To the Editor:
I recently saw a documentary called ‘Kiss the Sail.’ It was basically about soil regeneration – how clean, healthy soil leads to a clean, healthy planet. It sounds like a good idea but who is going to finance this idea? Not the government. They are the ones who for years have been telling farmers to go big or go home. Private investors, unless there is immediate financial gain, are just not interested, leaving it up to farmers who are already under the pressure of soaring diesel costs, seed costs and fertilizer and chemicals through the roof. It seems to me to be one more idea with good intentions, but to initiate this idea worldwide is just another pipe dream.
There was recently a clear-cut of trees just up the road from me. A Québec clear-cutter killing the trees, hauling the trees to Québec and now burning whatever was left – releasing all the carbon monoxide the trees absorbed so we wouldn’t have to breathe it in. I still think Québec clear-cutters should be forced to wear black hoods over their heads to truly reflect the executioners they are. No class at all.
Trees are a life form. They breathe air, drink water, have their young and only want to grow old protecting us. But we won’t let them. We could learn a lot from trees, if we ever took the time. They all get along – poplar beside maple, beside cedar or spruce or pine.
Trees can’t run, they don’t hide, they can’t fight back. I wish they could.
We can put a man on the moon, a robot on Mars, but you’re telling me we can’t recycle our plastics into a construction product, reducing our dependence on lumber? It will never happen, because the pulp mills and lumber yards don’t want to release the monopoly they have. So we will continue to send our plastic waste in containers to Third World countries – who don’t want it.
I personally don’t mind if the world ends. I’ve had a good life. But what about your one-year-old grandson or daughter? What are we leaving them? Nothing at all.
It’s not just Canada that is suffering from mass deforestation. We are witnessing a global forestry genocide and the ensuing climactic destruction will be world altering.
As people around here like to say, this isn’t the trees first rodeo. They’ve been under attack by civilizations for thousands of years. But don’t worry, the trees will be here long after we’re gone. How do I know? They told me so.
Be nice to a tree, they really appreciate it.
Andy Perreault, Vankleek Hill
