Dear Bruce Wilkey, > Nelson, Nelson, Nelson ..... What are you, a parrot ??? No, I'm a Chinese. Thank you ;) Thanks for your candid & thoughtful views which I greatly appreciate. > The woodchip industry in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast, is > engaged in wholesale forest destruction - by this I mean either > stripping all useable wood fiber over hundreds of thousands of acres > annually and moving on with NO regard for the many impacts of their > activity, or converting thousands of acres of native forest ecosystems > > into chemically dependent pine monocultures. This is all driven by > humanity's blind wastefulness spurred by relentless corporate > advertising that says "use all you want - we'll make more..." The > pulp > and paper industry in the US exports huge volumes of this timber to > the > Pacific Rim for processing and, in the process, destroys many local > sustainable economies based on sawmills utilizing 60 - 80 year old > trees > for lumber, pallets and a host of other long-term industries making > everything from pencils to flooring and furniture... It's the tenth > largest industrty in Tennessee, where I live, employing 60,000 > workers. > Two dozen high-capacity chippers operating twenty-four hours a day > employing less than 200 people could destroy those jobs and the > forests > supported by them in ten years. Luckily we have fought off all but > about > three so far but there are now over 140 mills operating in our region. > > I've watched your posts and I know you are aware of all this. So Bruce, this is a forest resource management problem. You must also understand that the USA is a rather large country to management. Secondly, there's more to wood-chips than just paper & pulp. Whether you are making wood-chips or wooden furniture, there a few things to consider: 1) Jobs - the US economy is just beginning to pick up. House ownership has gone up, retails are up. Yet everyone needs a job to support & to provide for essentials & some luxuries in life - single or married. 2) Supply & demand - this is really a 'chicken & egg' situation. If all Americans stop buying books, journals, newspapers, & other printed material. Then there's a good chance that the chapter on wood-chipping may be closed. In traditional economic theory, the factors of production are - land, labor & capital. In this new era, they are - land, labor, capital & INFORMATION. As most countries, including yours & mine move into the next millennium, the demand for information will reach critical mass. Thus the name - 'information age'. An engineer told me that children of this age are receiving & digesting information 5X in quantum, compared to those less than a decade ago. Hence, the call of the IT industry to move into a paperless (or less paper) society. As an IT professional myself, I'm designing systems to move my organisation into that direction. Yes, I think there's great potential for environmentalists & IT folks to form great strategic 'green' partnerships. You'll be surprised by the amount of resistance IT folks have to face in implementing 'paperless' concepts in any organisation. Personally, I find a lot of 'greenies' somewhat ignorant & disinterested in the subject/discussion of a paperless society/environment. Look this up too: Sleeping with the Enemy http://www.enn.com/newswire/080697/08069707.htm > What solidifies my resolve in this is the flippant way agroforesters > peer through their blinders apparently unable or unwilling to see that > > the effects of widespread forest destruction and conversion to > monocultures are bringing about many ominous ecological effects which > will have far reaching impacts on all of us regardless of where we > live. A rather somewhat generalisation here, Bruce. I'm sure foresters have their share of problems too. > I have seen the documentaries, as I'm sure you have, of people in > Haiti > who toil all day in dust to chop up the stumps of what used to be > verdant rainforests to accumulate wood to burn into charcoal which > they > carry over fifty miles on the back of a burro to Port Au Prince to > sell > for enough to buy a sack of rice to feed their family for a week ... > then repeat the process. Is this the life we shall look forward to > when > the woodchippers and monoculturists have depleted the soils of the > life-giving earth to little more than moondust? Yes, my parents were survivors/victims of the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. We are no strangers to poverty here. That's also why I've participated in the ITTO technical workshops over the last two years - to help developing countries construct & implement IT infra-structures for good forest management. > The Earth cannot "meet the demands" of the pulp and paper industry > which > are nothing more than the demands of a race of beings who will not > accept the fact that resources on this planet are finite until they > wake > up to find them all gone even as commercials continue to try to soothe > > them into buying yet more. More accurately, the earth cannot meet the consumption patterns of the First World. That's why the developing countries are put off by the lack of commitment & followup by developed countries since Rio. At the recent ECOSOC of the UN, Ms. Hurtado, Director of Global Policy & Campaigns for Consumers International, commented, 'Developed countries are responsible for 85% of the use of natural resources but have less than a quarter of the world's population...that's where things have to change'. Yet their failure to stand up & be counted at the ECOSOC in Geneva is tragic! Last but not least, Bruce, I appreciate your contribution to this discussion & hope to hear more from you. God bless Nelson Wong MTC
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