The debate on environmental issues is continuing to occupying more and more time on the daily news programs. Most scientists are reasonably in agreement of the issues we face. As we have reported before, the number one issue is population expansion and number three is deforestation. To think we can control population increase is unrealistic. We are working diligently to improve our medical treatments and searching for ways to control a variety of illnesses so we will live longer. Medical science and technology advances and adds to the population expansion dilemma. Today there is less than half the acreage of forests that once existed on the planet. Our demand for forest products continues and will increase as the population increases. Yet many of our politicians refuse to accept the impact humans have had on our environment over the past 400 years. Controlling population numbers and reducing our demand for goods and services our forests provide is unrealistic, we are left with but one option, management. The past 100 years has focused on a sustainable supply of products from our remaining forested lands. Scientific forestry has focused on managing the resources from the forests and reclaiming abandoned agricultural lands with plantations. These plantations are single species and single age-class trees usually planted way to close and frequently non-indigenous to the location. We keep searching for genetically superior plants that will increase monetary returns, even-though natural diversity is lost or destroyed.
Our population continues to expand, more and more people are squeezed into urban living and our ability to read and understand our natural surroundings is disappearing. Today, people on the North American continent demand 5 times more land to provide for their affluent life style, than is available for each person on the planet. How long can this scenario continue? Maybe it is time to consider, more carefully, who we elect to represent us in Congress! Maybe it is time to start educating our population on what it means to live in balance with our surroundings! Maybe we have got to change the management goals for our remaining forested lands! Maybe it is time to reflect on what we have done to our human environment and search for a life style that recognizes we need to make some adjustments, so there will be a future!
Our population continues to expand, more and more people are squeezed into urban living and our ability to read and understand our natural surroundings is disappearing. Today, people on the North American continent demand 5 times more land to provide for their affluent life style, than is available for each person on the planet. How long can this scenario continue? Maybe it is time to consider, more carefully, who we elect to represent us in Congress! Maybe it is time to start educating our population on what it means to live in balance with our surroundings! Maybe we have got to change the management goals for our remaining forested lands! Maybe it is time to reflect on what we have done to our human environment and search for a life style that recognizes we need to make some adjustments, so there will be a future!
