, Congo, Russia, and Indonesia, where WWF has helped massage highly controversial and sometimes illegal companies through the FSC certification process, as Greenpeace sits mute in charge of FSC's board. Meanwhile Norway has rejected FSC and all primary rainforest logging certification schemes in public construction (for more information see http://www.fsc-watch.org/).

Global ecological sustainability including addressing climate change depends critically upon ending all industrial scaled ancient forest logging.

Ecological Internet, provider of the world's largest environmental portals and environmental action network, has intensified their protests against Greenpeace and WWF for supporting industrial scaled ancient forest logging. A few hundred thousand protest emails have been sent thus far.

Dr. Glen Barry, President of Ecological Internet, explains "the litany of failed FSC ancient forest logging certifications in recent months illustrates yet again that a FSC seal is no guarantee of either ecological sustainability or legality. Many of us were excited about the idea of sustainable, equitable and just logging in the early 1990s. We envisioned community based eco-forestry management plans that tied small and medium scaled logging to strict protection of surrounding lands. Sadly, 'certified forestry' has been usurped by existing commercial loggers and their environmental apologists."

"FSC has had fifteen years to prove that industrial scale logging can be responsible and ecologically beneficial. Now with the huge list of bad certifications, it is clear it has failed. Greenpeace and WWF may have honestly believed industrial logging of ancient rainforests in an environmentally responsible manner was possible, but they have been conclusively proven wrong."

The response from Greenpeace and WWF in this David versus Goliath effort to protect all ancient forests -- including payment for avoided deforestation -- has thus far been one of stonewalling and vilifying the protestors. WWF has accused in a mocking manner the hundreds of thousands of protestors from over 100 countries of sending "spam", and are blocking many of the messages. Greenpeace replied with a terse brief response dodging the main questions of why they support ancient forest logging. Neither has responded substantively and defended their policies."This is a protest", explains Dr. Barry. "I am sure these environmental bureaucracies are not keen on being called out on their forest policy. But the survival of the Earth depends upon doing so. Greenpeace in particular can now feel what disruption caused by a protest feels like. I encourage all people concerned with global ecological sustainability to take action at http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=peru_fsc "

*This info is taken from a press release by Dr Glen Barry for Ecological Internet. Other websites to check out for environmental concerns and current action alerts are:
EcoEarth.Info -- http://www.EcoEarth.Info/
Climate Ark -- http://www.climateark.org/Forests.org -- http://forests.org/
Water Conserve -- http://www.waterconserve.org/
Rainforest Portal -- http://www.rainforestportal.org/
Ocean Conserve -- http://www.oceanconserve.org/
My.EcoEarth.Info -- http://My.EcoEarth.info/


My personal view is that signing petitions and sending well-worded protest emails is a good course of action, but I personally do not support the quite threatening language of some activists. WWF and Greenpeace do amazing work for our environment and if we feel that they are not living up to the trust we place in them in this particular issue with the FSC, it is better for us to email with facts and requests but NEVER threats or aggressive language.

It's all about good karma...

Taking a minute to email Protest action really does work!

I just received this email update regarding an email protest campaign that I participated in a while ago through an earth action network site. It worked!
Now we just have to make sure that the rainforest will be protected permanently with legislation, not just until the world's eyes are averted again.
I have found that adding your voice to email protest campaigns about the things that really concern you regarding human rights, the environment etc. really does help. Governments and authorities to listen to these things if enough people care.

That' why I use this blog to publish some of the issues that were brought to my attention that I have particpated in protesting against via email campaigns. I hope that you may find this interesting and useful!

You can send emails to the relevant authorities yourself. Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network have updated the original alert to commend Malaysian authorities for their restraint and to request that the Penan's last rainforested customary native lands be permanently protected and their land tenure permanently respected.

Unless we remain vigilant the blockade may yet be broken and bogus "certified" logging of much of the last 10% of Sarawak's ancient rainforests occur. The Penan communities are protecting their last contiguous rainforests from logging. Please stand with them now at:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=penang


Pasted text follows below:

Thanks to a wave of international protests, the Malaysian authorities refrained from dismantling a logging road blockade set up by the Penan tribe in the interior of Borneo.

