Thursday March 15, 2007, 5:11 pm
I see so many lovely wooded areas being cleared and real estate signs going up until it's just unreal. I was thinking of the neighborhood where I live, and when I was a child most of land was wooded. We always saw lots of rabbits, squirrels, and all kinds of birdnests. Now all these wooded areas are clearned to make bigger yards. The land we own has been left uncleared and is still the true woods. I pray it will always stay that way, too. Rabbits come up every morning, and there was a baby one the other day. There is also a stream back in the wooded area, which is a source of water for them, and there are plenty of berries to eat and lots of acorns for the squirrels. There is also lots of honeysuckle and other wild flowers. Everyday, we can see squirrels climbing trees in our yard, and jumping from limb to limb. Our surroundings are such a blessing, even my cousin's cow pasture that is separated by a fence from our side yard. I pray the land is never cleared and remains as it has always been. Especially seeing so much of the land being cleared, even around here all in the name of development. I pray this land will always stay in our family as it has been so far because it would be a travesty to ever let it go and have someone clear it off. UGH!

Thursday March 15, 2007, 5:40 pm
I take issue with the headline. Forests are RAPIDLY disappearing, especially native forests. And replacing native forest ecosystems with commercial, introduced species hardly offsets the ecological damage done.

Thursday March 15, 2007, 7:16 pm
I agree with those sentiments, Tammy. Commercial development of suburban subdivisions, shopping malls, resort areas, etc., is spreading like wildfire all over the world, and young people these days often have no experience of the natural world. It's a travesty, indeed.

Friday March 16, 2007, 12:50 pm
I agree with all of you!

I recently went to see my daughter in another state.......I was shocked & apalled at the massive amount of forested area's being flattened for commercial & housing project!!!!!! Somebody, somewhere needs to pass laws against these land developers who seemingly do as they please after they get their permits; there is no one to safe guard what they do at all..........

Think of tomorrow-
plant a seed
grow a forest
for Mother Nature
and her animals.............

Friday March 16, 2007, 12:53 pm
At least once a month someone sends me a notice that someone is wanting more logging in our wilderness areas- I have signed 2 or 3 petitions in the past month. Intrusion into wilderness areas, commercial development, and destruction of rain forests in other nations. I see no evidence that destruction of forests and wooded areas is slowing down.

Friday March 16, 2007, 1:27 pm
With the exception of people on Care2 & other sites like it no one really realizes or cares about all of this. As long as people see a lone stretch of trees in their town/city then they think we have trees...........As long as any tree is as high as ones knee then it suiffices for the air we breath!!!!!!! And, as long as the sky is blue and the acid rain does not scorch the skin everything is ok, right??!! As long as their are no bears, mountain lions or birds flying overhead by the thousands who really cares!..........They can lives somewhere else cause they scare us.............

But........Where is somewhere else at when there are SIX BILLION PEOPLE ON THIS "BLUE DOT"........Look up Carl Sagan's Blue Dot at Google........The size of this earth will astound you!

Enough said.......

Think of tomorrow-
Plant a seed
grow a forest
for Mother Nature
and her animals.........

Friday March 16, 2007, 4:48 pm
It is all so true.They complain about global warming but do nothing.We are living on a dieing planet'Can't anyone SEE that"Are we all so BLIND

Friday March 16, 2007, 7:08 pm
I try to mention to a number of friends of mine what is curently going on in the world, they don't believe me because it was not on the news on the T.V.
People don't want to know what is happening in the world. They only want to live for themselves and their surounding personal space. I find this to be very ignorant and stupid. I try to further inform them and they tune me out altogether. I suppose that ignorance is bliss??? I wouldn't ever want to be that selfless, to not be aware of what is happening.
It is so sad to see the forests go, they take them down, they build these monster homes. Then they fill up parts of the waterways with what they call LANDFILL wich is a nice way of saying pollutants that fill up the water so that they can make beautiful parks, bicycle paths, marina's etc. My question here is that, how can they get away with this when every time it rains there is runoff from the landfill. They are doing damage to the envioronment by cutting down the trees, forests in order to build these huge homes, then to turn around and plant more trees and shrubbery so that the paths, the parks and the marina's have Nice greenery around them.It simply boggles the mind as well as making no sence whatsoever.

