I’m calling you this week from the city jail in New London, Connecticut, where I’m currently under arrest. This is my one phone call. I’m here because of a crime that’s being committed in British Columbia, a continent away. Does that sound confusing? Bear with me.
Across the globe, we have less than 22 percent of our old-growth forests still standing. Most of those are in British Columbia and Brazil and we are cutting them down at a furious rate. Our old-growth forests are home to the densest concentrations of species on earth and as a result of our clear-cutting, we are now losing species at a greater rate than at any time since the environmental cataclysm that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
These old-growth forests, in Brazil and British Columbia, are also the home of Native Americans, north and south. These are their sacred lands, these are the places where their creation myths are centered, it is as if we are cutting the Garden of Eden for these people. In a greater sense, these forests belong to us all, because these are the only ones we have left. These are a global treasure and a global heritage we all share.
In British Columbia, one of the two companies that are cutting these forests is Doman Incorporated. They cut the trees down and turn them into saw timber and wood pulp. Yesterday in New London, Connecticut, a Norwegian ship, the Saga Wave, arrived. On the deck of the ship is an area equal to two football fields, stacked 20 feet high with old-growth British Columbian wood. Below deck there’s twice as much.
Looking at the ship, I realized I was looking at hundreds of acres of old-growth trees, millions of years of growth, all lying down as two-by-fours, going off to market. Some of my old friends from Greenpeace and I raised a non-violent protest against this commerce. We’re now all under arrest. I’m not going to go into any more detail on that, because I’m standing in a police station.
But the real crime here is a crime against nature and we are all culprits. This crime is occurring in New London, Connecticut and in Philadelphia and Phoenix and in South America, Europe and Asia – wherever these products are sold because it is our use of these products, our demand for these products that puts the blades into those trees and robs us all of our heritage. We’re all complicit and this will only cease when we decide that the trees are more valuable to us as a spiritual home than as lumber for a physical home.
A Crime Against Nature
I’m calling you this week from the city jail in New London, Connecticut, where I’m currently under arrest. This is my one phone call. I’m here because of a crime that’s being committed in British Columbia, a continent away. Does that sound confusing? Bear with me.
Across the globe, we have less than 22 percent of our old-growth forests still standing. Most of those are in British Columbia and Brazil and we are cutting them down at a furious rate. Our old-growth forests are home to the densest concentrations of species on earth and as a result of our clear-cutting, we are now losing species at a greater rate than at any time since the environmental cataclysm that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
These old-growth forests, in Brazil and British Columbia, are also the home of Native Americans, north and south. These are their sacred lands, these are the places where their creation myths are centered, it is as if we are cutting the Garden of Eden for these people. In a greater sense, these forests belong to us all, because these are the only ones we have left. These are a global treasure and a global heritage we all share.
In British Columbia, one of the two companies that are cutting these forests is Doman Incorporated. They cut the trees down and turn them into saw timber and wood pulp. Yesterday in New London, Connecticut, a Norwegian ship, the Saga Wave, arrived. On the deck of the ship is an area equal to two football fields, stacked 20 feet high with old-growth British Columbian wood. Below deck there’s twice as much.
Looking at the ship, I realized I was looking at hundreds of acres of old-growth trees, millions of years of growth, all lying down as two-by-fours, going off to market. Some of my old friends from Greenpeace and I raised a non-violent protest against this commerce. We’re now all under arrest. I’m not going to go into any more detail on that, because I’m standing in a police station.
But the real crime here is a crime against nature and we are all culprits. This crime is occurring in New London, Connecticut and in Philadelphia and Phoenix and in South America, Europe and Asia – wherever these products are sold because it is our use of these products, our demand for these products that puts the blades into those trees and robs us all of our heritage. We’re all complicit and this will only cease when we decide that the trees are more valuable to us as a spiritual home than as lumber for a physical home.