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Friends, our natural woodlands both here and abroad are disappearing at a disturbing rate. If no other environmental abuses even existed, this alone should be enough to send an alarm throughout the nation. Our technology and industrial complexes are now outdistancing nature's ablilty to recover from their demands. Perhaps we have been lulled by our own industrial might and the comforts thereof, into believing that we can go forward indefinitely on this path. And perhaps we do not realize that Americans are consuming the greater share of these and other world-wide resources.
It is not a concern needed to be felt just by Americans; but instead it should be felt by all humanity. It is better to feel this concern and work to do something now, than to suffer from the devastation and loss that awaits our future. It is our opportunity to begin recognizing this waste in our daily lives,and to work for a solution. Awareness is a potent tool for change-perhaps the most potent.
Consider for a moment the number of trees cut down and not replaced just to provide pulp tonnage for the paper used in "junk" mail each week. Further, most of this paper is not even recycled. This is just a small example of what we are sowing. We cannot sow waste and expect plenty. We cannot deal half-heartedly with the environment and expect a full replishment of its resource.
I am asking the readers of this page to make themselves more aware, at least, of woodland decline. I have provided some good links below but not to overwhelm. Our politicians hold much control in these areas. There are internal problems-political, economic, and bureaucratic. The inertia created by these forces can only be overcome by each of us working to do so. We have the WWW-our great voice and there are millions of us to use it in communication with our elected leaders. We have an instant contact-a frequent nudge, right at our fingertips.
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