IDAHO'S MAGRUDER CORRIDER TRAIL AND PLENTIFUL IDAHO FORESTS
Posted on 03/11/2012 7:40:44 AM PDT by Jeff Head
I saw Lorax yesterday with five of my grankids, ages 10 down to 5.
It was a fun kids movie, but clearly slanted towards environmentalism and particularly with an anti-business and anti-lumber company...really, and anti-capitalism bias.
On the way home it provided teaching moments. I asked the kids how many of them did not like lumber companies that cut down and harvest trees and why. All of them said they did not like them because they are "stealing our air," hurting animals, and destroying their places to live.
I pointed to the Boise Mountains which we could see from the windows of my Pickup Truck, which they love to drive in...crew cab, 4x4 with a big V-8, and said,
"You see all that dark green on the mountains as far as you can see...that's forests. Almost all lumber companies do not cut down "all" the forests. In fact, they plant more than they cut. We have more forests in the US now than they did 300 years ago in Colonial America."
I then asked..."Who likes wooden playground swings, see saws, etc., pencils, your furniture, your houses?" They all said they did. I asked them to start looking for things made of wood as we drove...they saw fences, signs, roofs, paper, carts, trailers, etc., etc. I told them that all of that was made from wood by companies who, yes make a profit because those people have jobs...but who also try and make the forests better, and bigger in the process.
After a good ten minutes of them pointing out all of these thigns, I then asked, "Who likes lumber companies now, and why?"
At that point they all said they did because they are really making more forest which makes more air, and trying to protect the forests even if they do cut down some of the trees and all of the neat things we have in society because those companies are working in the forests.
This is a long explanation...but it was a good teaching moment for grandpa and I thought I should share.
AMEIRCA AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY.
Excellent post.
“Thanks to many environmental policies I can visit nature not too far from my house in the city.”
Did you walk to this “nature” area or drive your SUV? Is there a wooden sign depicting it as such? Are you homeless and live in a tent?
WTFU, then go away.
My liberal cousins in Kalamazoo are raving about how wonderful the movie is but they themselves are clueless about nature. They’ve always been urban people and nature to them is grass more than ankle deep.
My grandmother got a little yanked at them recently for talking about environmentalism and the college educations they have. She read them the riot act and told them that despite being a high school drop out I had more real world knowledge of nature than all of them together. She explained that whe I was 10 year old I would travel miles through the fields and woods by myself and was able to name various forms of flora and fauna as well as describe their habitats and habits.
She ended by explaining that they had missed out on far more than they could ever gain because I grew up in our little rural town and they grew up in cities.
The story highlights the overharvesting of the forest and the negative impacts. Overharvesting is bad. Many here seem to think it is ok to overharvest and not replace the trees based on their not liking the movie. The environment should not be abused, which many here disagree with. There is a critical balance that needs to be found. Some laws go too far, but some are necessary to protect the the environment and our way of life. Like what I wrote before, many on the right and left go to the extremes. Many here are extreme.
I find nothing wrong with the movie. Many are reading way too
much into it. We can agree to disagree on this movie.
Good story. You demonstrate why skipping the other side’s viewpoints altogether is a bad idea. That makes the kids more susceptible to their emotionally-charged arguments. Your technique exposes them to it, then develops the emotions into workable ideas based on facts.
That will serve them far better in the long run as they learn to think rather than feel.
No problem...you are spot on.
>>What do you say when one of the kids asks about clear cutting tropical forests that are not being replanted?<<
In the words of Andrew Breitbart, “So?”
The Earth will adapt. It has for millions of years.
It was a wonderful day when I heard my high school junior tell her friend, "Do NOT argue with my mom--she KNOWS what she's talking about!!!"
Dr Seuss was a Commie, notice that during WWII had only started drawing the cartoons urging the US to get into the war AFTER the Soviet Union was invaded.
Thanks
BTTT
>>Many here seem to think it is ok to overharvest and not replace the trees based on their not liking the movie.<<
Would you please point to that post?
And not mine, because I never saw the movie.
Ted Geisel was farrrr to the left. He did a lot of adult cartoons during WWII.
However, most of his famous kids’ books are pretty good and fun. The cat in the hat is only mildly “subversive” as in having fun while the authorities are away, but that free “fun” turns hellish and order is restored at the end with relief. Same with “comes back.”
A great treatise on racism or outer differences (including cool kids’ cliques and clothing) is “the sneeches.”. It also deals with race- baiters and shakedown artists, years before the REVrund Jackson invented the push coalition.
Green eggs and ham is mainly about actually listening, and opening your mind, mostly seen at kids’ level of opening your mind to simple things like food, or trying a new activity.
A lot of the stories have simple themes like that and are not offensive.
The most commie kids’ book I’ve found is “the rainbow fish.”. I threw the expensive hard bound copy in the trash rather than even donate it. It’s about a fish who has beautiful glittery rainbow scales, and the other fish won’t play with him cause he’s so beautiful. So a wise octopus tells him to share his scales with the other fish. It ends with each fish having one glitter scale, and all are happy. Pure communism.
Sorry, forgot to mention - the rainbow fish is not by dr suess.
Actually, we are thinking critically. That is the point. That movie and story are targeted at young children and give them the impression that industry, companies, and capitalism are bad. The little jingle by the woodcutter when he made it about doing it “for the economy.” was a perfect example.
The fact is, the movie as I said had a lot of good animation and good story points too...but the underlying message is clear.
My grandkids and I had a GREAT time. We did not forget that in the least...we also had some great discussions with good teaching moments...which for us, are a part of the good time.
Fact is, clear cutting has never been a long term business strategy for any serious timber/lumber company. It is a sure fire path to insolvency and bankruptcy. Most all of them plat more than they cut, and are good stewwards of the environment...despite the government.
Government regulations and government control of forests have led directly to the huge forest fires of the last 10 years because under Clinton they were able to get logging companies out of a lot of the forest and the overgrowth provided so much tender that when the fires came, they were much, much worse. This is because nature’s old way of doing it has also been dirupted and the “utopia” the enviros and liberals tried to creatre did not practise good conservation and the result has been a tragedy.
Anyhow, siorry for rambling...but good conservation does not have to be practised by government alone...in fact today. most agencies do not do so and it is the private companies and concerns doing it...as they learned to do before the government ever got involved.
No one said that.
The environment should not be abused, which many here disagree with.
No one said that.
We can agree to disagree on this movie
I disagree. You're entirely wrong and dishonest and the movie is pure leftist propaganda.
I tell them that there is replanting going on down there...and that there are also those who do not and they are short sighted, and will ultimately go under.
In some nations, their governments allow it, in others they do not.
I also tell them that trying to put together an organization like the UN or some other “global authority” to be in control ultimately leads to worse conditions because power and money corrupts...and the more and larger the power, the more the corruptions. That’s why, outside of national defense and interstate commerce, it is best to keep government and control as close to home as possible.
Great job, Gran’pa!
Amen to everything you said.
Fact is, in the shales, off shore, the sands, and the fields in the Dakotas we have more oil than all of the Mid East and enough for our needs for well over a hundred years if we will simply go get it...allowing plenty of times for the alternatives to be developed properly...like Natural Gas, better batteries/electricaal (which right now all in all is less efficient with the power than gasoline), and particulalry Hyrdrodgen.
Spot on. BZ.
Thank you for sharing, Jeff.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
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