Editor,
A fully-grown tree releases 1,000 liters of water vapor a day into the atmosphere. A forest can send up billions of liters of water vapor into the atmosphere.
What happens when forests are cut down? No more water vapor. No more clouds. No more rain. Drought. A changed climate.
Water-filled clouds are flying rivers that travel long distances.
Cutting down forests releases stored carbon dioxide that traps heat and compounds atmospheric warming. This compounds the problem of no rain.
This is happening in places like California and Brazil because there was no planning involved.
Pleading ignorance is not an excuse. Science and following avenues of common sense lead us to the conclusion that we are at a tipping point!
How are we in Arkansas responding to this tipping point? Unfortunately, in the Natural State, we are doubling down on deforestation! Front page news says a Chinese paper firm is to open a $1 billion pulp mill near Arkadelphia.
NWA trees face death for the benefit of another country that has already cut down most of its own forests. This foreign enterprise is not being located here for benevolent reasons. What is the Arkansas government getting out of it? What are the politicians getting out of it? Why did they allow this venture, or ventures like it, to take place? Why are they allowing our precious trees that take a lifetime to mature be plundered for export?
We cannot allow shortsighted governors to sell out our strategic reserves!
It all begins with the forests, and how it ends depends on how much forest we keep. Our Ozark forests are our strategic reserve! The real costs of not keeping the forests are not even quantifiable.
Governor, please meet with a few of us here in the Northwest Arkansas. We can’t give you cash, but we can give you brilliant ideas and a novel way of looking at things. We can guide you through the forest and the rivers that float on the ground and in the sky. The ones that cause rain and prevent drought.
Susan Pang
Garfield, Ark.