Bush opens part of Alaskan forest to loggers

Un-fucking-believable

Reversing a Clinton-era policy, the Bush administration on Tuesday opened 300,000 more acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest, to possible logging or other development.

The administration will allow 3 percent of the forest's 9.3 million acres that were put off-limits to road-building by former President Clinton, to have roads built on them and perhaps opened to use by the timber industry. The Tongass comprises 16.8 million acres.

good place to go look for work

that bush guy is on my fucking shitlist.

-- did saying that just violate any part of the patriot act?

I'm not surprised, is anyone else?

I am not surprised either. Bush sux.

I was all for opening ANWR to oil exploration, since the oil industry provides a lot of great jobs and pays for our state's government (plus there's absolutely nothing on the coastal plain; it's a barren wasteland nothing like the pretty pictures the environmentalists show you). Nothing redeeming or desireable about it except $200 billion worth of petroleum under it.

But the Tongass is different. It's a very beautiful national treaure, my favorite part of Alaska. I hate the thought of it looking like the Pacific northwest's forests from the air, the bald patchwork patterns.

[Edited on Dec 24, 2003 by stockula]

Glad to see I didn't sink my savings into splinter futures for nothing.

Normally I take a more sympathetic perspective but,

HAY HIPPY, DO YOU USE PAPER?

If you wana do something for the environment click here

well if roads are opened up into a forest doesn't that mean that in the event of a forest fire, fire trucks will be more able to penetrate the lands and put it out?

the reason we are constantly battling nature is not because we have learned from the mistakes of the past, but because we think we have.

The Tongass is a rainforest, the climate is very soggy. I can't think of there ever being a fire there in my memory.

Ok, my bad...i'm drunk but my point still stands for dryer areas of woodlands.

I don't want to see old growth forest disappear...i hope my children will someday be able to see real virgin forest somewhere near their backyard if that's at all possible.

HEY WIGGLEFREE, WHAT IF I'M ALREADY TOTALLY VEGAN???

and i use recycled paper as much as possible....

and i recycle everything in sight like a man on a mission...

can i still think it's a shitty plan?

it's not like you can only do one thing to help the earth. there's a lot of different ways to attack the problem of the earth falling apart and becoming a shitheap.

[Edited on Dec 24, 2003 by pharaoh]

Me neither. I've plyed the Inside Passage on ferries and cruise ships. I love it love it love it. Rent John Sayles' "Limbo" if you want to see it. It's one of the few movies ABOUT Alaska that was filmed in Alaska. (but it's not that good a movie, boring story).

You mean you don't pocket mulch?

I'm a level 5 vegan I won't even eat anything that casts a shadow.

is that a simpsons reference??

d00d, get a grip. Timber companies aren't using old-growth trees for paper. They get cut for long solid timbers or peeled for veneer, which is much more profitable than pulp.
Since paper is a low-end use - and contains a high percentage of cotton and recycled paper - not a lot of old trees are cut down for paper mills, IIRC.

[Edited on Dec 24, 2003 by Stiles]

Fine then, DO you live in a fucking house? SUpply and demand baby.

Tuche' (translation - I conciede)

yeah sure who cares burn rain forests club baby seals you know the works

Uh, yeah, my house is cinderblock over a concrete slab, with steel doors, sheetrock and fiberglass insulation. There's probably more wood in my christmas tree.

wanna try again?

BTW - I'm pointing out that paper is a bad example to blame the cutting of old-growth forests on.

I'm against Bush's opening of old-growth forests to logging.

but it isnt a slash and clear operation we need wood where do we get it from?

The correct term for my current dwelling is "A House Of Fucking", thank you.

I love the efforts to pawn off the environmental abuses of major corporations on the behaviors of individual consumers. "Hey, we spilled twenty thousand gallons of oil off the Alaskan shoreline, but you use oil for your motorscooter, so how the fuck can you blame us?"

I don't know if I can but... Ok.

Old growth forets for fucking x-mas tree farms! I'm from alaska yo! I know first hand, the matter has about as much chance as a slug in a salt mine. Unless you are AMAIZINGLY skilled in organizing and politically powerful, the best I solution I could think of is to change your own behaviour.

Again I stand corrected, I guess I won't be invited over for the holiday. *sigh

The argument you stated is a non-sensical one. There are many more culpabul factors besides buying fossel fuels. However, it is more rediculs to get angy about these issues, expect the world to change, with out changing your own behaviour THAT PAYS THESE BASTERDS.

If you want to hurt the, hit them the only place they care about, in their pocket book!

[Edited to try and fix quotes]

[Edited on Dec 24, 2003 by wigglefree]