The Latest On: Forests
Attention has been focused on the financial crisis recently. Yet a study headed by a Deutsche Bank economist concludes that the annual costs of forest destruction is between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. So while Wall Street has lost between $1-$1.5 trillion, we are losing "natural capital" at a rate of $2 to $5 trillion every year
Forests are helping reduce global warming, but global warming is killing forests.
Global warming sometimes can seem like a faraway thing in the American West.
Glaciers? We really don't have many. Except in that national park in Montana. But those will all be gone in 20-30 years or so.
Polar bears? Not in our neighborhood.
Just a few weeks ago, I stood with my two young sons in the Southern Sierra, gazing at the fortress walls of the Great Western Divide and marveling at how peaceful it seemed compared to 30 years before.
Those decades ago, I had come to this same spot as a newspaper reporter to write about the early struggles of the environmental movement - struggles that saved Mineral King from development, halted clearcutting on the national forest, created the Golden Trout Wilderness, and gave birth to Earthjustice.
There's still a chance for the public - and the Governor - to weigh in for FULL protection of Colorado's spectacular roadless lands.
Colorado's more than 4 million acres of roadless national forest are at risk in the coming months because of an apparent alliance between our lame duck president, George W. Bush, and Colorado's Democratic governor, Bill Ritter.
In the late 1980s, the country celebrated the 200th anniversary of our most important legal text: the U.S. Constitution.
To do so, a commission was established, headed by respected former Chief Justice Warren Burger. And to lead a celebration in Washington, D.C., an equally distinguished American was chosen: Wayne Newton.
Wayne Newton!!?? The original Las Vegas lounge lizard? What were they thinking?
Us young, hip kids (at least we thought then we were then) imagined the following conversation leading to this decision.
In 1996, the Forest Service described the 1.8 million acre Rio Grande National Forest, which rings the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, as "large … and … essentially undeveloped."
Another domino has toppled from the ranks of the most virulently anti-environment members of Congress. The election of 2006 took out Richard Pombo, then chairman of the House Resources Committee. Last week came the news that his comrade-in-chainsaws, Rep. John Doolittle, will retire at the end of this congress. Mr. Doolittle, who represents northeastern California, is being investigated for ties to Jack Abramoff and has chosen not to seek reelection under heavy pressure from fellow Republicans, who feared losing the seat to a Democrat.
