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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...