Wednesday September 2, 2009
I HAVE been watching the Prime Time News on NTV7 on a regular basis (8pm), and have come across a short advertisement on the felling of trees.The short clip reveals a screen full of trees, and goes on to show them being felled to the sound of chainsaws, until only a single tree is left standing. The punchline comes on: "What will we do when all the trees are gone?"
It's great to have programmes that raise the public's awareness of our social responsibilities, and the things they do to destroy the environment and the Earth, leaving nothing for our future generations.
However, I think this TV clip is directed at the wrong audience. To be frank, what good can we do, even if we are made aware of the plight of the diminishing forests?
We can stop buying wooden furniture, not have wooden floors and houses, and try to plant some trees wherever we can find space.
But who is solely responsible for the felling of trees and the destruction of primary and virgin forests around the world? The main culprits must be the timber corporations and plantation owners.
In order to survive, timber companies must increase or maintain profits from their primary businesses each year, and that means they must continue to obtain new forest concessions, and thus have new trees to fell. Not doing so would mean the demise of the companies.
Sustainable forest development, to me, is just a dirty sentence. There is never adequate replacement for a 100-year-old tree that has been cut down in less than 10 minutes.
So, my point is; what is the reason for showing that clip on TV? The only way we can prevent the punchline from happening is to stop issuing any more approvals for timber concessions, and have the United Nations protect the jungles in Borneo and the Amazon.
Anything less than that will make all these "shows" and "statements" a symbol of sycophantic tokenism.
TAM YENG SIANG,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
This article was taken from: The Star Online: Opinion 2 September 2009
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