ABOUT 500 people crammed into the community hall at Bermagui last Friday night to hear Greens Senator Bob Brown speak about logging activities in the Bermagui forest.
Every seat was occupied, with those who couldn’t find one sitting in the gaps on the floor or leaning against the walls where signs proclaiming the evening’s ideas had been hung.
At the entrance, tables with an array of environmental leaflets were next to people handing out a flyer with information from Blue Ridge Hardwoods, owners of the chipmill at Eden.
The audience was diverse as far as gender and age were concerned, although it was apparent Sen Brown was speaking overwhelmingly to those who agreed with his policies and environmental ideology.
That was particularly evident as Sen Brown made his way to the stage at which prolonged applause broke out, accompanied by a lone cry of, “we love you Bob”.
A video of the logging area was then shown which had men with chainsaws felling trees, large machinery pushing over and towing the logs away after they had been stripped and the finished product leaving the area on large trucks.
Helen Caldicott, one of the people behind Sen Brown’s visit, told the audience that 10 years ago Sen Brown had spoken about climate change and had been laughed at but “it has taken those 10 years to recognise he was right”.
Ms Caldicott said that as he was a doctor of medicine he was “practising national and global preventative medicine”.
Sen Brown spoke for half an hour without notes, with his talk periodically interspersed with applause.
“We are bonded by nature,” he said.
“This cradle of humanity is being destroyed at the greatest rate in history and every morning we wake up there is less then there ever was before.
“What’s worse is the rate of destruction each morning is bigger than it was the morning before.”
He said “the world sets its store by how much money can be made”.
“It used to be for need but now it’s for greed.”
Sen Brown spoke about the destruction of the forests causing the habitats of many birds and other animals to be destroyed; he talked about the loss of carbon storage and how all the latest science in climate change was indicating it was becoming rapidly worse.
“It’s worse than we thought it was in 2002 which was worse than in 1995,” he said.
“That was when 1500 plus of the world’s scientists, including 111 Nobel laureates, warned the world’s politicians the planet could not continue to be damaged in the way it was otherwise we may lose our ability to live in it.
“Are we going to stand back and allow this to happen to our grandchildren?”
Sen Brown said according to opinion polls, 80 per cent of people wanted logging stopped, but he said, 90 per cent of politicians want it accelerated.
Sen Brown said big business and lobbyists had enormous power and used it to good effect.
There were a few interjections during Sen Brown’s speech from the few people in attendance from the logging industry.
While he said he was willing to answer questions later, some in the audience were less tolerant, telling the interjectors to “shut up”.
At the end of his speech Sen Brown received prolonged applause, after which questions were called for, most from sympathetic members of the audience and more statements than queries.
However, a couple of questions came from members of the logging industry.
One was whether he knew the trees were regrowth from 80 years ago, to which Sen Brown said he did but “why cut them down after they’ve struggled to get back?”
Sen Brown said it wasn’t only larger trees that were taken: “When older trees are felled they take a lot of smaller ones with them.”
Another question was about lightning strikes and the way it caused forest fires that caused extensive releasing of greenhouse gas.
Sen Brown wasn’t as precise with that answer and further questioning on the subject was drowned out by the crowd.
In response to a question about workers in the logging industry diminishing, Sen Brown said there were a lot more forests 30 years ago but “these days there are no areas too remote and there is bigger machinery.”
Other statements included subjects such as unions becoming involved and the way a paperless society would be of benefit.
Sen Brown said to stop the logging, people needed to “join together and make a noise - the loudest noise gets heard”.
“We need an Obama of the forest,” was the statement that brought Sen Brown the evening’s loudest cheers and applause.
Ms Caldicott said she thought the meeting was “magnificent”.
“I’ve never seen a crowd like that in Bermagui,” she said.
“Bob’s speech hit exactly the right note and everyone there was deeply inspired and thrilled.”
However, Vince Phillips, representing the Eden branch of Timber Communities Australia, said he was disappointed with the speech as it presented no “fresh ideas and was just more of the same”.
“Australia imports about $3 billion worth of wood and paper each year and that would mean a lot of jobs if we were allowed to produce all that,” he said.
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