Locos por la Geología

(Este mismo post aparecerá traducido al Castellano el próximo viernes).

Once again I have selected a very interesting page from the novel Eating Dirt by  Charlotte Gill, that I have already introduced to you, and I strongly recommend to those who enjoy good books.

There is a clear-cut in the Bowron River valley, three hundred miles northeast of Vancouver, that’s the size of a small nation. The largest clear-cut in the world- roughly two hundred square miles. When the cut was fresh, it could be seen from space. In British Columbia we live among clear cuts like people in the tropics live in the sugarcane. When we fly over our province we see shaved slopes. When we drive, slash and stumps are a highway blur through our windshields. Cut blocks they are called in the logging trade, like something you could snip at with scissors.

I have selected this paragraph because it is interesting to see the magnitude of the impact of logging trade on the landscape. Fortunately, reforestation is also considered as an industry in developed countries such as Canada and the United States, where people are ready to wait many years to see the profites.

The whole story told in Eating Dirt is about the field workers of that industry, that are able to earn their salaries on reforestation.

I hope you liked this post, because there are still many other highlights of this book to come in future posts. See you next Monday. Graciela.