For more than two years, the Penan community of Long Benali (Miri division, Sarawak) has successfully prevented the bulldozers of the Samling group from encroaching onto their native customary lands.

The unmanned blockade was set up on 10 February 2004 to protect one of Sarawak’s last virgin jungle areas from logging. After timber company workers had dismantled a similar, newly established Penan blockade further downriver in June 2006, local authorities announced they would dismantle the Long Benali blockade by mid-July and brought specially trained police units into the area. However, the local community renewed the existing roadblock and appealed to the international public for support.

Penan headman: “Thank you for your support. Please don’t forget us now.”

Several international NGOs responded to the Penan’s cry for help and encouraged their members to send thousands of protest e-mails and letters to the Malaysian authorities and the appropriate logging companies. Particularly the US-based organizations, Rainforestportal.org and Global Response, as well as the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme and Survival International endorsed the Penan’s appeal.

Headman Sound Bujang of Long Benali expressed his appreciation for the international support: ”We are very proud to hear that so many people are on our side. This is strong encouragement for us to continue our struggle.”

Despite the temporary success, the Penan of Long Benali are afraid of what might happen in the coming months and are asking the international public not to forget them. They report that members of the neighbouring Kelabit community of Long Lellang had asked the Samling management to break the Penan’s resistance once and for all and to build a new logging road to Long Lellang by September 2006.

Embarrassment for Samling and Malaysian Timber Certification CouncilFor the Samling group, one of Sarawak’s timber giants, the situation is particularly embarrassing: the blockade is situated within an area for which the company has recently been granted a Certificate for Forest Management by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council MTCC. However, according to the latest MTCC report on the issue, “a large proportion of the Forest Management Unit is inaccessible to logging operations” due to the Penan blockade.

Now that more than ninety percent of Sarawak’s primary rainforests have been logged, the Penan communities are protecting their last contiguous parts from logging. The rainforests of Borneo are known to be one of the world’s most important biodiversity centers.

ACTION ALERT PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!

Massive Gas Pipeline to Pierce the AmazonBy Rainforest Portal, a project of Ecological Internet,

Inc.http://www.RainforestPortal.org/

March 22, 2006TAKE ACTION

Project Will Devastate South America's Rainforests, Water&Climatehttp://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=amazon_pipeline

Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina plan to build a massive natural gas pipeline of up to 9,000 km in length from Venezuela to Argentina through Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

Construction of the pipeline would be the most ambitious physical infrastructure initiative in South America's history, costing up to $25 billion and taking up to seven years to build.

The pipeline would pierce the heart of the Amazon and ensure its destruction as a large, operable whole. Large areas of pristine rainforests will be destroyed during construction, and new roads will open the rest for colonization by ranchers and loggers.

The multitude of waterways traversing the Amazon will be polluted during construction and inevitable pipeline leaks. The pipeline will contribute to global warming through deforestation and oil production to access the gas.

The similar existing Camisea gas pipeline through rainforests in Peru - which was touted as a model of sustainable development, environmental protection and respect for indigenous peoples - offers a cautionary tale of the damage caused by gas pipelines during construction and their operation. In three years of operation is has already experienced five major spills, severely damaging the environment and local communities.

The proposed pipeline is a major threat to the existence of the Amazon rainforest, as well as regional and global ecological sustainability.

The leaders of Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina must be called upon to scrap plans for its construction.

Take action now: http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=amazon_pipeline



LIST NOTE: Our protest emails go to dozens of email addresses. As the alert progresses, frequently we fill these email accounts or they are shut down. If an email bounces to you please let us know as soon as possible and it will be removed at once, but rest assured that the vast majority of the messages you sent went through.

TAKE ACTION

Chinese funded development a ploy to access rainforest timbers, will devastate Borneo's biodiversity and largest remaining wild orangutan population

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=indonesia

Indonesia plans to cut a 2,000 kilometer long, five kilometer wide swathe through one of the world's largest remaining areas of pristine rainforest to create a massive oil palm plantation. The project would destroy two million hectares of ancient rainforest in Kalimantan, traversing almost the entire border with Malaysia, and slicing through three national parks.

