Capitalism and Industrialization Have Been Good for Forests and the Environment

This is a response to the ridiculous actions of the Earth Firsters who were crying over dead trees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJFYwRtrH4

Their ancestors did not have the luxury.

In medieval times, trees were fuel. As such, widespread deforestation occured throughout Europe. In more recent times, alternative fuels and methods of utilizing them have been discovered, and this has lessened our dependence on trees as fuel. Thus, treehuggers are a product of a society of abundance, a society that is cleaner and has less need for wood for fuel. This was all done thanks to technology and capitalism. Environmentalism is a luxury made possible by advances in the society.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tree
• huggers
• environmentalism
• forests
• deforestation
• capitalism
• fuel
• source
• medieval
• Europe
• Austrian
• economics
• population
• Earth
• First
• crying
• treehuggers
• Ron
• Paul
• Peter
• Schiff

[CaptainKahuna1]

You care about the enviromnent "to some extent"? What the fuck is more important than the planet that we live on...

[jmelkis]

@CaptainKahuna1 I don't much care for what is being promoted these days in the name of the environment. 

[MrRein1988]

I agree on that point you made.

I just wanted to add, as a student of biology ... save the rainforests ... people don't understand their ultimate importance to our planet. We lose rainforests - we're dead most likely.

No , the myth that rainforest produces most of the oxygen is not truth. But the value is the ecosystem. over 70% species present on earth belong to rainforest .. it's a pool of evolution ... it's a "pharmacy of the earth" as well ...

It's like a heart of nature if you like.

[jmelkis]

I'm not necessarily in disagreement with you. I am a not a scientist. I'm an historian, so I see naturally that the reason we have such a large population and still have forests has to do with alternative fuels which are oil and coal, as well other sources.

In the video, I did state that deforestation is a huge problem, though. But I can't tell you what kind of problem it is because I am not a scientist, but again, deforestation is nothing new.

[MrRein1988]

Yes, that's why I said I just wanted to add something, not to disagree.

[jmelkis]

I understand entirely. I appreciate your insight.

[jmelkis]

I haven't really thought about BLM land policy enough to have an opinion, but on the other hand, that land belongs to all of us, yet the government makes deals with companies to give away the logging rights for very little, from what I understand. Maybe it would better to give it to the poor or what not. I don't know. But I don't think we can trust the government regarding the environment either. They protected polluters from lawsuits in the 19th century. That's anti-environmental....

[jmelkis]

Thanks for your support! I'm new to this, and it's nice to get feedback!

[jmelkis]

My main point about bring up the medieval times such as the Crusades is for people to realize how lucky we are, not just in the case of the logging or forests and things like, but in general...

The medieval times are fascinating! :D Glad to see you are interested!

[jmelkis]

Yeah, I'm not really taking a position on logging as it is done nowadays. From what I understand, there is a lot in terms of giveaways to corporations when it comes to our government's lands.

My main point is that we in the industrialized world actually consume a lot less wood than we would otherwise.

I mean, one of the videos that comes up in the related videos section has to do with global warming, and it says that a major contributor is actually Asians burning wood...we don't have 2