Want to do this with a tractor?

[Gary Fowler]

So the Chinese are cutting old growth trees that took 7-800 years to grow in tibet?

Great, we practice sustainable forestry here and we get slammed for the destruction of the world. Some of the fastest loss of forest in the world is happening in Tibet right now and it's done as you saw. Plus the ground is being lost from erosion too. Double whammy.

I dont think it is right for a greedy westerner to slam those who still have a tree to cut for their livelyhood. We have taken what we needed for several hundred years but now we expect other countries to leave their natural resources because we need the trees to absorb the carbon from our mills and our millions of cars and all of our other extravagant needs. I am one of those greedy people who like my warm home and my cars, truck and tractor, but I cant in good conscious complain about someone cutting down a tree to build a house with.
Sure I believe we need to do SOME greeening but we cant expect the 3rd World countries to stop living so we can continue or extravagant lifestyles. So it is old growth, what happened to the old growth in the USA, most of it is gone and replaced with harvestable pines and we do sustainable growth forest mostly performed by the paper and lumber companies because it is a profitable industry. Cutting timber to build a personal house is not the same as the slash and burn stripper down in South America who clear cut 1000 year old forest for export. Who do they sell it to, the well developed countries who grip about clear cutting, but continue to want Brazilian Cherry flooring in their houses and mahogany tables and chairs. As long as there is a market, the slash and burn will continue to be an issue.

[john_bud]

Thanks for calling names...


Your passion is admirable, but your grasp of the facts is woefully inadequate. YOU should do some research prior to spouting off with such gross inaccuracies.

1) North America is a carbon SINK. That's right, more carbon is captured and turned into plant mass than we produce.

2) For the past 150 years America has INCREASED forest land.

3) The people in Tibet are not cutting ONE tree to build a hut to huddle in. They are wholesale clear cutting environmentally unstable areas resulting in total wholesale devastation. Those doing the cutting are NOT Tibetians, but Communist Chinese immigrants that the communist government has pushed over there to do just that.



Look at some pictures of what damage is being done by people on foot and with animals.

Tibet Environmental Watch - Reports - Tibet: Environmental Destruction

An example of damage caused by reckless clearcutting of Tibetan forests. It is estimated that approximately 50 percent of Tibet's forests have been cut down, with little or no attempt to restore the devastated land. Consequences include extensive erosion, flooding, and the silting of many Asian rivers that arise in Tibet (Kham). [John Ackerly]

[burnieman]

Is it 2012 over there? Those boys need to check out some YouTube and see what they're missing! Maybe take a peek a xhamster also. Might learn a thing or two. Them boys are workin way too hard for their renminbi

[xtn]

So the Chinese are cutting old growth trees that took 7-800 years to grow in tibet?

Great, we practice sustainable forestry here and we get slammed for the destruction of the world. Some of the fastest loss of forest in the world is happening in Tibet right now and it's done as you saw. Plus the ground is being lost from erosion too. Double whammy.

Heck, in the caption under the video it says it takes them five years to get enough wood to build a house. Either that's terribly, terribly wrong, or they only go into the woods once every five years. There was enough wood to build a house just from the logs we saw in the video!

[ICGREEN]

All the bad stuff people say about the slash and burn/clear cut in some of these countries was true of North America not that many years ago. We have realized there are alternatives and have improved our methods but not before we became wealthy by using those methods. The same lesson will have to be learned by those using the old methods. We can just hope that it's learned faster because they can see our mistakes and that they also get wealthy.

[roman]

I enjoyed watching the men work, tirelessly on the pouring rain wearing smiles. I pause and realize how hard our forfathers worked to clear the land I live on.
Best not to get all wound up about something we cant change. We are lucky that SO FAR we aren't forced to perform similar labor and live under those conditions.
Do any of you think the clearcut in John_buds post is different than one in the US ? The trees will grow back, belive me.
I don't understand why some Americans think it is more important to save Tibet than The Good Ole USA.

[Turbys_1700]

Those guys are making a living the best way that they can...
What gives me or anybody else the right to tell someone 15,000 miles away how to live...
If their economy provides the lifestyle that we have enjoyed here in the US then they will adapt and limit clear cutting if they see fit...
It is none of my business how they cut their trees...

[Sebculb]

They probably don´t clearcut, either. cutting down trees with axes and pulling them out with oxen is a heck of a lot of work. They probably only cut down the good big trees of the appropriate species and leave the rest standing. This is just idle speculation on my part, but from what I understand subsistence loggers don´t do the clearcutting so much as ranchers and such clearing the land for pasture. That's when they bring it all down and torch it.