These remote rainforests on the island of Borneo are home to countless species of rare birds, plants and mammals including the largest remaining wild orangutan population.

This Chinese-funded "agricultural development" is almost certainly a thinly veiled ruse to access timber. Indonesia has huge land areas of abandoned, unproductive palm oil plantations and degraded forest areas that would be suitable for oil palm development. Palm oil plantations - which completely clear the rainforests and are biologically depauperate - are the number one enemy of orangutans.

Orangutans need vast areas of interconnected forest to survive, and this ill-conceived project would speed up their extinction.

Let the Indonesian President know he must cancel the Kalimantan project, and that new oil palm plantations should be built only in previously cleared and unused areas.

Note your protest emails are going to nine addresses, please inform us if some start to bounce. Please take action now at

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=indonesia

Here is an apalling situation, but we have the power to turn it around and make a difference in one woman's life with our petition today. "Ann" (not her real name) is a young Albanian woman who was kidnapped, raped, and targeted for prostitution at the age of 16. She managed to escape her attacker and fled to the United States - but the government wants to send her back because she filed her request for asylum one month too late. It's appalling to me that the USA's immigration system would value bureaucracy over a young woman's safety. Join me in petitioning the U.S. government to protect human trafficking victims like Ann: http://go.care2.com/e/HV./ee/o6jY

Here's something even more appalling: the Immigration Judge who heard Ann's case said that she would not be eligible for asylum anyway because her kidnap, rape and threatened sale into prostitution were merely "personal" and "criminal" acts by a rejected suitor. How anyone could trivialize kidnapping and rape is beyond me, but the facts of the case show that Ann was clearly a victim of trafficking, not a bad relationship. Human trafficking is an enormous problem worldwide, and people are just starting to wake up to the magnitude of this human rights crisis.

Each year, approximately 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. and then sold into a life of exploitation and/or slave labor. And a staggering 80% of trafficking victims are women and girls.

When Ann turned in her request for asylum, she was only 17 years old, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She needs people like us to speak out for her. Take action now to ensure that Ann is not sent back into the hands of her persecutors, and demand that the U.S. government protect victims of trafficking by giving them asylum in this country.

Sign the petition today: http://go.care2.com/e/HV./ee/o6jY

ACTION ALERT FORWARD WIDELY!

Austrian Companies to Destroy Indonesian RainforestsBy Forests.org, project of Ecological Internet, Inc.November 27, 2005

TAKE ACTION
The last thing Indonesia's rainforests need are more pulp and wood chip mills http://forests.org/action/alert.asp?id=indonesia

Two major Austrian corporations are constructing and financing a huge pulpmill and wood chip mill in South Kalimantan, Indonesia by the company"United Fiber System" (UFS). Andritz AG and RZB of Austria are reported to be financing the destruction of at least 113,000 hectares of largely intact tropical rainforest.

The UFS's pulp project consists of two separate projects on Borneo: a pulp mill is planned for the southern-mosttip of South Kalimantan, and the wood chip mill is already underconstruction on the island of Pulau Laut. Pulp produced will be soldmainly to China, Japan and South Korea.

The Indonesian pulp industry already has a shortage of fiberwood plantations, and the construction ofthese two new projects would result in further over-capacity, compoundingthe industry's unsustainability of wood supply. Meeting the fiberwood needs of these new pulp behemoths would require extensive new plantations to be planted. This shortfall severely threatens endangered lowland tropical rainforests found within the concession area and region.

A complete loss of aquatic sea life near the pulp mill, loss of mangroveforests for a deep sea port, and an increase is disease are also expected.European companies with reputations of being environmentally aware areacting in an irresponsible manner when involved in industrial projectswhich destroy ancient rainforests.

Please ask Austrian financing companies to withdraw from the projects and to end their business relationwith United Fiber System.

Please take action now athttp://forests.org/action/alert.asp?id=indonesia