COMM 110: one fun assignment!

Transcript—Hypocrisy and Firewood

                Good day my fellow classmates, for the next few minutes I’ll be speaking on behalf of the deceased wilderness to inform you all of some illegitimacies of environmentalism on a political scale. In recent years environmental activists (i.e. green advocates) have proposed litigation and passed legislation which claims to help preserve our forests for the future, and do help to an extent, but these new laws are perhaps too encumbering and prohibitive of other, what we’ll call, anti-green businesses such as the logging industry.

                Before continuing I must note that these activists’ ideology in general isn’t invalid, but their agenda can be clouded by passion and subsequent stubbornness. With that said there are flaws in and of these, pardon my colloquial politically incorrect terminology, tree-hugging hippies’ philosophy ironically embedded in their unwavering belief in conservationism. These hippies are delegating too much attention to this one axiom, arguing for the fundamental “right to life” principle, when they should be allocating their research and diversifying their focus to a wider array of issues. However good-natured their perceived advocacy is the overarching political stance of a stereotypical tree-hugger is fallacious because of unincorporated and unforeseen variables.

                There are two variables, which have been unaccounted for in activists’ political activity and seemed to have circumvented their stance, include the proliferations of 1) the infectious mountain pine beetle and 2) fertile destitution from drought. With these two variables coinciding there is palpable risk for environmental cataclysm, most commonly resulting in forest fires. There are two specific examples of such destructive results, which have just come to pass in our country over the 2012 summer season: 1) the Little Bear fire which, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory, burned over 37,000 acres destroying over 200 residences in southeast New Mexico, and 2) the Waldo Canyon fire which burned about half the acreage of the Little Bear but destroyed at least 500 homes in and around Colorado Springs, Colorado.

                The Waldo Canyon inferno was a bigger deal, getting more media play given Colorado’s population density in that area, because of the accrued destruction in the fire’s path, but the New Mexico fire in an equally lethal fashion to the environment physically affected a vaster area. On a personal level it caught my family’s attention because the Little Bear fire came within several miles of our cabin in Ruidoso. These two cases having striking environmental conditions such as similar dry climes, comparable elevations, presence of the pine beetle pestilence in their forests, and government restrictions of deforestation. Thus, the forest fires spark easily [given the drought], spread [given the exorbitance of dead trees that the beetles have inhabited and consumed], sustain [given the legislation in effect and place], and increase the possibility of larger issues in the future. My point is some environmentalist’s political intervention may inadvertently do more harm than good. The trees’ so-called “rights” they advocate are fundamentally flawed because the logging industry does have a positive purpose, which merely seems destructive, because in reality at this day in age deforesting is necessary to remove dead trees in specifically afflicted areas so our environment can be safer.

                Before I take my leave lambasting let me placate the cause I’m arguing against. To all of you listeners, don’t deny the greenies, hippies, tree-huggers, environmentalists, or whatever associative appellation’s well-to-do push for progress, indubitable efficacy, and unyielding passion. I’ll admit a fact that is hardly accrediting to my reputation; those who know me think of me as a novelty hippie. That’s me, so I suppose once I’m done you can know of me as a little hypocrite [hippie-crit] and then think what you want. Nevertheless, for the sake of the living population of people, we have to take action, analyze some legislation and repeal or amend the porous laws, and uproot the trees whose souls are with the gods. Truth is; many forests have countless trees that are dead yet still standing. Trust number two is; these decaying trees aren’t alone, they’re found in families of forests, and these forests are everywhere! Truth number three is; they make great firewood. Sometimes, even if the idea seems counterintuitive, we must rely on our societal axioms, as if embracing the beetles’ sense of survival, by reverting to indulging in and relishing from over-consumption.