Wild lands are practically worthless.
They’re not worthless to the things that live in them, of course. They love ‘em. And they aren’t worthless aesthetically, if that’s your bag. Any place with plants slurps up carbon dioxide, providing a bulwark against climate change. And they probably have value as a matter of public health; some research suggests that trees cut down pollutants in cities, and that exposure to nature extends lifespan—or, really, lack of trees reduces lifespan—though nobody’s really sure how.
Wild lands are practically worthless.
They’re not worthless to the things that live in them, of course. They love ‘em. And they aren’t worthless aesthetically, if that’s your bag. Any place with plants slurps up carbon dioxide, providing a bulwark against climate change. And they probably have value as a matter of public health; some research suggests that trees cut down pollutants in cities, and that exposure to nature extends lifespan—or, really, lack of trees reduces lifespan—though nobody’s really sure how.
But as a product, though? As board-feet for building or biomass for burning? Not so much. “Foresters are raised from childhood to believe that wood is good and has infinite value. As a society we think of wood as this super-eco-friendly material,” says Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. “But in fact, most wood is worthless. The cost of making it into something useful far outweighs the value.”
Hooray, you are thinking. If it’s not worth it to turn trees into lumber, stop cutting down forests. Done and done. Except if you don’t reduce the number of trees, and if you then also try to put out every fire, and allow runaway climate change to make droughts and heat waves worse … the boreal forests of North America will continue to literally go up in smoke, erasing the landscape and spewing climate-changing carbon into the atmosphere.
Read more at Wired
Photo Credit: skeeze via Pixabay
