[extropy-chat] LUDDISM: Neat article on N.A. reforestation...

[Mike Lorrey]

--- BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 6/2/05, Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > There is a neat article here by our friend Peter Huber on how north
> > american reforestation has occured, why, and how the greens try to
> hide
> > the fact:
> >
>
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-how_nongreen_cities.htm
> > 
> 
> The big concern of 'the greens' nowadays is tropical rain forest
> deforestation.
> "In the last few decades, the vast majority of
> deforestation has occurred in the tropics - and the pace still
> accelerates. The removal of tropical forests in Latin America is
> proceeding at a pace of about 2% per year. In Africa, the pace is
> about 0.8% per year and in Asia it is 2% per year.
> snip...
>  Interestingly, deforestation rates at
> their peak in the Midwest were ~2% annually, about the rates now seen
> in Amazonia.  At that rate, how much of existing forest will remain
> in
> 70 years?  Just one-fourth.  However, much forest re-growth has
> occurred in the eastern USA during the 20th Century, although these
> second-growth forests differ in structure and composition from their
> predecessors."

The problem with this "structure and composition" nonsense is what it
leaves out: that eastern forests now boast more wildlife, more
diversity of species, than the previous near-monocultures that existed
in so many areas, particularly the great pine barrens, before the
agricultural trends here cleared so much out. There are now more deer
and moose in the wild in NH than there were before the advent of
europeans here, as one example. Walking in my backyard I can see 6-12
species of wild grown trees, any number of plants, plus frogs and
salamanders in the shallow forest pools. A large moose walked past my
driveway a few days before I got home from Florida. Bear are occasional
pedestrians in the neighborhood, along with a few species of fox,
squirrels, grouse, turkeys, owls, mice, porcupines, otters, pine
martens and fisher cats getting in the mix. Coyotes are a road problem
and wolves are reported occasionally.

Torpical forest regrows much quicker than temperate forests (look at
any pacific island that was once a US military base), generally twice
as quick. This means you need twice the rate of deforestation to reach
the same amount of cumulative deforestation. So, sorry, the numbers
just aren't there.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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