Emergency medicine and environmental activism

Clearfell, burn and sow silviculture is promoted as being the most scientific method of harvesting wet sclerophyll forests in Tasmania. However, it fails to take into account wider social and global environmental issues such as climate change and the carbon cycle. This paper describes an emergency physician's role in the continuing debate surrounding the management of Tasmania's old-growth forests. Like evidence-based medicine, the use of science in this context has its limitations, and such comparisons are discussed.