About a week ago I stumbled upon Green-Blog.org while i was searching for sites i could use to help promote The New Green House.  The blog entry, "Environmental activists violently attacked by timber workers," really grabbed my attention, and not for the reasons you may think.  Although it is unfortunate that this confrontation played out the way it did, I personally do not feel any sympathy for those activists.  Their actions are mis-informed at best and they shouldn't have been there.

     As an activist there are plenty of actions to take in the hopes of saving a tree or two.  You may choose to go to the most extreme like the folks from the Earth Liberation Front and set fire to a lumber yard, or maybe you have a little more sense than that and you'll settle for parking your car in front of a logging truck (please reference this article and the video tape evidence before attempting).  If you have done your research, you would know that actions like these are not helping the environment.  Believe it or not, its true.  May i suggest a more productive action to take.  I suggest that you stop sacrificing your Subarus and start educating your peers.

     Education can resolve any problem that we face, but before you start educating, you must first allow yourself to be educated.  Today lets educate ourselves about trees.  I will start off simple.  Trees are plants, and as we all have learned in grade school, plants absorb carbon dioxide, the #1 contributor to global warming, and give back oxygen.  Think about that.  Trees absorb CO2 and give back O2.  Where does the carbon go?  Its simple, the trees retain it, they use it to grow.  Trees are the carbon banks of nature.  The carbon stored in a tree can re-enter the atmosphere if that tree is burned or if the tree dies and begins to decompose (read more about the carbon cycle).  This is already a major contributor to global warming.  It is estimated that deforestation is responsible for 20-25% of all carbon emissions entering the atmosphere, by the burning of about 34 million acres of trees each year (FAO).  Do you now see why those environmentally conscious people from the Earth Liberation Front were actually adding to the problem?

     But shouldn't we stop lumber companies from harvesting all of natures carbon banks?  The answer to that question is no, not necessarily.  Any good lumber company will be certified by one of the many sustainable forest certifications like, the Forest Stewadship Council or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.  These certifying organizations set rules that loggers must follow to ensure the future of the forests they work in.  In other words, the Forest Stewardship Council ensures that by cutting down a limited number of trees today it will not affect the forest tomorrow or ever for that matter.  For every tree that is cut down, two are planted.  Harvesting trees also has advantages for the environment.  The carbon in the tree is not allowed back into the atmosphere, offsetting our unnecessary contribution of CO2.  Instead the lumber is used to build just about everything.  Right now you are possibly sitting on a carbon rich chair.  That carbon is doing you more good under your cheeks than it would if it were in your air.  

     Now don't go and label me as a nonchalant lumber jack.  I understand that we are cutting down more trees than necessary and that a lot of these trees are being used in counter productive ways.  There is a simple solution to reducing the number of trees that we are harvesting.  Trees are a commodity and as such they are harvested on the economic principle of supply and demand.  Reduce demand for trees and supply will in turn be reduced until the market reaches equilibrium.  So reduce your use of wood products, most notably paper products.  Sign up for online bank statements, and if possible get all your bills online too, the paper they are printed on just ends up in your trash and in the land fill where the carbon has the chance to re-enter the atmosphere.  Do you really need those receipts from your debit card transactions?  You know you'll just crumple them up and throw 'em away.  Every one of us could find a way to use less paper in our daily routines and in return save a tree or two the easy way.

     Hopefully I've changed the opinions of a few, shed some light on reality, and possibly saved a car or two from being the next victim of violent timber workers.  The most important bit of knowledge that you should take from this article is that education is the key to protecting our environment.  If my word is not enough for you, i will leave you with the words of someone with more credibility than myself.

“As human-caused biodiversity loss and climate disruption gain ground, we need to keep our sights clear and understand that the measure of a threat is not a matter of whether it is made on purpose, but of how much loss it may cause. It's an ancient habit to go after those we perceive to be evil because they intended to do harm. It's harder, but more effective, to "go after," meaning to more effectively educate and socialize, those vastly larger numbers of our fellow humans who are not evil, but whose behavior may in fact be far more destructive in the long run." (Ed Ayres, editor of Worldwatch magazine, Nov/Dec 2001)