Learn to Love the Lies (520 hits)
Category: NoneRating: -1 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by The Nick <nickuhlig.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2006-04-07 11:12:02 EDT
Reading Uber these days, it's not hard to see that a lot more people are becoming concerned (at least marginally) about the environment. Discussions about global warming and pollution abound. Do you remember in elementary and high school, when you learned that the world was being deforested pretty quickly? Nowadays most of the concern is concentrated in places like Malaysia, where the forest is being cut down and exported to the tune of 5,600,000 cubic metres each year. The amazon, where people idiotically clear acres of rainforest to farm on the worst farming soil in the world next to arctic tundra. The congo, where illegal logging is devastating previously virgin areas of biologically rife forest.
Clearly these are all terrible problems, but how often do you hear of these problems in North America? Are we somehow better? Are our forestry practices more sane than theirs? Do we protect our natural resources, as should be expected from countries with the kind of financial resources we have?
Sort of.
Take British Columbia for instance. An area noted for its supposed breathtaking natural beauty, and large untouched forests. Not exactly. Forestry in British Columbia, while touted as "world class" by the BC provincial government, is some of the worst in Canada. They clearcut 99.7% of the wood they harvest, and current rates of deforestation are completely unsustainable. Within only a few decades, British Columbia will have no commercial forests. Forestry in other provinces is hardly any better. Pretty soon the only places with any natural untouched forest cover will be the territories, because they harvest so little. Why the fuck is Canada known as a land respecting its natural resources?
INCO in Sudbury was once one of the (if not THE) worst polluters on the face of the planet. Look at satellite images of Sudbury on GoogleEarth. There's a big ugly brown patch all around it. Gee, I wonder if all the sulphur dioxide from the smelting plants has anything to do with it?
The only reason Canada can claim to have vast natural resources is that the country is so fucking big that even now when we destroy our resources at the rate we are, it would take a while to get rid of them. Just because we have a lot doesn't mean we should use up more.
The only difference between North America and any third world tropical country is that the majority of our forestry is legal. That doesn't change the fact that it is criminally ignorant.
Never mind the fact that Western industry and dependence on foreign labour, the classically Western desire for exotic items that we don't need, and our frivolous living habits are some of the main causes of the poorer countries' abuse of their environment. The beef industry in Brazil has expanded threefold, msotly due to demand in the EU and Russia for their beef. Desire for tropical wood and veneer from southeast Asia has exponentially increased the rate of forest destruction in Borneo and Sumatra.
So my advice to everyone is to just learn to love the lies. Eat shit with a smile. That is about the only solution to the current state of affairs in the Western World. We love to point the finger at others, but when it comes down to it we are no better than anyone else. We're told we're better, we're told that we're beacons of everything good and pure in the political and social world, we're told that we can wipe our consciences clean. So stop trying to fight the man. The man already won. Unless you possess fantastic luck and near limitless resources and resolve, you will never make a difference. Take solace in the fact that eventually we'll pollute ourselves to death, and then everything will set itself right.
Stop worrying and learn to love the lies. Thinking about the problems you cause will only make you depressed and unproductive. That or you might actually rise up and make a difference. And who wants either of those?
A message from your local government.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-04-07 15:54:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
what, are you trying out for the position of ETS' new girlfriend?
Submitted by Grimm (user info) at 2006-04-07 13:25:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Submitted by renz0r (user info) at 2006-04-07 12:27:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Bizdorph (user info) at 2006-04-07 12:13:53 (#)
Ranking: 0
My source was a Greenpeace PDF grading Canada's lumber practices by province.
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In other words you were copying and pasting from literature published by organization with a vested interest and bias towards the matter.
I am not dismissing Greenpeace, although MANY probably would, but they do view things a certain way. I could just as easily post propaganda from a logging companies PR firm and have it be just as valid :)
Submitted by Bizdorph (user info) at 2006-04-07 12:13:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
My source was a Greenpeace PDF grading Canada's lumber practices by province.
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2006-04-07 11:51:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
lets see if we can break another one
Submitted by renz0r (user info) at 2006-04-07 11:39:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Where are your sources?
BC forestry (and Canadian forestry in genral) has been demolished by the softwood lumber dispute with the US.
SOURCE:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?content=20060123_119709_119709
In most cases it's not even profitable to cut, and when they do they are being forced by public, governmental, and private sector interests to do so more in a more environmentally friendly manner
SOURCE:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/environ/goodwood/index.html
That said I find your claim that "current rates of deforestation are completely unsustainable. Within only a few decades, British Columbia will have no commercial forests." is nonsense.
DEBONK@!# DEBONK!@ DEBONK!