FORESTRY MYTHS

I THINK we all share Craig Brown’s desire to decarbonise the world through smarter solutions (Letters, September 30). However, to suggest that producing more non-renewable building materials, albeit using renewable energy, is a solution to climate change simply misses the point. The biggest advantage of timber is it’s natural. All that is required is harvesting, milling into construction materials, which in Tasmania is already done using renewable energy, and then re-establishing the forest that it came from for the future.

Trees are renewable, and in Tasmania we regrow every tree harvested. The alternatives will always be non-renewable, mined resources that emit carbon during production, even if using 100 per cent renewable energy.

Nick Steel Tasmanian Forest Products Association