Human beings are not the only species to be suffering from deadly things that are too easily spread. Our nation's forests have long been under attack, and as the effects of global warming become more pronounced, the various at-risk species that we care for and rely upon for untold benefits will be suffering even more. This article from the New York Times tells a bit of the story.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/opinion/epidemic-invasive-species-trees.html
I'm starting work on a new bathroom vanity for our home that's to be made from ash. Currently ash is priced well in the market due to the rush to cut ash trees before they're completely lost to the emerald ash borer. By cutting infected trees and kiln drying the wood to kill larva there's a small hope that unaffected forests can be protected. We watched a similar story unfold many years ago as American elm trees of massive size were removed from cities to stop the spread of the Dutch elm disease.
The spread of viruses like that that killed most of our once glorious elm and chestnut trees, and the spread of insects like the emerald ash borer are directly related to international trade.
There's good reason in all this to think local as thinking globally as environmentalists suggests. We can treasure and protect what we have before it too is lost.
The screen shot is from the article in the New York Times. Read it if you can.
Make, fix, and create. Assist others in learning lifewise.
The spread of invasive species is yet one more way that international corporations privatize profits and externalize losses. Cheap packing crates infected with the Emerald Ash borer could have been stopped before they entered North America but it was an inconvenience and would have reduced profits for investors
ReplyDeleteA primary purpose of incorporation is to shield investors from losses greater than their initial investment. This allows corporations to do unfathomable damages while the investors who should have some say in it all and bear some of the responsibility for allowing mismanagement are allowed to escape scot-free, and forcing nature, our diminished health, and our families and communities to pay the price for fixing what should have never been broken in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't mean that there aren't some good things about incorporation, but that corporations should be held to a higher standard of meeting the public good. There are some corporations that consistently lie about their impact and the dangers they present.
ReplyDeleteWe are extremely grateful about US intervention against the Nazis; no doubt about this.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it seems the ammunition boxes debarked in South France were contaminated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratocystis_platani :
"The disease was first reported in the USA in 1935 affecting Platanus × acerifolia. In subsequent years the disease was reported in most Atlantic seaboard states. It was subsequently observed in plantations and in natural forests of Platanus occidentalis. The disease has also been reported in California.[2] In Philadelphia the disease had killed 10,000 out of a total 150,000 trees by 1945."
Some people must have made good profit making those boxes with known infected wood.
War always makes matters worse. Eisenhower called it the military industrial complex. And despite his warnings, we suffer greatly from it today.
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