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Saturday, December 23, 2006
Letters Editor, Financial Post
300 - 1450 Don Mills Road
Don Mills, Ontario
Canada
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Re: Aboriginal group eyes carbon credits, 06/12/23, FP6
Dear Editor,
Nathan VanderKlippe’s story illustrates yet another paradox of the Kyoto Protocol and Canada’s approach to managing greenhouse gases. Carbon absorption from the atmosphere by trees as described there does not establish a sustainable carbon dioxide removal system. Why not? There is no credit for the carbon stored in wood products. Harvesting is thus perversely discouraged, precluding forest renewal and continuing removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which could be established.
Canada’s carbon dioxide inventory assumes that harvested wood is burned, in a virtual sense, releasing the stored carbon back to the atmosphere. The reality is that the carbon remains trapped in wood products. With credit for the carbon in wood products, trees could be harvested and replanted setting up a sustainable carbon sink. The system the Haida are struggling with is simply not consistent with the way humans interact with forests.
Possibly the need for management of greenhouse gases is not yet established. Certainly we will get nowhere till a holistic view of human interaction with the carbon cycle is developed. In the meantime, Canada might be wise to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast