Jens Wieting's Posts
A Double Threat
This is the final article in a three-part series on Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest. This final instalment looks at the specific threat to the forest and its ecosystem from the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project.
The War in the Woods
This is the first article in a three-part series on Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest. February marked the six-year anniversary of the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements, which were celebrated around the world as one of the greatest rainforest conservation stories of our time.
Whither the Yellow Cedar?
New research is showing that Yellow Cedar, one of the characteristic tree species found in the Great Bear Rainforest of B.C., is disappearing in many areas because of the impacts of global warming. Ironically, they're freezing to death.
Getting shot not a sport for bears
Even after a number of encounters I am still in awe every time I get to see bears, like for example last May, when I had a chance to watch this black bear sow with two cubs from a quiet road near Whistler.
The Great Bear Rainforest puts B.C. on the map
As human populations have grown and unsustainable large-scale economies have taken root, most of the earth's temperate old-growth rainforests have disappeared. Increasing protection of the Great Bear Rainforest is one of the most effective actions we can take to prevent carbon loss and increase carbon storage, and is as essential as preserving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Brazil’s Amazon rainforests.
Half is not enough for the Great Bear Rainforest
Six years ago an amazing thing happened. Environmental organizations and the forestry industry, former foes in the fight over the future of the Great Bear Rainforest, stood alongside first nations and the provincial government in front of the cameras of the world and made a promise.
Six years later, it’s time to end unsustainable logging in the Great Bear Rainforest
The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the last of its kind in the world. That's why so many British Columbians, and others around the globe, have stood up with the region's First Nations to safeguard it.
A new climate for the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements
The Great Bear Rainforest Agreements are not just a blueprint for healthy ecosystems and healthy communities. Once fully implemented, they will also help to ensure the Great Bear Rainforest continues to act as a crucial carbon bank and increase survival rates of species that would be unable to adapt to climate change in landscapes fragmented by clearcuts. But time is not on our side. That’s why we’re asking the provincial government to fully implement the agreements by March 31, 2013.
If the Great Bear Rainforest is already protected, why this campaign?
Six years ago, our environmental organizations and logging companies worked with the B.C. government and First Nations to create a groundbreaking agreement to save the Great Bear Rainforest. Reached after years of protests and market campaigns aimed at protecting this region from industrial logging, the agreement made headlines around the world for being remarkable in many ways.
Six years later, it’s time to end unsustainable logging in the Great Bear Rainforest
At a time when the Great Bear Rainforest is under increasing threat from pipelines, tankers and grizzly bear trophy hunting, the provincial government has a clear opportunity to do something right now to make good on its promise to save this global gem from unsustainable logging.
Speaking Out for Ancient Forests
B.C.'s rainforest is one of the best carbon banks of the planet, with some of the highest carbon storage per hectare. Protecting old growth forest is one of the best short term actions we can take to immediately reduce emissions.
Blowing B.C.’s carbon bank
Globally, deforestation contributes approximately 20 per cent to greenhouse gas emissions. B.C.’s temperate rainforests are among the ecosystems with the highest carbon storage per hectare on the planet and they continue to sequester carbon.
B.C. Liberals' 'green' policy hurts kids, gifts big business
Offsets for Encana are not part of the solution to fight global warming, but rather part of the problem that causes it.
Jens Wieting: TimberWest out of step in Great Bear Rainforest
A few days ago, I flew over the southern part of the Great Bear Rainforest to take a look at the landscape in the tenure of the logging company TimberWest. After studying satellite images I expected to see a fair amount of recent logging activity on the ground. But in reality I was hardly prepared to see an extended patchwork of huge swaths of clearcuts in the world's largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest.
Jens Wieting: Canadians must force provincial governments into action on global warming
From June 6 to 17, governments are meeting in Bonn, Germany, for the second round of the UN talks on global warming, preparing for the coming major conference in Durban, South Africa, at the end of this year. By confirming that it will reject a new Kyoto Protocol, the Canadian government once more joined the small group of countries that are undermining efforts to develop a meaningful international framework to tackle global warming in the little time that is left before the existing Kyoto protocol ends in 2012.
No Fanfare over BC’s 2008 GHG Emissions
BC has a massive challenge if it is to meet its own legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets (33% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 below the 2007 level). The challenge becomes more stringent if strict adherence to a less than 2 degree warming target with equitable access to carbon for all is invoked.
Climate change and B.C. forest stewardship – a widening gap
There is a widening gap between what we know about the importance of our forests for our survival and government stewardship in B.C.
New NASA map shows why B.C.’s coastal rainforest is globally unique and needs protection
Destructive logging practices like large clear cuts in temperate rainforest cause a massive loss of carbon storage. The emissions from decomposing slash and exposed soils continue to be released for decades before younger trees get close to the annual sequestration capacity needed to neutralize the ongoing emissions.
B.C.'s old-growth forests have support of the Na'vi
On March 27th, the Ancient Forest Alliance invited me to speak at their rally for ancient forests and forestry jobs. Among the protesters were several activists with face paint resembling the fictional Na'vi humanoids from Pandora, the planet in the movie ‘Avatar’. Here is what I said.
One sport that British Columbia doesn’t want the world to know about
How are we going to make tough decisions if we are failing to make the easy ones?
