Regarding the Gary Saunders opinion piece in the Dec. 15 business section, suggesting that we should all “stop mourning yesterday’s forests,” I’d like to offer a different perspective on the perils of clear-cutting — a quick math lesson, if you will. (Don’t worry, your average junior high student could easily handle these calculations.) There are those far better equipped than I to point out the considerable flaws in Mr. Saunders’ ham-handed logic when it comes to defending the practice of clearcutting. For my part, I’d like to draw particular attention to the following facts, as they help define the intimate link between clearcutting and CO2 sequestration in Nova Scotia. ….Therefore, on average, for every year since just 1990, about two million tonnes of sequestered CO2 has been removed from Nova Scotia’s forests, overwhelmingly by means of clearcutting.