Save the Planet, Borrow a Book -- Misha Herwin
I have just read The Overstory by Richard Powers a powerful novel that has left a deep impression on me. The book follows the lives of a number of very different characters, ranging from a Vietnam veteran to a successful business woman and their involvement in a guerrilla campaign to save ancient trees. Reading this book I learned so much about the forests of America and how the individual trees support and communicate with each other. On that level alone it seems wrong to think of cutting down them down, but far more importantly these trees are keeping our planet alive. An old, well established tree cleans our air and helps to prevent the global warming which threatens all our lives. Destroying vast swathes of forest for short term commercial gain is positively suicidal. Re-foresting helps, but that man-made woodland has nowhere near the biodiversity of the ancient forests. So it seems to me vital that we not only preserve the forests we still have, but we also ...
