Logging vs Environmentalists

People in the city think of the forests of the pacific Northwest as idyllic and peaceful oases to which they can repair to escape the turmoil of the cities, but the forests today face a turmoil of their own, a conflict with two bitterly opposed sides. One side sees the other as consisting of ruthless land barons raping the forests for wood and leaving behind clear-cut devastation. The second sees the first as consisting of "tree-huggers" and eco-terrorists bent on destroying logging equipment, the logging business, and the American way of life. The truth for both sides lies somewhere in the middle, but it seems evident that the moral high-ground is held by those dedicated to preserving the ecology without totally disrupting the commerce supporting the human population. However, the two sides grow more obdurate as time passes, and more and more the issues are framed in terms of symbols. A large part of the controversy now centers on the northern spotted owl, for instance, a bird that lives mainly in the old virgin forest and which is included on the endangered species list. Proponents of increased logging see the owl as the wedge being used by environmentalists to stop all logging activities. Environmentalists see the same symbol as representing all of nature in one bird, as if saving the bird would save the rest of the environment as well.

The controversy swirls around the costs and benefits derived from logging the forest. In the northeast, acid rainfa

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ving increase. This desire for an increased standard of living translates into a greater concern for the environment. The growing economy can absorb the costs associated with improving the environmental health of the nation and world. As Reilly (1995) notes, the capitalistic society we have in the United States has been shown to be able to promote the environmental health, of its forests, in a better manner than the governmentally controlled economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (Reilly, 1995, 266). There are a number of reasons for this difference. The state-owned properties of the Soviet Union had no incentive to increase the efficiency of their use of natural resources or to decrease the amounts of pollution they were emitting. The states' decision to increase and speed economic growth without regard to weighing the costs of increased pollution backfired. The people of the former Soviet Union today experience a premature death rate, higher infant mortality statistics, and increased health problems as the result of policies which did not curb pollution with available technology. The pollution of their rivers makes parts of them unusable even for industry (Reilly, 1995, 266). The economies of these countries d

Category: Science - L