TREES OF LIFE:FORESTS IN PERIL
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January 20th, 2020

1/20/2020

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                                   ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
 
During the writing of my book, “Trees of Life-Our Forests in Peril”, my editor challenged me to consider environmental ethics in relation to the issues I was concerned about with forestry. I did limited research and included a brief discussion of ethics in my book, but must admit I had limited knowledge of the subject. Philosophy is the study of the fundamentals of knowledge, reality and existence. Ethics, or moral conduct, involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy, which studies the moral relationship of human beings, along with their value and moral status, to the environment and its non-human contents. I have spent considerable time studying the discipline and its relationship to current forest management principles. It has helped me understand the challenge of environmental ethics to the anthropocentrism (human-centeredness) which is the traditional western ethical thinking of people in the United States. It has also helped me better understand the need for major changes in the scientific application of forest management practices on our remaining public forested lands.
I was reminded of Professor William Rees’s explanation of eco-economics when he described how ecologists in their field focus on non-human species, and economist focus on humans with little to no understanding of the relationship’s humans share with the natural world. Ethics appears to be what I have been searching for to link modern day science to humanity. My concerns have been based on the need to link our advancements in science to the human element in order to reduce the accelerated destruction of our natural world.   Anthropocentrism and human relationships to the natural world reminded me of my involvement in the forest planning process we were required to complete during my final ten years of employment. The National Forest Management Act of 1976 directed the U.S. Forest Service to prepare integrated management plans for each of the 155 National Forests. This was a significant change in the Forest Service planning processes, from individual resource plans to a plan for the land, integrating the resources and identifying relationships. To accomplish the task, most Forests established an interdisciplinary team with each member being a specialist in a different resource area. The results were not as I had expected, since rather than defining the relationships, each member tended to become an advocate for their specialty. Anthropocentrism explains the difficulty of implementing an integrated planning approach and the inability of the American people to come together and to agree on environmental issues that will impact our future, such as climate change.
Ethics involves studying human being’s moral relationships to the environment and non-human species, and includes consideration of value and moral status. Environmental ethics recognizes two types of values, instrumental value and intrinsic value. Instrumental value is using things as means to further some other ends, where intrinsic value refers to things as ends themselves. A teacher presenting knowledge to a person desiring that knowledge has instrumental value, but the teacher as a person has intrinsic value. Traditional western ethical perspectives are human-centered (anthropocentric) as they assign intrinsic value to humans, but seldom to non-human things. An early example is Aristotle who maintained, “nature has made all things specifically for man”.  This opinion is now understood to be wrong, but helps explain our western cultures focus on anthropocentrism. Earth does not belong to us; we belong to Earth! A discussion of environmental ethics requires considering if the environment and non-human species have rights. If the natural world is the only environment that can provide the elements that sustain life on Earth, should they not have rights similar to human beings?
Although nature was a focus of study during the nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, environmental ethics did not emerge as an academic discipline until the 1970’s. The review of human relationships with nature through environmental ethics has supported previous predictions of a human population explosion and the increase of serious environmental crises. In 1967, historian Lynn White, presented an essay suggesting, “Judeo-Christian thinking encouraged the over-exploitation of nature as created for use of humans”. The rationale of his thesis was that the Church Fathers and the Bible, supports the anthropocentric perspective where humans are the only things that matter on Earth, and may use and consume everything to their advantage without committing any injustice.  The elevation of human beings above the environment and non-human species has alienated many of us from the natural world and its contribution to life. The proper translation of the original Hebrew language is now thought to be “provide stewardship” rather than “take dominion over”.       
In 2007, the Department of Agriculture published a report known as, The Report on Abuse. Leading scientists and economist contributed to the report and assigned an instrumental value to a single tree over a 50-year life cycle. The intrinsic value of the tree would be the actual value of the tree itself, and would normally be in the hundreds of dollars. The largest tree value I have known of was a black walnut tree that sold for $2000. The specialists that prepared the Report on Abuse, assigned the instrumental value of an average tree over a 50-year period to be $162,000.00. This value was arrived at by assigning economic values to; storage of carbon dioxide, production of oxygen, purification of water, supply of water, soil erosion prevention and air purification.
In 1968, Stanford ecologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich published the book, “The Population Bomb”, which suggested, “the growth of human population will threaten the viability of planetary life-support systems”. A 1968 photograph of Earth from space, taken by NASA, was published in 1970 in “Scientific America” journal, described the photo as, it was plain to see a living, shining planet voyaging through space and shared by all of humanity, a precious vessel vulnerable to pollution and to the overuse of its limited capacities. Aldo Leopold, in 1949 advocated the adoption of a “land ethic”. This is the missing link in the science of forestry, the ability to “read the land”, the ability to observe and understand the complexity of individual forest communities! This must then be followed by the ability to appreciate and comprehend the relationships between the natural world and life-systems including human beings!   
Philosophy courses were not a consideration in forestry school when I was working on my degree, but my continued interest in environmental issues and the natural world, has led me to the necessity of understanding the topic of environmental ethics. Without the understanding of the moral relationships with human-beings, advanced technology and science will lead to the accelerated destruction of our vital natural world. We are but one small part of the Earth community and must remember, “nothing is itself without all the rest”.
We will continue this discussion next time.
    
