What if, and this might just be crazy, but what if we extend that sentiment out beyond a few tiny remnants of old forest?
Do you pearl clutchers buy industrially produced food and use fossil fuels for non life saving purposes? Do you benefit from dammed rivers? Eat fish? Every instance of each of those things does a world of damage beyond what is happenening during one of these climbs.
Did any of you old guys have a hand in cutting down some of the old trees? At least I will always be able to say that I had no hand in that.
Do ya'll realize how much ancient tropical forest has been cut, and continue to be cut to be planted with rubber trees? Do you use tires? I wish you wouldn't, and I wish people would stop eating fish for a couple of decades, and let the oceans recover. I wish people would stop using fossil fuels for anything but certain heavy equipment/major infrastructure needs not including electrical generation for non life saving purposes. I wish they would undam all the rivers, and that people would start sharing more of what they do have, like enormous homes that sit mostly empty most of the time, not to mention all the other hoarded resources.
I have nothing but reverence for these old trees, but I hold the rest of the natural world just as dear, and unless our entire species starts making serious moves, there is a real possibility that our situation could become so dire, that many/most humans don't survive the next 200 years. I want to touch a little bit of the old world and know a little of the former glory and splendor that many of you got to see and touch.
Remember that some of the most magnificent, protected giant sequoia groves are only 500-600 years old, and had burned to the ground long before any europeans had travelled beyond the Atlantic coasts of North America. They have grown back to majestic stature in a few hundred years, and they will do so again if they can survive us. But the old trees don't have to survive, and because of climatic conditions, it's likely many won't. But seeds will become old trees again one day. I have planted many trees and protected many more, and will continue to do so. I will leave behind a forest that I planted in a place that I don't think will ever see those trees cut down. And I will NEVER cut down an old growth tree.
By your continued participation in the modern world, you will inflict greater harm on the natural world every day than a single climber, climbing a single tree, a single time. The way you talk about the og trees has some serious "damn kids, get off the lawn" vibes.
And yea, the way they were climbing and hauling didn't make much sense to me, but they made it work I guess. Still looked weird.
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Or hidden in plain sight. Helmet cam.
