Current Economic "Logic" Short-sighted and Superficial
"Economic logic is especially bad at valuing the unpriced but priceless resilience of nature. Wetlands don't produce corn or subdivisions, so let's drain and fill them and make money---but wetlands are shock absorbers: storing storm surges, moderating floods, holding water for droughts, filtering and purifying the water that flows through them. It makes economic sense to clear-cut forests, but those trees also hold water, build soil, cool and humidify the land, moderate the weather, slow the wind , store carbon and shelter millions of other species.
Sheltering species makes no sense to the short-term bottom line, but the huge diversity of nature, in addition to being fascinating and beautiful and sacred, is also a most amazing resilience mechanism. The complex interactions among the critters in an ecosystem allow the living community to adjust to change. A shortage or excess of a nutrient is corrected as some populations rise while others sink. Some species can weather cold, some do well in drought, some recover after fire, so the community can rebuild after disasters.
...Wiping out species is equivalent to wiping out libraries and databases and scientific research." – Donella Meadows
Quotations from Some of West Virginia’s People
Compiled by Julian Martin while on the road with Blackwater Summer
( take note, politicians, these are taxpayers and voters!)
" I work on a strip mine," he said as he finished signing the Save Blackwater Canyon petition at the Putnam County Fair. "In the evening I look out at the destruction we have done and I feel like I have blood money in my pocket. I look at the mountains that haven't been stripped and know that the ones that have will never be the same again. I want to get out but I haven't figured a way."
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"His parents honeymooned here at Blackwater Falls State Park," a woman said pointing to her husband signing the petition. "They ate lots of cashew nuts that week and claim that’s why he likes them so much."
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"Oh no!" A common response everywhere when people see the picture of the logging in the Blackwater Canyon.
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"The coal company I work for just bought another company just to get their coal orders," a man at the Fayetteville Heritage Festival was telling me. "They shut down the mines they bought and put 200 men out of work." He went on to say , "There are lots of men in the coal industry who don't like the destruction they see."
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"How can they do that, I thought it was in the National Forest?" Another common response.
"It’s money," "It’s the almighty dollar," "Greed is what it is," Other often heard comments.
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Adding my own quote to the pile -- "If we had the coal industry’s advertising budget we could stop all these attacks on the environment. Wait until you see their advertisements during the WVU football games--this ought to a great year for some fine lies and distortions." _