 

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January 08th, 2020

1/8/2020

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WORLDWIDE CRISIS – DEFORESTATION
 
During the past six years, I have published 144 articles (blogs) about the environmental issues we are facing, caused primarily by human demands. The number one issue is population expansion, which fortunately has been slowing in the developed countries but worldwide is continuing to expand by 75 million people annually. This expansion, obviously, increases the demand for more resources from our limited land base and increases deforestation of our remaining forest covered lands. Deforestation then, becomes the second major environmental issue.
Controlling population growth is difficult, if even possible, as demonstrated by past attempts that have failed. Although demands for more resources will stress our remaining forested lands, there may be some opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our remaining tree covered lands. This will require significant changes in our management policies and life styles which will not happen until we understand the magnitude of the issue of deforestation!
Just what are the facts? Our planet’s land base was once 60 to 70% covered with trees and today is only 30% forested. Over half of our forested lands have been cleared to grow crops, graze livestock, build cities, transportation corridors, golf courses, factories and other facilities requiring cleared land. We have discovered almost 10 million different species of living organisms which science has determined 80% of these species cannot survive without tree covered lands, and that includes humans. Scientific data suggests we have discovered less than 20% of the species that exist on Earth. The necessity of remaining forest cover is essential for the future of humanity and life in general.
Our next concern focuses on what is happening to our remaining forest covered lands. We are told the majority of undiscovered species are to be found within the tropical zone and the vast majority of bio- diversity, which supports our life systems, is also found in this zone.  It is not unusual for a forest community in the tropics to have several hundred different trees species, where a frigid zone community would normally have less than eight different species. Science has confirmed that 20% of the required oxygen on Earth comes from the tropical zone and the majority of the undiscovered 40 million plants and animals will be found within this zone. All three zones contribute to the sustenance of life on Earth, and it is obvious the tropical zone is the most important contributor to the elements required for life.
Today, tropical forests are being threatened by deforestation more than any other zone. The World Bank reports, since the beginning of the 20th century, we have deforested 3.9 million square miles of tropical forested lands. In just one year, 2017, the tropics lost 61,000 square miles of forest cover, an area the size of the country of Bangladesh. Current practices involve removing the marketable trees and then burning the debris and remaining vegetation. In 2019, over 80,000 fires burned in the Amazon following timber harvesting activities which was an eighty percent increase over 2018. Once cleared, the land is used to grow crops or to graze livestock. Over the past 25 years, Uganda has lost 63% of their tropical forest cover. These facts are shocking for the valuable tropical zone, but are also occurring at a slower rate in the other two zones, especially the temperate zone. Worldwide, we are deforesting the equivalent of 27 soccer fields every minute.
Deforestation is also the second major causes of climate change. The removal of trees in the three zones results in warming temperatures of the soil and air, reduced rainfall causing drought conditions, increased wind velocity and major reductions in the storage of carbon dioxide resulting in increased greenhouse gases. The first major cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels; followed closely by deforestation and massive wildfires that burn the vegetative debris remaining after the timber harvesting activities.
Controlling population expansion offers limited hope, which has been demonstrated by past failed efforts. The expanding population and improved life styles will certainly result in increasing demands for resources and increased damage to our natural world. The management of our remaining forested lands may offer some opportunity for a more desirable future, but will require significant changes in current management principles. There is no way we can stop deforestation, but improved utilization and new product materials can slow and reduce deforestation rates. The continued reduction of forest covered lands will demand increased effectiveness and efficiency from the remaining forested areas to produce the life sustaining elements required by humanity. This requires focusing on the forest communities to maintain their health and bio-diversity, rather than managing for a sustained flow of forest resources.
It is the forest environment that provides the life-sustaining elements required by 80% of the 10 million species known to exist on Earth. Success requires an intensive management strategy for each individual forest community, designed to maintain healthy vibrant trees and maintain or enhance the bio-diversity within naturally established communities. The first principle of this strategy is to never introduce non-indigenous species into a community. This principle must be followed by the use of natural regeneration strategies utilizing the seeds provided by the various tree species which are natural to the site. Plantations of single species and single age class trees, destroys diversity and sets in motion the probability of a continued cycle of catastrophic event like massive wildfires and insect or disease infestations. I have offered a brief description of how to start a new management philosophy which I call “Nature’s Way” but if we truly care about the future we must change. The major goal of Nature’s Way shifts the management focus to the forest itself and makes the forest resources the by-product of good management.  The concern for changing climate conditions is a major issue today, but we must also be concerned about the future of life on Earth as both are inter-connected. Diversity is the most important element that allows life systems to function on planet Earth. Scientists suggest the carrying- capacity of Earth may be 10 billion people, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects the world population will reach that number in just 30 years. Has tomorrow already come, or can we still make a difference?  
          
       

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