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an obvious question. But
what?
lf you can't afford
firewood, you most certainly
don' t have electricity. When
your annual income
suggested-biogas from
decomposing waste, or
solar energy. They
work-but they are
expensive, and as yet , these
right ideas have not gotten
beyond the laboratory or the
model farm.
Hungry and cold people
g
can' ! wait. Their need is for
~
today. As they gather the
~
handful of branches and
~
twigs they need to bake
?
their daily bread, they have
~
no idea of the havoc they
~
are causing.
~
Why should the Nepalese
-.-..--.._ __.
~
farmer, climbing ever higher
averages only two or three
hundred American dollars,
the escalating price of
kerosine and other fuels has
pul them forever out of
reach.
Animal dung is used as
an alternative for firewood in
some areas. But it is an
inefficient and poor
substitute. Even more
importan!, if used as fuel , it
cannot then be used as a
fertilizer. The land is
therefore robbed of
essential nutrients.
This becomes especially
critica! in tropical areas.
Lacking organic material,
and exposed to harsh
conditions, the already thin
soil soon erodes and the
desert takes over. Much of
the lndian continent has
been affected in this way.
lngenious alternative
cooking methods have been
in the foothills of the
Himalayas in the scramble
for fuel, realize that he is
partly responsible for a flood
in India or Bangladesh? He
may not know that those
trees he is destroying are
helping the ground absorb
moisture, and that without
them, the runoff from the
melting snows will increase.
Nor would he know that the
excess water will find its
way to the rivers, and the
swollen rivers will sweep
down lo the plains, causing
the other farmers like him to
lose their farms, their homes
and perhaps their lives in a
destructive flood. All he
knows is that he needs
some wood, and he can't
find it close to home.
When God finished the
re-creation of the world, He
said it was very good
(Genesis 1:31 ). The animal ,
vegetable and mineral
resources that God pul on
earth
should
have lasted as
long as man has need of a
physical environment.
The world firewood crisis
is one exarnple of how we
have rnishandled what God
gave us . There
shouldhave
been enough. There
could
be enough even now, if we
all cooperated. But sorne
nations have so cornpletely
devastated their territory,
that they will need rnuch
help before they can even
begin to salve their
problern. Help
andtirne ,
for
there are no such things as
WORLD USE
OF HARVESTED WOOD
instan! trees.
But let's look ahead on
a positive note. A
governrnent that owns a
fleet of huge oi l tankers
that have been lying idle
for sorne years has
offered to send thern to
Ganada. The Canadian
governrnent has agreed
to load thern with surplus
t irnber that is unfit for
lurnber. The plan is for
the ships to take the
wood to North Africa,
where it will be used as
an interirn fuel by the
nations engaged in the
Sahara reafforestation
project. The project is
going well , but it will be a
few years yet befare the
new trees have
established themselves.
No , it hasn ' t happened
yet. Today, in a world
devoted to getting, such
a plan might be laughed
to scorn. There would be
a thousand reasons why
it couldn't be done.
Uneconomical. Technical
difficulties. Politically
inexpedient. Strategically
unsound .
But it just might be the
kind of headline we wi ll
be reading in a few years
time, alter Christ
intervenes in world affairs
to bring peace and
prosperity lo a dying
world. Then people of the
world wi ll be able lo work
together, learning the way
of giving and the
consequent abundan!
blessings that derive from
generosity. In a world
economy based on giving
and sharing, their
problems
can
be solved.
But, sadly, not until then.
lronic, isn 't it? God
showed us a way that
would lead lo eterna! lite,
with the
universe
as an
inheritance. Mankind has
rejected that way-and
now we' re even running
out of firewood!
- John Halford
75 percent as mueh forestland in
the United States as when
Christopher Columbus arrived,
sorne conservationist groups dis–
pute that figure, insisting only a
small fraction of the original for–
estland exists.
Part of the difference is prob–
ably in terminology. Timber com–
panies counting their replanted
tree farms as "forest." The con–
servationists counting only virgin
forest. T he lumber industry has
been accused of using deceptive
terminology to mask the ongoing
decimation of America's forests.
Conservationist groups are
adamant that virgin forest once
cut down can never be adequately
replaced with the tree farm meth–
ods used by the industry. The
original landscape they point out,
is destroyed, streams are ruined,
fish killed, wild life disturbed.
And the uniform trees that are
substituted for the original forest
look like so many stalks of corn:
same species, same heighth, same
age, same shape, same distance
apart.. Not at all natural forest.
What is more, even with the help
of fertilizers and pesticides, inten–
sive tree-farm methods work only
until the soil is worn out and sup–
ports growth no longer.
In Europe the situation is
somewhat different. The bare
hills of southern Europe show lit–
tle evidence of the extensive
woodlands that once existed in
these regions. But western Eu–
rope has apparently managed to
August. 1981
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