Groups Urge Trudeau and Biden to Transparently Report Logging Emissions

Today we joined 80+ US & Canadian groups in urging President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to transparently report GHG emissions from logging - a critical step towards effective climate action, forest protection & climate-safe forestry.

View the letter here.

View the Press Release here.

March 22, 2023

Dear President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau,

As more than eighty organizations and scientists from both Canada and the United States, we are writing to urge your governments to transparently account for and report on greenhouse gas emissions from industrial logging. While we applaud your governments’ commitment to 2030 climate targets and stated support of natural climate solutions, the fact that emissions from industrial logging are not separately and transparently reported jeopardizes the integrity of these 2030 targets and hinders the advancement of truly ambitious forest protection policies.

Transparent and accurate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions is the bedrock of scientifically driven climate policy. Annual greenhouse gas inventories are the foundation from which countries both chart progress toward Paris Agreement targets and derive information about appropriate policy measures to reduce the impact of high-emitting sectors and transition to more sustainable economies. Unfortunately, both Canada and the United States’ inventories have a substantial reporting gap, omitting clear and transparent reporting on the impact of industrial logging.

Industrial logging1 is a high-emitting sector, with a climate impact on par with that of other sectors included in the inventories. In Canada, the logging industry clearcuts more than 550,000 hectares of forest each year,2 much of this in high-carbon primary forests. A recent conservative estimate, based on government data, placed the logging industry’s 2020 net emissions at approximately 75 Mt CO2 annually–roughly equal to emissions from Canada’s oil sands production.3 In the United States, the Forest Service found that “timber harvesting, and not land use change or fire, was the largest source of gross emissions from U.S. forests between 2006 and 2010.”4[4]

Despite the logging industry’s status as a high-emitting sector, the U.S. and Canadian inventories do not separately and transparently report on its climate impact. Instead, the logging industry’s emissions are subsumed under broader reporting on land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). This practice makes it exceedingly difficult to discern what carbon fluxes are attributable to the logging industry and, more specifically, what logging industry practices offer the greatest potential for mitigation.

The policy impacts of logging’s omission from Canada and the United States’ inventories are sweeping. It has resulted in a “climate-blind” forest decision making process divorced from the climate ramifications of the logging industry’s practices. Decisions to forgo forest protections, allow certain annual allowable cuts, or directly subsidize logging industry expansion do not factor in climate considerations because the necessary information is not available. It also prevents the implementation of incentives to drive climate-friendlier logging practices or invest in new sustainable economies.

Separate and transparent reporting will not only facilitate data-driven policy making, but also allow for the recognition of progress toward mitigating logging industry emissions. We have been encouraged by your governments’ recent commitments advancing the preservation and restoration of forest ecosystem health. As you continue to build on and implement these commitments, transparent logging industry reporting will allow your governments to reflect successful efforts to reduce these emissions and track the sector’s progress toward our countries’ 2030 climate goals.

As you meet to discuss the most pressing issues our countries face, we urge you to jointly commit to transparently reporting on emissions from industrial logging. There is significant progress our two countries can make together to advance forest protections domestically and globally. Clear and transparent disclosure of industrial logging’s climate impact will ensure the United States and Canada can lead with policy that is robust and data-driven, while modeling best practices for forested countries around the world.

Here is a link to the final letter and all the signatures.

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1 Encompassing emissions and removals associated with tree harvesting, post-harvest regeneration, and the storage and decay of carbon in harvested wood products. 2 National Forestry Database (Canada), “Forest Area Harvested on Private and Crown Lands,” http://nfdp.ccfm.org/en/data/harvest.php, accessed March 15, 2023. 3 M. Bramley & G. Saul, “What are the Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Logging in Canada?” Nature Canada & NRDC, October 2022, https://naturecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Report-What-Are-Net-GHGEmissions-From-Logging-in-Canada.pdf. 4 United States Forest Service, “The U.S. Forest Carbon Accounting Framework: Stocks and Stock Change, 19902016,” November 2015, https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs154.pdf. 2

Weekly Pause & Ponder

In order to “opt” for the poor, one must be “non-poor.”  In other words, one must be in a privileged position to choose a stance of solidarity; after all, one cannot “opt” for what one already is.  In this sense, the option for the poor, as originally understood, is an opportunity for engaged compassion of the economically and socially privileged with the economically and socially marginalized.

For Earth’s Sake: Toward A Compassionate Ecology  by Stephen Bede Scharper, p. 156.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Facing ecological ruination, we need a deep conversion, not away from the Earth toward God as the traditional model would have it, but a conversion toward the Earth, in love with a God who loves the Earth.  This conversion involves numerous turnings at once… Intellectually… Emotionally… Practically…

 - Elizabeth Johnson.  Human Development Magazine, Winter 2016, “Ecology: Conversion to the Earth,” p.43.

