Wasting Concern On a Dying Forest

There was a man who lived next to a massive forest. Trees everywhere, thick, lush, lots and lots of big brown trees. Imagine looking into a wide, wide wall of timber from the edge and seeing nothing but foliage. So dense.

This guy, Jim, saw those trees every day and he had the knowledge that every one of them was going to die. It was inevitable—they were a time sensitive lot, each and every tree was destined to turn grey and eventually lose their luster. It was just a matter of time.

Even though he knew there was an expiration date on the whole forest, Jim went out into the woods each day and found a tree that was dying and cut it down. “Whew”, he’d say. “Two more down.” Then two more trees would grow in their space, but they were mostly grey and lifeless. They were just there.

The next day Jim went out to find a few more trees and cut them down. And the next day, the next week and for months he did the same thing. After years and years of this, the whole forest was dead. Standing, grey, colorless and unimpressive.

He tried painting the trees all kinds of colors, but the color faded and he got tired of the fruitless toil, so he stopped. He tried fertilizers and other treatments, and some of them worked for a little while—but ultimately there was no long term solution for this entire deciduous forest from being…