forests

The more optimistic global warming scientists believe we have a good 10 years to deal with global warming. After that, all bets are off. Some even say all bets are off right now, but I think we still have time. But either way, the time to act is 20 years ago...or, since we were to goddamned stupid to do that, how about right now.

My main efforts this particular year have been the preservation of forests, reforestation, and preservation of wetlands because these three things will be absolutely critical for our abilities to deal with both global warming per se (due to their carbon sequestration abilities) and in dealing with the CONSEQUENCES of global warming, including flooding, soil erosion, etc.

So, in the spirit of this particular focus, this comes from something I wrote long ago, but is still very relevant and bears repetition. We ALL need to pay attention to these things because if we don't, we are screwed, our children are screwed and our grandchildren are screwed. Beyond that I cannot predict.

As I read Jared Diamond’s excellent book Collapse a couple of years ago, I was struck by the fact that among all the various environmental issues that led to major economic and social problems, deforestation stood out as a major factor in almost every case examined, from Easter Island to modern Montana. Throughout history, and continuing today, deforestation has been one of the single most common reasons for the agricultural and economic collapse of civilizations and nations. The simple explanation for this is that forests represent not only a major resource whose depletion affects not just the logging industry, but also construction and transportation industries as well as, in most places, heating and cooking. But deeper than this simple explanation is a much more fundamental one. Forests are a major determinant of rainfall patterns, water runoff patterns and soil erosion patterns. Deforestation almost invariably reduces rainfall regionally. Deforestation leads to much faster water runoff leading to disastrous rainy season floods followed by dry season droughts in areas where prior to deforestation water runoff was better held by forests, preventing floods and mitigating the dry season. And deforestation, both by removing extensive root systems that hold soil in place and because of it’s limiting rapid water runoff, leads to greatly increased soil erosion. In areas of the world where deforestation has occurred, agriculture declines due to water scarcity, rainy season floods, and massive soil depletion. More distant problems are the loss of reliable watercourses due to the floods and erosion, often rendering hydroelectric power and irrigation impossible, and the destruction of downstream delta fisheries that depend on the nutrients washed downstream by a healthy river/soil ecosystem. Thus forestry, agriculture, infrastructure and fisheries suffer severely after the deforestation of an area and this alone has led to many economic crashes in many parts of the world through history.

Some years back I read Jared Diamond's excellent book Collapse. It covers a wide range of issues and locations in its analysis of the collapse of civilizations and draws parallels with modern soceity and past societies with the intent of finding ways in which our society can survive rather than collapse.

One of the most important points to me in the book was the critical role of forests in ANY society's economic well being and long term stability. A contrast between Haiti and the Dominican Republic dramatically showed the difference between a nation that was nearly completely deforested and one that preserved its forests. Preserving forests maintained soil productivity as well as protected fisheries that were downstream.

Global warming gives us added reason to be tree huggers. Trees are the most effective long term way of removing carbon from the atmosphere. Nothing else can do so much at such low cost. Combine their protection of the soil, water resources, downstream fisheries, etc. with their ability to sequester carbon, and preservation of forests and tree planting are about the best thing any of us can do to stabilize human society in the face of current challenges.

An area where this is most critical is one that is dear to my heart: the Middle East. I am a pro-Israel Jew. I am also pro-Palestine. But having read a great deal of history, I know that the existance of a Jewish nation is very important to me and to my children. Even the most welcoming of nations has turned anti-Semitic in the past, and so the well being of Israel seems to me kind of like an insurance policy for all Jews. It gives us a place where we can go if and when the nations that hold the diaspora turn on us...again.