Admittedly, that might be an alarmist headline, but that was my first impression when I read this article on Canada.com: B.C.'s forests open for business: minister. Stan Hagan, who holds the Orwellian title of "Minister of Sustainable Resources Management", announced today that almost half of British Columbia's remaining forests are now designated for commercial interests. This means logging and mining, primarily ? two of the most destructive of industries.

With this decision, the provincial government is launching a massive attack on the environment. Conservation no longer fits into government plans, as Hagan stated that "to create parks it will have to come out of the working forest and there will have to be justification for it". Well I'm thrilled that we now have safeguards to prevent people from protecting an irreplacable part of the earth's ecosystem. Now we have to come up with bloody good reason why the forests shouldn't be destroyed.

If you care at all about the world's rainforests, even if you don't live in BC, send an e-mail to Stan Hagan, BC Minister of Sustainable Resources Management, and tell him what you think of his anti-environmentalist legislation.

Here are some facts and figures about BC rainforest.