Activism on Fire In the Pacific NW

A grandparent remembers a talk with his grandparents.

When I was a little kid my grandparents took me on several trips.

One of our trips included a drive through the Tillamook burn on our way to the Oregon coast. Seeing all of the burnt trees and destruction I was upset and I told them I was sad for all of the animals. I had recently watched Bambi.

 
My grandparents reassured me that it would be ok. That the destruction I was seeing wouldn't happen anymore because we now managed our forests. That we had good strategies to protect them through the way that we harvested the trees and created defensible fire breaks and how we removed fallen fuels and underbrush to keep any fires that do start from getting too hot to put out.

Since then, the controversy and hoax of the Spotted Owl happened. We were told that the spotted owl could only live in very pristine old growth areas. But in reality the Brown Owl had outcompeted the Spotted Owl for nesting sites in the less pristine areas. The Spotted Owl problem was solved by relocating the excess Brown Owls. But the damage had already been done to the consciousness of our Nation and the News of a solution was not nearly as, "Newsworthy," as repeatedly pounding the narrative of an, "Ecological Crisis." 

 

By then activist demand and media focus selective public outcry had succeeded in shutting down much of our timber and paper industry and the power of pseudo-ecological activism on educators and  legislators had succeeded in reframing the priorities of US forestry management. 

This pervasive climate of distortion had turned a minor species management problem into a major, mostly unrelated forestry management failure. Instead of protecting both species and investment, we increased our probability for annual reoccurring uncontrollable " Wildfires."  

 

Now as the years have passed the forests have truly been re-converted back from the forests my grandparents described. Instead of well protected, productive carbon absorbing landscapes that shelter plant and animal life, we have re-converted them to carbon and heat releasing timebombs that consistently increase atmospheric carbon levels!

There goes the animals and their habitat. There goes the pristine beauty of our forest... There goes our jobs and communities... And there goes the carbon and intense heat directly into the air... Those diseased and burnt trees won't be useful to Spotted Owls or fund our communities or sequester Carbon from our air anymore.

 
In our present political climate, one of our Presidential Candidates repeatedly describes biased News distortion as, "FAKE NEWS." Personally I grow weary of his constant repetitions of this theme.

But the destructive nature of this manipulative social tool cannot be overstated. 

In Nazi Germany it was called the, "The Big Lie," and eventually drove their nation to extreme in medical cruelty, unfounded wars and near self destruction.

When applied in communist nations it is called, "Propaganda," and has led to punitive extremes and rejection of historical cultural values, violent social division, economic destruction and the intentional starvation of over 70 million of their citizens.

If you are interested in how their events compare with what is happening in America consider the following post at:

https://www.thesubwaywalls.com/2023/04/ecology-social-idealism-history-and.html

Can we really go down both paths at the same time?

For some interesting stories on current challenges to our environmental wellbeing, click the (video playlist) link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjy_d3rQxsE&list=PLc7nB8Z7S2L8rjdCRpZ_rRKuI7tbY0_f6&index=6

 

Creation Groans! Butterfly Effects, Rising CO2

#multigenerational  #mediabias  #culturechange #ecologicalfailures  #forestrymanagement