My family survives on the forests, too
I have the greatest sympathy for those who insist that forestry feeds their families, but forests also produce the air we breathe. It takes 500 years to grow the trees that convert our carbon dioxide into oxygen in the quantities we need to survive, and the record extreme temperatures we are experiencing are the result of our collective mismanagement of this critical resource. Without an absolute ban on cutting old growth we will all die. Get over it.
What we are doing with the ancient forests is the collective equivalent of pulling a plastic bag over our heads. If you want to sentence your grandchildren to death by suffocation that is your business, but when you insist that mine must die as well it is very much mine. I am supporting the protests personally and with my vote; after 50 years of voting New Democrat it will be hard for me to go Green but the science is in and all the predictions are being proved accurate.
There are alternative forest practices. Thirty years ago IWA Representative Rod Thompson was sent to examine the Swedish system and came back with a presentation that I was fortunate enough to see several times. The Swedes have been far more sustainable than we have and it is time we stopped bowing to profit first corporate multinationals and learned from people who are far smarter than we have been. Sweden has been logging sustainably for centuries and forestry will continue to feed its families for centuries, provided we don’t use up all their air.
Don’t blame the protestors for pointing out the obvious. Blame yourselves for allowing things to reach this state.
David Lowther
Mesachie Lake