Friday March 16, 2007, 11:44 pm
Yup. And they come back pretty quick too, thankfully. We've had major deforestation MANY times in the past,
often when no-one was around to put out the fires that raged & consumed thousands of square miles.
Even my home state, NH, was 1/2 "deforested" in 1900. The timber industry & an agricultural ecomomy assured that "low-water mark." By 1970, it was back to 90-95% forested & has maintained that level ever since. The issue here is vast deforestation of global "rainforests" due to local economic pressures & oppurtunities. Unfortunately, it is at the very core of any hope that we turn this growing CO2 problem around.
We need to promote the values of keeping the areas forested & the dangers of errosion & water issues in the wake of clear-cutting & slash-&-burn. With growing populations comes loss of forest. Hand in hand.
Been that way for hundreds & hundreds of years. Maybe population control is the best approach??

Saturday March 17, 2007, 7:05 am
Mark.......Population control is the biggest solution to much of the worlds forest areas! Think of the old addage of how many sardines can you pack into a can/tin? The answer is obvious, right!

I always encourage everyone to see Carl Sagan's BLUE DOT..........Look it up in Google...........The picture will amaze and astound you.

Also, China alone is contributing so much to Mother Earths' demise.........Because they now have a situation of thirty men to every woman they are on a campaign now to allow all baby girls to live when born. China now has a population of 1.3 billion people and counting. This gender make up now contributes so much more to their population I find it un-fathomable of what China will be like in ten years, and all of us will pay for what they are doing. There is a direct link to the forest clearing in China and it's population........China's Gobi desert is now a waste land desert because it was overfarmed and then abandoned for city life and industrialization.

China has promised to re-plant re-vitalize the Gobi but, as I see it it is a lost cause based on their population alone and the consumption used from the land to sustain such a massive population.

The bottom line is, there are more light bulbs on this blue dot than there is available land, there are more lightbulbs than there are of any one species of animal...............Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for our survival?...........................It's real dim and getting dimmer with every passing day!

Think of tomorrow-
plant a seed
grow a forest
for Mother Nature
and her animals............

Saturday March 17, 2007, 8:39 am
I wouldn't blame our Creator one bit if the towel just suddenly got tossed in on all of this mess that we've gotten ourselves into here on Mother Earth. It is really a crying shame too! Neither the animals, the trees, the oceans, not even our beautiful Mother Earth can be blamed for any of this upheaval that we are experiencing at this very moment because------ that pointing finger is facing each and everyone of us.... Yes even we who are protesting all of this have added to it... even though we are trying to end it, we have contributed to it unbeknownst to us as it may seem... The Human Race is the reason that Earth is slowly becoming another uninhabital planet in our star system.... I don't know if there is anything to life beyond Earth or even before Earth, but I really hate to watch the growth in any area where I remember watching the wildlife once llive and play. The farmland's are all being gobbled up for what? City urban growth!!! The forests? gobbled up to build these urban cities !! It is rather disturbing and when I hear about the Rain Forests and all of the animals and plants that have been thrown into extinction, I wonder...... How Long Before The Human Race Also Will Be Thrown Into...... Extinction? I often wonder also if The Human Race will ever wake up.....
Convenience... Greed....Power.... there are much, much more bad traits....but it all seems to come back to this I feel : who's being the baddest...or having the most... etc,. The Native American Elder's have painted a very grim future for the Human Race....and it all comes back to us..... What is the Human Race Gonna do Now?

Saturday March 17, 2007, 2:31 pm
i couldnt of said any better