The green movement has caught our attention as the errors of our destructive ways are clearly shown to us and we, or at least most of us, promise to “go and sin no more” or at least no more than possible. We are all hypocrites to each other because we don’t want to take the harsh austerity measures necessary to really change the situation or at least cause no more harm. All of us are constantly immersed in ideas and endless rhetoric about how to change the situation for the better “save the planet blah blah blah”.

Some of the ideas make a lot of sense, some really work, some don’t really, most are impractical, awkward, contrary to human habits, just impossible, or downright crazy. It never really matters or even occurs to us to change our anti-environmental habits until the success of our ever-increasing numbers makes it important. I can remember my mom talking about filling up the car in the 60’s when gas was so cheap per gallon that she needed to keep an eye on the attendant because if the tank was full, they would dump gas on the ground to get the highest dollar amount.

It sounds so silly and sloppy now, but we all need to remember that we come from a long history of waste and general disregard for the environment dating back to the destruction of virgin forests and the use of rivers as sewers across Europe. There is no mention of these events or one of the greatest ecological disasters in history, the so-called discovery of North America. This supposed discovery allowed for the wanton destruction of more forest land than had ever been destroyed or ruined so quickly in the name of greed and profit, with no thought for the future. Now we only have the remains of these great ecological holocausts and live looking away from the ugliness created. The strange thing about this is that the trees, the land, everything, were and still are, considered as an endless supply of resources and an infinite garbage can. Even now, hardly anyone wants to consider the measures that are really needed because they would not involve high-tech solutions to our environmental problems, but extremely low-tech incontinent solutions.

The fact that we all need to realize that this means very simply putting things back the way they were before we came along and messed things up. We can never fully return to the way things were, but the earth repeatedly proves that it can heal itself if given a little help. What we need to remember is that the entire green movement is about warning, delaying, or changing a short-term environmental trend over the next 100 years. However, the earth is billions of years old and has healed itself many times, but it takes time and that would be disastrous for us or at best very inconvenient.

Over the next 10,000 years, everything we’ve done to the earth, including our nuclear waste, will be gone or neutralized because this planet has faced much worse things in the past due to natural causes, including the greenhouse effects of volcanism. , ice ages and even massive meteorite impacts. . This planet we live on is just as alive as we are, with a much longer life cycle and a superior system to repair, protect, and even defend against damage and injury. We are simply an infestation living off of it looking for favorable conditions to exist here in the short term. What we have to do is use these defenses to our advantage.

Anyone can fly over the earth and see what is causing the problem, why our planet is getting warmer, and why the climate is changing. Just imagine pristine land before roads, shopping malls, cities, dams, dumps, and open-pit mines. There was one outstanding feature, how green the land was, with trees and plants everywhere.

Massive trees were common and smaller trees dotted the land like grass in a field. Forests covered the earth in all but the harshest, coldest, or driest places, locking in billions of tons of greenhouse gases, trapping massive amounts of water and soil nutrients, causing rivers, lakes, streams and even the oceans were cleaner and clearer. Trees cleaned the air and even created their own weather, influencing heat, humidity, wind, and rain. An aerial inspection, in fact just a passing glance, shows without a doubt how terribly severe the damage is, trees have been and continue to be destroyed at an alarming rate. The recent effects are constantly in the news, every year we read about massive floods, wildfires, dust storms, landslides and we don’t make the connection to deforestation.

A recent statistic I was made aware of indicates that 17% of all vegetation, including trees, has been lost worldwide since 1945. Trees are being replaced by concrete, asphalt, buildings, parking lots, golf courses and logging sites logged in a way that may never be sustainable, who are we kidding? It seems logical that if we want to protect the environment, we should do everything possible to return earthly conditions to their former state. This is an idea that first world countries often insist on sharing with third world countries without saying that the first world is a prime example of ecological devastation, which is the real truth. Every year, in so many corners of the earth, we constantly read about massive wildfires, floods, droughts, tornadoes, and hurricanes. These things should occur naturally, but they are all influenced and made more severe by declining tree populations.

Trees must be considered as a primary factor in climate change. Visit any area on a hot day and where the trees are not only shaded from the sun, but the air itself is cooler and the soil is moister. There are many things that cannot be changed, but there are some things that can be changed and trees are definitely one of them. It is possible to replace the number of trees lost in the last 60 years within the next 20 if we commit to taking action. Every parcel of unused land, parks, fields, old open mines, cemeteries, old airstrips, idle federal land, old landfills, even old parking lots, must be immediately replanted with trees. All trees removed for construction or any other purpose must be transplanted to help create new forests and there must be strict restrictions on the felling and culling of trees. Trees, being the renewable resource that they are, must be seriously cultivated and protected, not used for profit, and marginally replanted only for appearances of conservatism. This is something that needs to be done now if we hope to get the short-term environmental stability we want, but no green plan is addressing this urgent need now. In fact, the only groups that are bringing these issues to light are those that have been forced into the radical fringe like “ELF”, because the establishment and the powers that be feel threatened by this simple and obvious truth.