At 10:06 AM 11/4/94, james f. palmer wrote: >David South writes . . . >> >>California has 10% of the US population but consumes about 25% of the wood >>fiber. >> >> >>I had already suspected that Californians used more wood that the rest of us >>(US), but I guessed it was about double. However, the above suggests they >>consume THREE TIMES AS MUCH WOOD FIBER PER CAPITA!!! Even if they did >>reduce their consumption by 50%, they still would be using 50% more wood >>that the rest of us in America. >> >>With regards to resource conservation, we know that Californians can "talk >>the talk". >>But as a group, can they "walk the walk"?? We know they can "think >>globally" but can they "act locally"? Mr South and list readers: I believe the Ronald Stewart you quoted is the former Regional Forester for USFS Region 5, based in San Francisco. Is this correct? If so, then I would have no reason to question his command of the facts of wood consumption in California. I'm inclined to believe the figure, but I think it's not necessarily because Californians are somehow more inclined to waste and consume than people in, say, Alabama (!). Californians are, as a whole, just a lot richer. People in Sausalito can (unfortunatley) buy a lot of things (e.g. redwood decks) folks in Mobile can't afford. If folks in Alabama had more money, would they restrain themselves from building larger houses, and behaving wastefully in other ways as well? Since the loggers have cut most of California's old growth, there's not a lot of good saw timber to be had here anyway. But California has 30 million people today, and many of them are wealthy. So they buy cheap wood, peddled on interstate and international markets by colony states and nations (e.g. Oregon and especially Canada!). If there were effective restraints on logging, and on wood exports, there would be little opportunity for Californians to profligately consume wood products. So Mr South, do you have a prescription for addressing the problem? :-) David Orr dgorr@ucdavis.edu
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