Living with the planet

“There will come a time when the Earth will shed us like dead skin, and it will be our own fault” (John Dutton Yellowstone season 4 episode 5). 

The fictitious rancher in Yellowstone believes “People have stopped living with the planet and instead live on it.”

In a paper published in 2019 In the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the authors S. Blair Hedges, Warren B. Cohen, Joel Timyan, and Zhiqiang Yang concluded a study that found that Haiti has less that 1% of its original primary forest.   This makes Haiti among the most deforested countries in the world.  Largely due to hurricanes and aggressive logging. 

This past weekend I ventured into a piece of adjoining property (to our east Tn. haven) that has recently been logged.  

Logging companies are so sneaky,  they start at the very back of the property where people cannot see the devastation.  By the time they are finishing and the result is evident for all to see,  they leave.

I certainly understand the need for wood. I also understand that wood comes from trees.  That means you have to cut trees sometimes.  

What I saw made me sad. The devastation was inescapable. 

What I saw cannot be an example of “living with the planet”.  

It made me wonder, what will happen when we have no more trees to cut?