The Thames River is a Person

On October 10, 2017, CBC radio host, Anna Marie Tremanti’s presented a segment entitled “Colorado River: Should the river have the same legal rights as a person”.  A lawyer, Jason Flores Williams, on behalf of an environmental group has asked a judge to grant to the Colorado River the same legal rights as a person.  Mr. Williams stated in the interview with Tremanti, that states and corporations are legal “persons”.  The Corporate “persons” use the finite resources for their own interests, these same resources upon which all of us depend. Existing laws to protect nature are inadequate to prevent degradation of the environment and loss of many species of plants and animals. If the Colorado River is deemed to be a legal person, entitled to be represented by a guardian, this ecosystem upon which the population depends can go to court to protect itself from injuries inflicted by all-powerful governments and corporations. Already, the overuse of the Colorado has been such that this former great river no longer reaches the Gulf of Mexico.  Corporations have sufficient wealth to influence governments into issuing permits for fifty-million-dollar water bottling plants. But new forces are instituting change.  Three dozen communities in the United States have statutes proclaiming the rights of natural entities. Similar laws in New Zealand, Equator, Bolivia, Columbia and India have been passed and upheld.  

David Boyd, and environmental lawyer from Pender Island, BC, is the author of The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World.  Boyd notes that Indigenous peoples think of nature as having human qualities. In Manitoba, aboriginal people speak of Lake Winnipeg having a spirit which is crying for help.  Boyd comments that we treat nature as property which is either privately owned or the property of government.  Indigenous people speak of connections among all nature – "all our relations”.   We are facing the meltdown of our planet with massive decreases in animals and plants. We are on the verge of the 6^th mass extinction of earth in the four and a half billion years of our history.  Concerns of communities about fracking and bottling water abound. Countries, such as Equator, have established that nature has constitutional rights as a legal person.

David Boyd states that unless we develop a different perspective in our relationship with nature the degradation will continue rapidly. We need to transform our view: “Nature is a community to which we belong, not a commodity which we own.”

The radio program hosted by Anna Marie Tremanti The Colorado River, can be accessed at CBC, “The Current”, October 10, 2017.  The audio presentation is worth nineteen minutes of listening.

Pat McKeon, CSJ

A Failed Promise and God’s Promise

In the world of vegetable production, purveyors of GM seeds promised great things for the global community, trumpeting there would be greater food production and reduced pesticide use in a relatively short time. GM seeds were the answer for a starving world. This was in the late 80’s -90’s. Canada and United States bought into that message. Western Europe did not.

The twofold promise of genetically modified seeds was first, to make crops immune to the effects of weed killers and inherently resistant to many pests, and  second, because the plants form these seeds would grow so robustly that GMO seeds would be heralded as indispensable in feeding the population of a growing world. This would also require less spraying of crops with pesticides.

It is a failed promise.

In the past twenty years the analysis of yields from both the U.S. and Western Europe reveals little difference between crops of non-GMO seeds in Western Europe and crops using GMO seeds in the U.S. and Canada. Overall pesticide use has increased in the U.S. while in France there have been major reductions in overall pesticide use. The vaunted abundance of crop yields has failed to materialize. One would assume similar statistics in Canada. This increase occurs despite GMO being the seed of choice planted for the major crops of corn and soybeans in North America. The reality is that herbicide use on corn & soybeans has soared. Making more profits for Monsanto. Farmers cannot save their own seed and are tied contractually to purchase GMO seeds. Although Western Europe is closed to GMO, Monsanto boasts of surging markets in other places of the globe.

One is reminded of the story of David & Goliath. Yet, resistance to corporate greed is not without effect. Although some markets are certainly soaring for Monsanto, there is resistance, notably in Africa, India and South America. And they are statistically significant. Just not reported as such. There are pieces of light in the darkness of corporate deceit.

One is also reminded of a vulnerable child born in a stable, in a time of deep darkness. A light that could not be quenched. A promise that was and is fulfilled. It is to believe in the light that is stronger than any darkness of heart. We are part of those pieces of light that pierce the darkness of corporate greed every time we pray for organic farmers, buy organic food and wherever we can plant heritage seeds, whether it be on a balcony or in a field. Sometimes these seeds will be planted in our home gardens, sometime they will be the seeds of hope planted in our prayers. We all are part of bringing to birth the promise of God’s kin-dom. All are needed to quench the darkness and bring the light of God’s love to birth in our world and in our time. One seed at a time.

Linda Gregg CSJ