Recently, the BC government has been flirting with the idea of using trees infested with pine beetles to power the province. Since the wood is no good for sale, why not cut it down and shove it into an oven to create power? Um, maybe because doing so would generate thousands upon thousands of kilos of C02s, not to mention denude large tracks of vegetation that provide habitat to animals, birds and insects even in its decaying state. But hey, we need power, so cut em down and set em on fire.
This, juxtaposed with the debate currently raging in Ontario over the spreading of human waste of fields of green to fatten our broccoli and soy beans confounds me. We humans are stupid. We're spinning around, desperately looking for alternative sources of energy, and spreading something that is arguably sustainable - human feces - over the very stuff we'll put in our mouths at supper time. I'm no fan of incineration - I live in a part of the province that is choking already on the fumes of poorly regulated industry. That being said, I'd rather burn shit than eat it. And I rather burn it than burn the trees, dead or alive, that provide the cover and the habitat for increasingly threatened wilderness.
As an aside, it's a good thing we humans weren't around when the dinosaurs started to die. We would have burned their carcasses, no doubt, and then sadly (insert sarcastic intonation here) there would be no tar sands...
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