As Todd Whitcombe said, we can’t have an economy if we don’t have an environment.
But neither can we have an economy if we destroy it in a futile attempt to change the climate.
It should be glaringly obvious that it wasn’t climate change that allowed the pine beetle infestation. If bitter cold is what controls beetles, the pine in the south where such cold never happened would have been wiped out eons ago. Instead the infestation began in colder north-central BC and spread south to warmer climes.
Trees defend against beetles by pushing them out with sap. Old trees have less sap flow, thus they are more likely to succumb, which results in exponential growth in beetle numbers so they can then overwhelm younger trees too.
First Nations peoples knew that resources for a hunter/gatherer society were much more abundant in new forests rather than old growth, and if nature didn’t provide enough forest fires, they would light their own.
We ended that and fought fires instead.
By the time the infestation began, there were four times more old trees than 100 years previous. The infestation was inevitable.
The poorer the society, the less they can afford to care about environment. When it’s a constant struggle to put food on the table, the environment comes last.
Wealth is created by having a capitalist system with minimal regulation and a source of abundant, reliable & affordable energy - primarily fossil fuels.
The developed world thinks the world will end if we don’t end the use of fossil fuels, but the developing world is ramping up use of them because they want a better life. Fossil fuels will be around for a long time. The world won’t end because of it, neither will the environment be destroyed.
Art Betke
Prince George
