Between The Forest And Greed

Between The Forest and Greed

Within the past decade there has been a rising "environmentally conscious" movement. The spectrum of issues in contention by environmentalism has expanded virulently and is reaching its zenith. Public dissatisfaction with the environmental movement is forming, as the movement has taken the fight for the environment too far. Donella Meadows is an environmentalist who has yet to fully think about the issue she is arguing. In her piece "Not Seeing the Forest for the Dollar Bills," she takes an almost infantile approach to the logging industry and the concept of clear cutting. The monetary motivations behind the logging industry is her explanation for clear cutting, trying to portray the logging industry as a cold money making machine. This of course neglects the fact that the reason logging generates capital is because the world needs wood.

There are several economic and environmental issues that are considered when loggers enter and area. Haphazard clear cutting of forests, while it maybe what

Meadows would like us to think, does not happen. With every industry, every aspect is carefully debated and analyzed for the short and long term outcomes.

Any industry that capitalizes on earth's resources figuratively signs a pact with the earth. This pact bonds this industry to the earth and requires that any harvesting of resources is not done so with haste and waste. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two. For the industry to exist there must be a constant supply of the resource. Without a constant supply the industry dies. Now, many people believe that the logging industry's objective is to cut down all the trees that are currently standing. As horrific as this scenario may sound, it is far from the truth. Without trees to cut down there is no industry. The logging industry is not so foolish as to rampage the forests and cut down all the trees. As they cut, they plant. Replacing forests with samplings may look inadequate, but over a long period of time these samplings will become a new forest. The earth as we know it today has been in existence for millions of years. Even if newly planted tress take a century to grow back that is only a pinpoint on the time line. The millions of acres of forested land left untouched currently will not be engulfed by blades and tractors instantly. It will take time to cut down the trees, as it will take time to grow them back.

Meadows seems to have a misconception of industries and the service they provide. All industries, whether it be recycling to logging, are trying to