Here we are on this shortest day of the Winter Solstice. A day to pause, reflect and light a candle. As we look out on the foggy early morning landscape, imagine how bleak these winter days would be without our trees, the lungs and guardians of the earth.
A few days ago one of the young readers of the Ojai Post gleefully left a video clip with a comment that said, “Check out the Ojai Hippies in the forest !” I confess the child in me laughed at the clip — but truth is, there’s nothing funny about clear-cutting trees.
I finally finished reading, The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods, by Julia Butterfly Hill. Julia climbed a 200-foot redwood in December, 1997, and stayed in the tree for 738 days. On a day like this, I can imagine how cold it must have been, especially on rainy, windy nights. This is a great gift book for anyone who enjoys poking fun at Ojai hippies saving trees!
Below is the Copenhagen climate-change summit article that jumped out at me in today’s New York Times. It’s written by Bernd Heinrich, author of 17 award-winning books, including the bestselling Winter World, Mind of the Raven, and Why We Run. Heinrich has received countless honors for his scientific work. He also writes for Scientific American, Outside, American Scientist, and Audubon; and he has written book reviews and op-eds for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He studied at the University of Maine and UCLA, and is professor emeritus of biology at the University of Vermont.
So please, no smart allec comments fom BC.
Clear-Cutting the Truth About Trees
“The Copenhagen climate-change summit meeting is behind us, and did not achieve what was hoped for. There was no lack of good intentions, but they generated conflicts rather than solutions, and the product was a weak agreement to disagree in the future. Forests were part of the discussion, and several things were understood: carbon dioxide is a potentially world-altering lethal pollutant, fossil fuels are the problem, biofuels are part of the solution. But exactly how to pare down the use of fossil fuels and switch to energy sources derived from plant material? That is the problem.”
To read the rest, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20heinrich.html?em
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Please read the whole article, especially this part:
“Since planting new trees does get one credits, Kyoto actually created a rationale for clear-cutting old growth.
This is horrifying. The world’s forests are a key to our survival, and that of millions of other species. Not only are they critical to providing us with building material, paper, food, recreation and oxygen, they also ground us spiritually and connect us to our primal past. Never before in earth’s history have our forests been under such attack. And the global-warming folks at Copenhagen seem oblivious, buying into the corporate view of forests as an exploitable resource.
A forest is an ecosystem. It is not something planted. A forest grows on its own. There are many kinds of forests that will grow practically anywhere, each under its own special local conditions. When a tree falls, the race is on immediately to replace it. In the forests I study, there so many seeds and seedlings that if a square foot of ground space opens up, more than a hundred trees of many different species compete to grow there…”
It seems to me that your article is making the case for good forestry, using a renewable resource. Too bad groups like the Sierra Club act to prohibit logging making the forests more prone to unnatural intense forest fires that destroy a natural resource, cause pollution, kill millions of animals, promote the bark beetle, and make it so the forest will not grow back.
nonsense … there were no good intentions, or good expressions, or good wishes expressed by ANY of the World ‘FigureHeads’ at or about Copenhagen.
not a one told the truth, that Copenhagen had NOTHING to do with returning the health or sanity or economy of the world … the ONLY way to do that to return ten-fold or twenty-fold the 97 percent ELIMINATED forests, rainforests, rivers, wetlands, ocean life … as we once knew it … honor and protect ALL the women, children, indigenous, workers, cultures … and make the Earth a resplendent rainbow home for ALL seven billions of us, along with the trillions of all our sacred relations.
unfortunately, monstrously, Copenhagen’s new World Government is composed of bastards all, from Gore-Oblama down to Castro-Chavez, braindead and or intentionally spreading the Industrial Murder Machine, or just sucking on its toxic slimeball metallic tits …
PS: Thanks for calling me a “young reader” !
BTW, you are going to have to get rid of your pets now, they contribute too much to global warming.
Polluting pets: the devastating impact of man’s best friend
Thanks, I will read the article later today.
All my pets are spayed and neutered. All are rescue animals. I am very angry that policy makers have not passed laws mandating that all animals be fixed until our animal shelters are empty and until the multiple problems associated with too many pets are solved.
I HATE having to buy dog and catfood and have tried various ways around it, none a permanent solution. That is one more reason I am mostly vegan except for eggs from my own chickens or other local source — since I figure my share of the earth’s fish, etc., is eaten by my cats and dogs…
Ever day I BEG people to spay and neuter their pets. In fact, even if the Ojai Valley Green Coalition is not ready to add 0 population to their list of goals, FOR SURE spay and neuter your pets should be part of the Roadmap to a Sustainable Ojai. And don’t even get me started on my friends who purchase dogs from breeders…thus encouraging more litters…I want to weep when I see their new pet but I have to pretend I’m happy about it.
Young reader, excellent article. Thank you. I agree with most of it. Except that I would not eat my pet. There has to be a better solution and mandatory Spay and Neuter Programs are a key part of solving the impact of too many pets.
I have a pure breed border collie, she is very smart, probably smarter than most people on this site. Thats why we breed various desirable traits, so that we can retain the good traits. When you get a dog from the pound chances are it will end up biting your child or your neighbors child or worse. The point is that this article shows the stupidity of those concerned about global warming. I’m so glad God intervened at the climate conference and created record cold over there and here on the east coast showing the stupidity of everyone involved.
I guess it’s no use telling you that even thousands of pure bred dogs end up at the pound…or even that no dog I have ever gotten from the pound has ever bitten a child…
Yo BC!
