WWF’s Inconsistent Climate and Forest Messages
WWF has released a new report entitled “Climate Change: faster, stronger, sooner“, which concludes what many of us have known for some time, that “global warming is accelerating [ark] at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted”.
Ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [search] (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, the latest science shows the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice 30 years earlier than expected, sea level rise is double the previous maximum estimates, and temperature increases are already leading to a reduction in global yields of wheat, maize and barley. WWF notes that “even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries.” Abrupt climate change is happening now and the world is no where near these short and mid-term targets.
Incredibly, WWF sounds the alarm on abrupt, run-away climate change while actively supporting FSC’s stamp of approval for ancient forest logging. First time logging of primary forests accounts for at least 20% of atmospheric carbon releases. New science finds old-growth forests are “carbon sinks” and when logged release 40 percent of their carbon. This discredits decades of thought strongly advocated by WWF that primary forests can or should be “sustainably” logged.
Given WWF’s new found sense of urgency, it is astoundingly reckless for them to continue their support for Forest Stewardship Council’s [search] logging of ancient forests. It is long past due for WWF to join Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth in reviewing and/or ending their greenwashing of FSC’s ancient forest logging. Meanwhile, we are left to ponder whether WWF’s failure to work to stop carbon releases from ancient forest logging is because of corporate corruption or just ignorance?
Climat et santé
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