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World's First Tree-sitting Weblog
An anonymous reader writes "Amit Asaravala over at Wired News has an interesting article up about the tree-sitters in Humboldt County. Apparently a bunch of tech activists from the Indymedia Center are setting the tree-sitters up with an 802.11b network so that they can blog about all the logging going on up there. Seems like a pretty interesting way to use technology to help the environment, which isn't something you see everyday."
http://www.contrast.org/treesit/
I'm not a Karma Whore!!!!
I grew up in a very small town in northern Maine where 90% of the jobs were in the lumber industry. Logging paper and milling. 100 years ago the state was something like 80% forest now due to replanting and such the state is over 90%, I believe it is like 94-95% right now but I have been wrong at least twice today already :).
The loggers really dont mind people sitting in the trees or just hanging out. It just means that they cant cut that tree right now. There are plenty more. There is no real benifit in taking these people away if they are not hurting anyone.
I say that in a very serious way. The people who we call "tree huggers" can get really scarry and do things that cause peoples lives. There have been a number pf people in Maine arrested for causing harm. Picture a logger cutting a tree with a chainsaw and all the sudden his saw bucks out of the tree and takes him in the head because a protester drove a 10 inch spike into the tree, not to mention that spiking trees isnt good for them either. Logging is a very dangerous buisness and sometimes the activists get mean.
As long as you do not harm other people or other peoples property I believe you have the right to be heard and if in the process you change some peoples thinking than good. And I know that the loggers will thank you for not messing with them and they might just like the company.
Sorry for the bad spelling.
Earth First!! We'll Timber the rest of the planets later!
If I were only smart enough to accomplish the things I dream about.. Or maybe too dumb to care.
It is not contradictory to use technology to protect the environment. By and large, what these people are against is the thoughtless, greedy, UNSUSTAINABLE raping of earth's resources. Corporations have demonstrated themselves to be incapable of thought beyond the bottom line.
People like this are you and I. There's a saying: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Instead of labeling these public servants, read a bit about the issues and I'll bet you find yourself in the same mindset.
~gb
Have you ever tried to remove someone from a tree? As the older brother of five avid tree-climbers, let me assure you that it is QUITE difficult. Especially when they don't want to co-operate with the removal.
- Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue.
Pssht. The logging industry was devestated by clearcutting in the 70s, before the activists even got started, and they haven't grown back because when you strip a mountainside all the soil washes down into the river, where it kills all the salmon (no fishing in the northwest anymore, either). So all the lumber companies close the mills and move em to Mexico, and start making particleboard instead of board lumber, because there aren't any trees left big enough to mill. Get a frigging clue.
Logging companies completely clearcut vast swaths of forest. When they bother to replant, they typically do so with monocultures - a single tree species, which must then be massively fertilized and insecticided to survive. When not clearcutting they select the tallest, straightest, healthiest trees which leads to a degradation of the tree gene pool in the area and shittier trees.
Clearcutting also results in the decimation of streams and habitat for other creatures. Trees also create rain and are the sources of forest streams through transpiration, so clearcutting is also an assault on our water resources.
Modern agriculture is a disaster. We've created a system where we put in more calories of energy into a crop than we can harvest. Simply saying that logging companies are doing 'tree farming' is really a complete condemnation of what they're doing.
It is possible to profitably harvest trees at a sustainable rate that has a negligible effect on the forest. It can even improve the forest by thinning out diseased or damaged trees. Yes, this would result in a somewhat lower supply of trees, but there are many, many methods to reduce tree usage in home construction.
1 house == 1-2 clearcut acres. Is this really the way to go???
> Most of these people have a hypocritical, short sighted, rose colored view of the world
Really. How well do you know them ? Have you actually spoken with a decent number of them or listened to what they are saying ? The environmental activists I have met have been informed, intelligent and realistic, perhaps a bit on the pessimistic side, but often with good reason.
> they should be negotiating (note not suing) with the logging company
What on earth do they have to negotiate with. The logging company is only interested in making as much money as possible. They will invest some of that money for campaign contributions to make sure regulation is kept to a minimum. Costing the logging company money by occupying trees is a mechanism to gain some negotiation power.
> It baffles me that the choice is either rape the land, or don't touch it.
Where the hell did you get that idea ?
Do you think these people spend time, discomfort get beaten half to death by paid goons etc while remaining completely uninformed about everything.
They are not doing it for fun. They have been successfully painted as a bunch of stupid unrealistic hippies by a sophisticated PR industry that manipulates the vast majority of the media. Check out this sometime if you want to understand better where you get your views from.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
You've committed a (probably intentional) logical fallacy. You assume that because the protesters want these particular trees to be saved, that it must mean that they want no tree in the world to be cut down, and that therefore their use of any natural resource is hypocritical. Have I got your logic right?
The fallacy of course, is that these particular trees are very unique. They represent some of the last old-growth coastal redwoods left in the world. They are thousands of years old. There used to be a lot more of them, but they've almost all been cut down over the last century, to make crap like this.
These trees should not be cut down. There's plenty of non-unique timber out there.
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Please realize that many times environmental damage can have an extremely detremental impact on peoples lives in terms of health and safety.
Toxins and carcinogens are not just affecting animals once they are in our air and water but people as well.
Environmental Activism is where profits are no longer put first but the wellbeing of our families and our earth.
If you want to see how environmental activists have done a great job go to www.nyenvirolaw.org and get an education on what does an environmental activist do. Activist means being active and not just sitting around and doing nothing.
Maladies such as asthma, lead poisoning, pesticide exposure, etc. which are caused by environmental damage are harming people. These are facts based on science. Slashdot should be as pro-environment as possible because they are supposed to be scientifically aware....
They don't in places like Brazil, Madagascar and Thailand. Logging in much of the rainforests is pretty much unrestricted. These areas also happen to be home to the majority number of the world's species.
Furthermore, secondary forest, which is what grows back after the primary forest (read: natural) has been chopped down, is much less diverse and it will take 10's if not 100's of years to get back to the natural forest.
Also, have you ever stepped outside your door and seen a man-made forest? They are dull as shit - the same tree planted in row upon row. I for one would much rather be able to visit a natural forest.
Try hooking up with your local educational facility and learn a bit about geography.
there's plenty of other trees to cut down, and frankly I'm glad they're out of the way.
The forest in humbolt county isn't just "a bunch of trees", it's an old-growth redwood forest. Some trees in this forest are thousands of years old. We are trying to protect the last of this ecosystem from destruction.