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Soon to Be Halted!
THE PLUNDERING OF
EARTH'S FORESTS
by
Clayton Steep
Surprising steps will soon be taken to halt and remedy
man's destruction of the world's forests.
[
as we know it would be drastical–
ly different if all forests disap–
peared in the next 12 months. The
good news is that they won 't dis–
appear- in the next 12 months. But the
bad news is that at the rate man's cur–
rent war on trees is proceeding, the
world's primary forests will not last
another half century!
Whether you live in a sprawling city or in
a lumber camp, you are about to feel the
effects of rapidly vanishing forests. You will
not only pay higher prices for all the prod–
ucts derived from trees- including fruits
and nuts. You will also feel whatever effect
the destruction of forest areas will have on
worldwide climate and weather patterns.
Who Cares?
Chances are the building you are sitting in is
constructed mostly or at least in part of wood or
wood products. Likewise your chair. The Sunday
edition of the large metropolitan newspaper you
may receive could well contain more wood pulp
than many families in sorne nations can gather in
a day's searching.
Way more than 4,000 different manufactured
products in the industrial world today come
wholly or in part from the forests. For example:
adhesives, dyes, paints, plastics, sugars, resins,
wallboard, veneers, oils, disinfectants, alcohols,
toilet tissue, napkins, paper bags, drugs, corks,
charcoal, soaps, roofing materials, stains, animal
foods, explosives.
Then there are the many items made of wood
itself- musical instruments, matches, telephone
poles, toys, fence posts, barreis, railroad ties, cof–
fins, firewood, broom handles and everything e lse
from boats to stereo speaker cabinets.
Today's crisis is the
end
of a long trail of
human selfishness in managing the earth .
Trai l of Destruction
For thousands of years, one of the marks of civi–
lization's expansion has been the disappearance of
trees. At one time significant highland areas of
the Arabian desert were far from being a vast
expanse of wasteland. The Bible mentions the
"forest in Arabia" ( lsaiah 21: 13). Arabia was at
one time known as "Arabia Felix"-"Arabia the
Happy"-hardly a description of endless sand
dunes and blistering heat.
When ancient Israel went in and possessed the
land of Caanan, it was a plush land, full of "vine–
yards, and olive-yards, and fruit trees in abun–
dance" (Nehemiah 9:25)-a land ftowing with
milk and honey. T hat 's not the way it has been
for centuries, though Jimited attempts have
recently been made in reclaiming land through
reforestation and irrigation.
Who has not heard of the famed cedars of
Lebanon ? They were, until World War 1, a rich
stand of stately trees growing along with pine, fir,
juniper and oak. Over centuries, tbe Phoenicians,
the Pharaohs, the Babylonians, the Israelites, the
Romans, and especially the Turks in World War
1,
decimated the forests of Lebanon. Goats and
firewood traders and British troops in World War
11
put finishing touches on what was left.
Elsewhere the story has been the same
PT photo: insets from top: PT photo: John Hslford- PT: John Hslford-PT