Barking up the Wrong Tree

Contrary to envorinmental doom-saying, forest cover has in fact been growing year by year for quite some time in North America and Europe. As these nations become wealthier, people abandon marginal farmland for better jobs in the cities—and the forests grow as a result.

This is now also true in the Third World. Forest cover is not shrinking worldwide. It is growing. According to this New York Times piece, “for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics on land that was once farmed, logged or ravaged by natural disaster.”

Of course, this is not “old-growth forest”--yet. So what? As Dr. Patrick Moore, the founder of Greenpeace, has more recently pointed out, new-growth forests actually support a greater variety of species than old-growth; and the cycle of the two is part of nature. Even were it not so, trees grow very fast in the tropics. The subdivision in which we currently live was built and planted just three years ago. The trees are now house-high.

But wait. You ain't seen nothing yet. Most of Canada's forests have traditionally gone for newsprint. It used to be Canada's second-biggest export. This industry is already in decline. The New York Times itself just took out a whopping loan from Mexican businessman Carlos Slim at 14% interest in hopes of struggling on for a few more months. The London Evening Standard was just sold to Russian magnate Alexander Lebedev for one pound.

At this rate, it seems likely that there will be no more newspapers—and no more demand for newsprint—within a decade.

What will we do with all those trees? Make biodiesel?