Major Logging Will Begin in the Last Primeval Forest in Europe

[FLPanhandle]

http://gizmodo.com/major-logging-will-begin-in-the-last-primeval-forest-in-1767156027



In depressing news, about 180,000 cubic meters of wood will be taken from the last of Europe’s primeval forests. The environmental minister in Poland declared that the Bialowieza Puszcza will be logged over the next decade.

The Bialowieza Puszcza was always famous to environmentalists and naturalists, but it became well known to everyone due to Alan Weisman’s best-selling book, The World Without Us. To understand how the world would fare if people disappeared, he looks at the few places still untouched by humans. Weisman describes the forest as, “the misty, brooding forest that loomed behind your eyelids when, as a child, someone read you the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. Here, ash and linden trees tower nearly 150 feet, their huge canopies shading a moist, tangled understory of hornbeams, ferns, swamp alders and crockery-sized fungi.”

The forest was the result of extraordinary privilege. When people encroached on most of Europe’s forests, the Bialowieza became a royal hunting preserve first for kings of Poland and then for tsars of Russia. In 1921 it became a state nature preserve. In 1979 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Why is it that conservatives are universally anti-environment?

[RedCappedBandit]

1. Sad.

[Gregorian]

2. This will only change when we lower world population.

Fix climate change, and the problem is still there.

Now do people start getting the importance of discussing population stabilization?

[FLPanhandle]

4. That won't happen

Too politically sensitive to talk about over-population here and, amazingly, there are a number of deniers of the problem.

It's sort of the left version of climate change. Some don't want to deal with the problem and would rather pretend it doesn't exist.

[tabasco]

5. Very true.

The insane, destructive addiction to continuous "economic growth" must be ended. Only then will it be possible for the excessive human population to decline without tragic die-offs because of our wanton destruction of the only biosphere in the universe.

[gregcrawford]

8. Perhaps you might want to qualify the end of your response...

... to "... the only known biosphere in the Universe. It is statistically impossible for there to be only one, but it is most definitely the only one available to us. Otherwise, I am in complete agreement.

Another response in this thread accurately described overpopulation as a major threat to our continued existence. Everyone says, "Oh, that's too draconian!" when I suggest that people should have to pass a rigorous parenting course before having children. You have to have a license to drive a car, or to cut hair, for Chrissake, but people are free to pop out babies as often as they like. My wife is a Special Ed. teacher, and so she sees first-hand every day the damaged innocents produced by such wanton carelessness, and it is horrifying.

Overpopulation and environmental destruction, compounded by the unspeakable evil of corporatism and the pursuit of profit at any cost, will guarantee the extinction of humanity, if not all life on Earth, a damned sight sooner than anyone expects. If Trump gets elected, it could be next year!

[TheDormouse]

24. the only biosphere humans have access to = the only biosphere in the universe

for all practical purposes.

[TheDormouse]

25. overpopulation isnt the problem; it's greed & magical thinking

Might makes right.
And besides
We can completely fck it all up down here because the skygod will make it all better.

[Gregorian]

28. OK

[gregcrawford]

30. Actually, I think the benevolent (New testament) skygod...

... was smote with a lightning bolt by his evil twin, Skippy, the Old Testament skygod with serious anger management issues (see any random verse of Leviticus). What else could explain the continued existence of malevolent psychopaths like Ted Cruz's buddy, Kevin Swanson claiming to be the sole messengers of the Big Kahuna's Word?

As long as His followers maintain their stranglehold on logic, reason, and intellectual freedom, we're all pretty well fucked.

Oh yeah; HAPPY EASTER! Who knew rabbits could lay multi-colored eggs?

[Newkularblue]

3. Rec for exposure

[Donkees]

6. Home to native Bison herds, which were once cross-bred with American Bison.

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-04-20/news/mn-1280_1_european-bison

[ladjf]

7. Apparently Europeans are as dumb as we are.

[valerief]

14. The plutocrats aren't bound to a single nation or continent.

They plunder everywhere.

[ladjf]

31. Absolutely. IF you check the percentages of how much money the top 1% has in 10 top

industrial Countries, you'll see that there is very little difference in their inequity ratios compared to those in the U.S.

What that means is that oligarchs all over the World are part of the global "larceny" that is happening.

If Bernie could get elected and start the "ball rolling" on re-balancing the money flow, other Countries would like follow the same strategies that are being put in place here.

[Kip Humphrey]

9. Sounds like a job for We The People to intervene in order to stop this madness.

[ladjf]

32. Absolutely, we've lived with this criminality long enough and have enough people power to change the

balance.

[SHRED]

10. They need to replace wood with hemp

Hemp fiber is far superior in every way plus no dioxin needed.

Leave the forests alone!

[Thor_MN]

17. Hemp is superior to fiber uses of wood, but structural uses?

I would certainly hope they wouldn't use old growth for pulp wood...

I would prefer to see them leave that forest alone, but you overstate the argument for hemp over wood in general. You are correct about pulp wood uses.

[SHRED]

18. Beams that are stronger than wood can be made

Hemp fiber is one of the strongest fibers on the planet because they are so long. The entire length of the plant. Wood about 1.5" long. Far more brittle.

A plant based glue can be made from hemp to form these ultra-strong fibers into beams of any size that are vastly superior to wood for building.

If wood grain is desired for looks then selective cutting of trees can be done for fascia grain look. Nothing near the devastating clear cutting going on now.

[Thor_MN]

19. I agree that clear cutting is wrong, but you continue to overstate.

"beams of any size". How about a mile long beam? Your claim is it that it is possible.

Stick to reality.

[SHRED]

20. A mile long?

I meant like building size.
2x4, 6x6, 1x1, etc...

I'm being realistic and my information was shared in hopes of answering the concern of a wood replacement for construction that was expressed. It's easily available information online.

No need for the "stick to reality" dig.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Sadly K & R. Thanks for posting.

[valerief]

12. Conservatives aren't universally anti-environment. They're just universally greedy. nt

[ladjf]

33. Unfortunately, that greed directly translates into lethal environmental degradation and resource

depletion.

[cprise]

13. Their new RW govt that rants about

Lech Walesa being a communist traitor and evil bicyclists and their solar panels.

They're like the far-right of the Republican party... paranoid and fascist.

[The2ndWheel]

15. The result of extraordinary privilege?

It's gotta go. Cut it down, cut it all down.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. The local werewolves aren't going to like this.

[Califonz]

21. Maybe "first past the post" isn't so bad...

Proportional representation. Another crazy right wing extremist party winning power with less than 40% of the popular vote. Is there a voting system that can prevent a non- evil nutjob electorate from voting in an evil nutjob government?

[struggle4progress]

22. Logging it may indeed be a bad idea: but it probably hasn't been "primeval forest"

for quite a long time now

[Odin2005]

23. NOOOOOOOOO!!!

IIRC this is where the last of the European Bison (or wesend) live.

[MH1]

26. There is no "conservation" in "conservative".

None, nada, zilch, bupkus.

But plenty of "selfish".

[MFM008]

27. sue them

for something, anything.

[romanic]

29. Are there no environemntalists in Poland?

This is a shame if they decide to log in this forest.