"For some time now, a demagogic campaign has been unleashed, orchestrated by some mass media, against Eucalyptus forestry, which, given the psychologic effect of false certainty that printed words produce among the people of our country, is attempting to brainwash and negatively influence a good part of our society about these trees. The true ends to which this organised and surely costly campaign obbeys seem to have all the characteristics of being non confessable, since the statements made against, in spite of being categorical, are in too many ocassions short of being a technical nonsense, as we will see later. They are not supported by serious science, but by fallacious fragments of a tiny truth, demagogically and deliberately inflated and exaggerated. In future, we will relate the different types of damage which are attributed to eucalypts, and these accusations will be rebutted by existant realities, scientific studies and forestry experiences carried on by us, by other eucalyptologists and by scientific research centres worldwide".
Gaspar de la Lama GutiƩrrez, 1982.
Technical justification of afforestation with eucalypts.
Technical justification of afforestation with eucalypts.
For three decades, the statements used in some environmentalist campaigns against the trees themselves have been rendered obsolete by the output of a good number of scientific disciplines and exposed as filled of myth. The pollution left in Western societies by some of the early environmentalist myth propagators campaigning against eucalypts has implied noticeable economic but especially social costs worldwide however in exchange for no clear ecological gains. Pyrrhus would be very proud. Part of these costs could be mitigated by trying to reverse the effects of these early and probably misguided attempts at social engineering. Those responsible of such a task should be the same myth propagators that started it, but it is highly doubtful they will raise their hands today to assume their part of guilt, help clean their own pollution and recognise their old statements proven as fallacies. And yet, everybody claims the motto should be "El que contamina, paga".
25 years later, time for vendetta is approaching. A bloodless and peaceful one, of course. And filled with a good dose of sense of humour. A new generation of foresters and forest workers has emerged meanwhile and is being propagated in five continents. Ecologically-aware. Environmentally-friendly. And environmentalist-conscious.
In these global days, the focus of some green campaigns has switched from the indefensible "argumentum ad plantam" used to attack the trees, to the "argumentum ad corporatio" used to attack those forestry management companies growing the trees or those industries processing the trees or primary products made of them. An apparently more profitable market for environmentalist NGO's and environmentalist NGO wannabes, especially since the inception and implementation of sustainable forestry certification schemes.
Once again, despite a part of the green ideologists are aiming at a very respectable target, which is the evolution of forestry based industries towards more sustainable operating ways, a good deal of those placing themselves under the flag of environmentalism are yet myth propagators. But this time, certain thresholds of environmentalist pollution will not be tolerated.
All in all, the numbers of individuals directly or indirectly involved with the sustainable production of renewable and recyclable organic fibers and in their sustainable industrial processing to generate a very wide array of final products consumed everyday everywhere are considerably bigger than of those filling the ranks of myth propagation. By several orders of magnitude.
Just a small critical mass of these millions of private and collective investors in timber crops voluntarily choosing fast growing tree species, of the millions of direct or indirect workers in cultivated forests and their auxiliarry industries, supply chains and industrial processing instalations, or of the millions of small and big shareholders in business enterprises directly or indirectly based on the products and positive externalities yielded by these trees... is needed. And we have started to notice a switch from silence towards open criticism of the role and activities of these myth propagators.
The Berserker Koalas are raising around the world to bring you healthy doses of laughter. Soon they will be on the air. And they will defend their islands. Will the radical greens ever learn to laugh at themselves? 10:1 they can't.
EUCALYPTOLOGICS has just unexpectedly received the impressive document on Sustainable Forestry Management topics displayed above. As neutral observers we are not too keen to put into the air every piece of information we get from varied sources, especially if falling into polemics. But as firm believers in freedom of speech, we are not going to apply censorship to these opinions even if we do not fully endorse them. Not when they are loaded of this fine sense of humour!
Just a small critical mass of these millions of private and collective investors in timber crops voluntarily choosing fast growing tree species, of the millions of direct or indirect workers in cultivated forests and their auxiliarry industries, supply chains and industrial processing instalations, or of the millions of small and big shareholders in business enterprises directly or indirectly based on the products and positive externalities yielded by these trees... is needed. And we have started to notice a switch from silence towards open criticism of the role and activities of these myth propagators.
Sir Winston addressing the nation before the battle on the air
The Berserker Koalas are raising around the world to bring you healthy doses of laughter. Soon they will be on the air. And they will defend their islands. Will the radical greens ever learn to laugh at themselves? 10:1 they can't.
EUCALYPTOLOGICS has just unexpectedly received the impressive document on Sustainable Forestry Management topics displayed above. As neutral observers we are not too keen to put into the air every piece of information we get from varied sources, especially if falling into polemics. But as firm believers in freedom of speech, we are not going to apply censorship to these opinions even if we do not fully endorse them. Not when they are loaded of this fine sense of humour!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the transcription above are not necessarily those of EUCALYPTOLOGICS and we decline any responsibility on their potential effects for third parties.
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© 2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.
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