Rating: 
Summary: Environmental Wakeup
Review: In our profit-driven consuming culture, where it is fair to say that most people have "Gone to Sleep", authors of the newly released, Strangely Like War, Derrick Jensen, and George Draffan, scrutinize a widely held concept and statement in the first paragraph guaranteed to wake you up, "Gone Extinct. Such a passive way to put it, as though we know no cause, can assign no responsibility." A brilliant opening, that arouses questions of responsibility we would be unwise, or mulish to ignore. There is a synergistic relation between planetary and personal well being; that the needs of the one are relevant to the other. And Jensen and Draffan, explicitly detail the relevance in a superb and courageous undertaking of the severe and consequently destructive myths of the transnational timber industry when this fundamental premise is ignored.As the authors state in their book, "The problem is not and has never been a lack of accounting methodologies or industrial know-how; the problems are denial, recalcitrance, and apathy. The solution isn't technical, but political. The solution isn't even political but social. The solution isn't even social but psychological. The solution isn't even psychological but perceptual. The solution isn't even perceptual but spiritual. The problem is our entire way of living and relating to the world." I highly recommend this startling and fact-driven book; it will impel you to action, and simultaneously rouse a fire in your heart to make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: Take it from a logger.
Review: Like the reviewer before me I'm going to post Jensen and Draffan's challenge on page 6. "The truth lies on the ground. Go out and walk the clearcuts for yourself. Rub the dried soil between your fingertips. Walk the dying streams; listen to the silence in the skies (except for the whine of chainsaws and roar of distant logging trucks). Walk among ancient ones still standing, trees sometimes two thousand years old. Put your hands on their bark, on their skin. Taste the difference in the air. Smell it. Reflect on the beauty of what's still there, and on what has been lost--what has been taken from us." I've walked many clear cuts. I used to be a logger. I was the "good german" who followed orders put forth by my foreman, county forester, state forester, and the corporations (Louisiana Pacific, Georgia Pacific, Potlach, Johnson Timber...etc) telling me which trees to cut and how much. The management practices that I followed didn't make much sense to me than, and REALLY don't make sense to me now after reading Jensen's, Strangely Like War: The Global Assault On Forests. When I first started logging I was led to believe that I was actually "improving" the forests by cutting down trees that were going to die anyway. Or I was creating "habitat" for Whitetail Deer and Ruffed Tailed Grouse. Or I was helping out our economy and contributing to society. All "claims to virtue" that Jensen and Draffan debunk in Strangely Like War. Jensen also debunks the claims in his other works. The fact of the matter is that the forests aren't being managed with the diversity of wildlife as the management plans first priority. The forests are being managed for the optimum production of the desired species set forth by the transnational corporations who want them. The lawmakers, foresters, and contractors than follow suit. And what is really SAD is that the management practices don't make fiscal sense either! Jensen and Draffan have pointed this out better than any authors that I have read on this issue. Also, as a hunter I have walked clear cut forests and "dog haired" Aspen regeneration. If you have ever had the chance to walk in a "old growth" forest and a "dog haired" Aspen regeneration you will understand why the arguments and facts set forth by Jensen and Draffan make sense. Last winter I almost died in the hospital in Duluth, Minnesota. The sickness started out with flu like symptoms and I eventually passed out while urinating at my parent's house. I broke a rib and smashed the back of my parents toilet. I ended up in the emergency room. The doctors could not make a for sure diagnosis, they ended up treating me for Lymes Disease at my recommendation. For those of you who don't know what Lymes Disease is, it is a tick borne disease. Ticks live on warm blooded animals. In Wisconsin we have an over abundance of ticks because of the lack of predation of White footed mice and Whitetail Deer, the prime carriers of ticks. ONE of the reasons why there are to many Whitetail Deer and Whitefooted mice is because of our treatment of the forests. Two examples of many is: Owls eat a lot of White Footed mice in mature forests where there is a canopy, but can't get to the mice in a "dog haired" regeneration patch. To sum it up the over abundance of Ticks in Wisconsin is a direct result of our forest management practices. Whitetail Deer thrive in fragmented forests which are a direct result of our forest management practices. Getting back to my near death experience. A few days past and I wasn't getting any better. I was having terrible headaches, my testicles swelled up three times there original size and I had spots on the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet. I went back to my local doctor, he claimed he had never seen anything like it. He immediately sent me to ST. Marys in Duluth, Minnesota. After four days in the hospital, a lot of intervenious antibiotics and support from my girlfriend and family I pulled out of it. The Infectious Disease Specialist said it had to be three tick born diseases at once. She also said, she had never seen anything like it. I'm just glad to be alive...:-) I know from experience that my body didn't like waking up day after day to go kill trees. And I KNOW the trees and the rest of the life that inhabited the forest couldn't have liked it either. In my dealings with federal, state, county and corporate foresters there management practices didn't make sense. Trying to hunt animals in clear cuts and regeneration patches don't make much sense to me either. Almost dying because of a over abundance of ticks wasn't at the top of my list of experiences I want to go through either. Reading Jensen and Draffan's Strangely Like War broke the camels back, it makes absolutely NO SENSE to be doing what we are doing to the forests. If you want to do something about the destruction of the planet's forests this is the handbook for you.
Rating:
Summary: Deforestation is Everyone's Issue
Review: Strangely Like War lays to waste the timber industries excuses, apologies and justifications for destroying the worlds forests - and the possibility of a healthy future along with it. With language that rips off the blinders, Jensen and Draffan deliver facts that industry doesn't want you to hear and passion it doesn't want you to feel. Deforestation is everyone's issue. This galvanizing book will leave you informed, inspired and mad as hell at the corporate thievery that is destroying our one and only home in the universe.
Rating:
Summary: Deforestation is Everyone's Issue
Review: Strangely Like War lays to waste the timber industries excuses, apologies and justifications for destroying the worlds forests - and the possibility of a healthy future along with it. With language that rips off the blinders, Jensen and Draffan deliver facts that industry doesn't want you to hear and passion it doesn't want you to feel. Deforestation is everyone's issue. This galvanizing book will leave you informed, inspired and mad as hell at the corporate thievery that is destroying our one and only home in the universe.
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