In the Northeast, the red maple is just about taking over and the oaks are starting to be scarcer and scarcer; why? because there are fewer forest fires, and oaks are the main survivors of fires. So lesser, faster-growing trees are filling in the forests. We have bigger botanical problems: specifically thug plants brought from overseas that are clogging up wetlands (purple loosestrife) and snagging root systems of forest trees (a species of bamboo).

Controlled burning would be a welcome suggestion if it were not for the fact that humans have encroached too far onto woodlands; areas not meant for such dense residential habitation. It's also why we city dwellers have skunks and raccoons eating our trash and yearly rabies vaccines required for indoor pets. It's all connected.

Stop blaming environmental activists, goddamit. At least we want the insane exploitation and poisoning of our country to be stopped. It's not even worth mentioning how freaking ironic and stupid it is that these days a cry to preserve species and clean up the environment, in the midst of enormous increases in environmentally-based diseases (including rare cancers), is met with ridicule. Our children are suffering a vast and devastating occurrence of asthma, much of it life-threatening. Drinking water is practically a mob-governed commodity. We are so saturated with pesticides that our genes are irrevocably fucked. We can't kill the pests eating our crops anymore because we have been using such strong pesticides for too long, so now we have to resort to genetic manipulation of crops and this, no doubt, friends, will spell the slow and ugly demise of the human race and the gradual deteriortaion of life as we know it. Ya think West Nile virus and bovine spongiform encephalopathy are bad? Wait until you start seeing the wild mutations that will overrun us in two or three generations' time (if we even last that long).

Sounds like panic-mongering, eh? Gosh why can't I just go and live my cushy little urban life and forget about it? Don't worry, be happy. Eat a Big Mac and take some mood-stabilizers. Don't rock the boat. For god's sake, don't do anything so unpatriotic as suggesting that loggers (whose industry, no fault of theirs, has razed more old growth forest that will ever be replaced in our lifetimes, and thus irretrievably altered our biological fabric and contributed further to the weakening and disappearance of many species, not to mention the ozone layer) think about (gasp!) a CAREER CHANGE. Miners have had to do it. Fishermen, too. Farmers. Ways of life vanish when the stuff you dig, fish or hunt runs out, whether from overpopulation, poison or just plain it's all gone now. And any poor slob who has been downsized out of a job as a banker, editor, website manager, pastry chef or portfolio analyst is in the same boat, really, even if they wear cleaner clothes to work. Life is about change. Hard fuckin' times, folks. Adapt or get left behind. MOVE ON. Don't stagnate.

Everything these days is all about greed and no one cares about anything outside his own backyard or wallet. My house, my job, my money, my car. Mine mine mine. Don't you dare take it away, even if I hate my life and these things are tying me down. And don't you tell me what to do in my own town/city/neighborhood. I can make a big mess and kill everyone around me if I want to. So there.

I had a long discussion today about the reasons why the streets of Boston are so full of garbage. Because NO ONE CARES. No one wants to take responsibility. WE CREATED THIS FOREST FIRE PROBLEM. WE ARE DECIMATING OUR LANDSCAPE. IT MUST BE ADDRESSED IN A SANE AND CAUTIOUS MANNER, AND WITH THE COMPLEXITY AND FORTHRIGHTNESS OF THOUGHT IT DESERVES--NOT AS IF THE WORLD IS OURS TO CASUALLY USE UP FOR THE NEXT TWENTY OR SO YEARS.

You want cojones? Come get 'em.