I am Buffalo Girl, one of Suza’s dogs. I am a gorgeous Aussie mix. Last year, on the Friday before Christmas, the Humane League brought me to Suza’s house. I was about ten months old and first thing I did was chew up half her shoes. The last thing this poor old woman needed was a puppy but the young lady who rescued me already had nine other dogs and her husband said, “No more!”
Suza did not have the heart to turn me away. Plus it was the Friday before Christmas and I overheard Suza tell one of the rescue guys that her Queenland Heeler dog had died a year ago on the Friday before Christmas. So Suza thought it was “cosmic” that I showed up on such an auspicious day. (I am not making this up. If you don’t believe me, check out Suza’s December, 2007, Ojai Post entries.)
The fact is that I was on death row. It was a close call. The needles were already waiting on a tray.
At first the people who came to the animal shelter to rescue a few lucky dogs did not notice me, but I quietly got close to one of them and gently licked their hand.
Did you know that approximately 4 million adoptable dogs and cats are killed each year due mainly to overpopulation?
Did you know that 25-30% of dogs for adoption in animal shelters are purebred?
Yes, BC, you read it right. 25-30% are purebred.
The other 70-75%, are wonderful mixed-breed pets, hoping that someone will have mercy and adopt them.
It saddens me to hear you propogating the myth that animal shelters and pet rescues are filled with dog or cats that were discarded because they’re “bad”.
I don’t remember how I ended up on death row. I was too young to die. Plus I’d had obedience training. Someone loved me and taught me to come when called and other good manners.
Many shelter dogs up for adoption are wonderful companions who became the victims of family tragedy, unlucky circumstances or irresponsible owners who got tired of taking care of them.
Did you know that many backyard dog breeders and pet stores who supply the majority of purebreds simply are selling inbred pets without care for preventing genetic problems?
Mixed breed pets have less inbreeding, generally less inherited genetic disease, and therefore overall lower vet bills and are loving, devoted, intelligent animal companions!
Just look at me!
I am one of Suza’s other dogs. I like what you said about your dog probably being smarter than most people on this site. I would venture to guess your dog is probably smarter than most people in the world. No dog would believe that “God intervened at the climate conference and created record cold over there and here on the east coast.” Following that line of logic, are you glad God created the Tsunami?
Sounds like Suza has a pretty big carbon footprint (er’ pawprint) to me. Plus she has some pigs too !
So your point is we should not breed dogs anymore?
Merry Christmas Brian and Suza. I hope you can find a way to get along and be kind to one another this week!
If you have to ask that, you have not read what I wrote.
Before you breed your dog again, go visit the border collie rescue sites.
Why do Border Collies typically end up in animal shelters?
Although some Border Collies end up in shelters as stray or lost dogs, many are owner-relinquished due to “lack of time” and the inability to meet the dog’s emotional and physical needs.
Other reasons include: behavior problems, owner moving, family allergies, new baby, teenager going to college, etc.
Owners who neglect a Border Collie’s high demand for regularly daily exercise can expect noticeable behavior problems (digging, chewing, barking, escaping yards, household destruction) so a commitment to off-leash running for at least 2 hours a day is needed.
A gentle walk around the neighborhood is inadequate for most Border Collies. Obedience, manners and other training is absolutely necessary.
How do these dogs handle shelter life?
Shelter confinement is difficult for and stressful on the Border Collie, as well as most “herding” breeds. Since Borders are exceedingly sensitive to sights and sounds, the shelter environment can create serious depression or anxiety-ridden behavior.
You may see a Border Collie stay way back in the shelter run or curled up in a tight ball (if depressed) as he tries to hide from the activity and noise.
Or you may see an agitated Border Collie leaping anxiously at the kennel gate while behaving desperate or even aggressive.
Behavior and attitude usually improves once removed from a shelter.
Unfortunately, many wait for a new home for months, even years. Or they are euthanized.
I agree there is a big problem with people who are not prepared to have a dog. But I am starting snail eradication business for local farms and I need dogs that can round up the ducks and get them back in my truck quickly. I need to train these dogs from when they are puppies, and I evaluate the puppies for some basic traits even when they are very young. Not that any real training goes on until they are older but you can tell by they way they come to you and other subtle characteristics which ones will make a good dog. Why are there so many kinds of dogs? There were not all of these dogs running around originally, over the years people have breed for various traits.
My Aussie mix dog would probaby love a job like that! I’m starting to wonder if she is part Border Collie…she is super smart and loves to herd..
I hope you’ll write an article about your snail eradication business. I remember the ducks every morning in the rice fields in Bali…they must have been eating the snails…
Heard this morning–get this–five THOUSAND chihuahuas are being shipped out of CA to homes across the US. They are being abandoned en masse due to the collapsed economy. I cannot tell you how often I heard in Starbucks in Ventura people were rescuing abandoned horses. This is looking like a real crisis for animals in the West….
It so happens that there is a family on my street that breeds Chihuahuas. I discovered it one day as I walked a trail near their backyard and about ten little dogs came out yapping…so sad…so stupid…maybe we should PAY people to spay their dogs –that might cost less than the County taking care of litter after litter…we need FREE mobile spay and neuter cliics that roll through neighborhoods where people typically do not fix ther animals…
The Chihuahuas make good food for the coyotes!, our friends Chihuahua got snatched up while looking for a gopher.