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There's a certain beauty in a wild ecology, at least when you have no personal investment in any particular outcome for it. I think that's why I could never get on board with environmentalism. Environmentalists, by virtue of their passion for "nature", have forgotten what makes nature beautiful. Often they're the sort of people who never found nature all that attractive from the beginning.
An old growth forest has that wild beauty, to be sure. But so do other wild things.
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Well, none of this will matter when the aliens come to earth and realize that trees, not humans, are the sentient species. I for one bow to our new leafy overlords.
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Then let’s get rid of the trees then and the aliens will know that we are the sentient species. I’ll do it for free if you get me enough demo I need to practice tree charges anyway. Why do we really need trees any way? 95% of the air we breathe comes from the plants in the oceans. I think we can do with 5% less air anyway. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Survivor, I couldn't agree with you more, if I understand you correctly. I also believe that there is more to beauty than the way something looks, especially when it comes to wild places. Posts: 1683 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Oxygen is created by plants in the ocean (most of it anyway). Air is filtered by trees. So, it doesn't matter if we have all this oxygen if we're choking on carbon dioxide.
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Thanks Matt. What I said is statistically correct, however, like franc li implied, I'm not actually disadvocating recycling. It's a great thing. But it isn't as great as we think.
As I study economics I am trained to look at the world's causes-and-events in abnormal and insightful ways, often counter-intuitive ways. People wouldn't expect recycling to reduce the number of trees or seatbelts to cause accidents, but an economist could explain these facts easily.
The main thing I was saying, is that a better solution to disappearing trees is property-rights. Ownership is a much more powerful tool at preserving something than probably any other method, including massive conservation efforts.
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It's interesting to me that we have these huge nature preserves where no development or tree harvesting is allowed. Then, because of the build up of brush and overgrowth of trees, when a fire (a natural, cleansing, process) comes along it burns so hot that trees can't grow for many years. If paper companies were allowed to go in and thin the forest, it would keep the forest healthy. But people think nature is in complete equilibrium and that humans are the problem. Yes, humans cause problems, but nature is not in equilibrium. Species of plant and animal are always trying to kill each other off, and sometimes they succeed with terrible consequences. Go read "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. Excellent novel that talks about these things.
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Well, the theory is that stamping out the smaller fires is what's making the big fires so intense. I have reservations about it, but see the point.
I should really pick up Crichton's State of Fear---it seems to address so many things I'm interested in, and has gotten favorable comment in various things I read. Besides, I've liked some of his stuff ("Westworld," "A Case of Need," and "The Andromeda Strain" come to mind), but haven't cared for everything he wrote / directed / created ("ER" comes to mind in this context---my mother, who actually worked in an ER at one time, says it's not realistic. I can only presume she would know.)
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I work in an ER now. The show is crap. But it gets good ratings. I know a nurse that wears a shirt that says: "ER, you watch it on TV, we live it". If half of what happens on ER happened on an even semi-regular basis you wouldn't be able to get anyone to work in the department. In fact, you wouldn't get any patients to go there either. Most patients are there for non-emergency stuff (sore throat, back pain, drug seekers). Gunshot victims are rarely exciting (guy brought in last night with gunshot to the chest is wheeled in, says, "my chest hurts", paramedic replies, "yeah, you got shot in the chest", patient replies, "oh". He was fine.) The most exciting thing we get is someone so drunk they yell for hours. Those people help the time go by.
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hahaha I am constantly entertained by those people if I choose to take public transportation. What do you do in the ER Matt?
Posts: 2195 | Registered: Aug 2006
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I've made fries at Burger King. Or, more appropriately, I've taken the fries that are shipped to Burger King, put them in hot grease, and pulled them out again. Yes, my current job is more fun than that.
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I went from flipping burgers to flipping letters. One of the main selling points was that I didn't have to work with hot grease. If Burger King and Wendys had paid better, I might've stayed longer at it---but I stayed long enough.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Well if we were to cut down more trees we could make more French fries holder things, Then we grow a lot of cotton just to print more money. Problem solved. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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haha, well, I guess in the most relative sense it could mean more for you and less for everyone else, I guess it depends how much money we're talking about. If we hyper-inflate the economy by giving you $10,0000 Trillion dollars, the money would be valueless before you could get it to the bank and collect interest on it.
Posts: 2195 | Registered: Aug 2006
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What does this have to do with books going extinct? If we print too much money there will be no more paper left for books (which brings us back to the tree part of this thread).
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They are apparently teaching us how to hyper inflate the economy. Money is made from cotton books are made from trees. No trees no books, no cotton no money and clothes and cotton goods. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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A world void of trees is a place I would love to live rather rule over. Sort of like Ellesmere Island only not as cold. Books could be found on line and all “paper work” would be on computers. Money would be handled electronically. Clothes would be made of synthetic material. The government will have power to enforce all laws with out annoying an annoying court system to deal with. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Yeah I was talking about an economy so ridiculously hyper-inflated that money itself had become valueless.
Posts: 2195 | Registered: Aug 2006
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