Nelson Wong wrote: > > Dear Allan, > > > Why not make room for kooks and dissenters? > > > > As a forest ecologist, I concur that it's good to base one's > > judgements on > > scientific fact and that it's bad form to attack without having a > > defensible > > position. > > Thanks for your response. Just got out of a meeting with some US > congressional aides an hour ago. > > My point is not in an attack or defense or anything personal. Basically, > the environmentalists have been calling for more efforts in conservation > of the world's forests. That's a good thing. I agree we must do more for > conservation. However, when the opportunity arise for a global forest > convention came along, they backed out. In any case it's likely that > Malaysia will propose for a global forest convention to be held at the > World Forestry Congress in Turkey. > > At the Earth Summit II in New York recently, political leaders - > including the US President - of the developed world stated that they > will lead the way in greening the world. However, in the ECOSOC of the > UN held in Geneva last month, the guidelines on consumer protection & > sustainable consumption was only sponsored by Chile & Brazil. > Co-sponsors were Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaraqua, Malaysia, South > Korea, the Philippines, Lebanon, Egypt, South Africa, Japan, Finland & > Sweden. The USA & the rest of Europe did not sponsor these new > guidelines. > > It's this muddled signals that we in the so-called Third World are > receiving that made us wary of both environmentalists & the developed > world. > > Just thinking aloud. > > Nelson Wong > MTC I think we foresters should not be afraid of ecologists at all. Why? Because environmental problems are the same despite the different opinions on them. This mean we need to find solutions, among a series of alternatives. What they are doing help us to detect the problems. And, as you know, there is not such a thing as a free lunch. So, when implementing a solution we all have to pay its cost. Foresters and ecologists as well. It will be not cheaper for them or for us. For example, when we set aside a piece of land and forest for the Spotted Owl to live, there will be less timber production, less tax income to the State, less work as timber workers too. This may result on decreasing quality of public services. So, we all need to decide until how much we agree to pay on this. Then, why not to hear everyone opinions? Otherwise, we may take the wrong decision. We engineers have a rol on finding the most efficient solution. But all the people have the right to express what they want to do with the natural resources. It is a different problem. Jose de la Maza
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