Violent like last summer's riots or some display of intelligence from our celebrity obsessed nation.
Okay, that is asking too much. The former is much more likely. When people are desperate they steal.
We see it already, not only during the riots of 2011. Theft of metals are never off the news. And now people are stealing wood from wherever they can get it to keep warm.
I see more people putting solar (PV) panels on their roofs to power their homes. I smell the smoke from wood stoves in the winter air as people turn to cheaper ways of heating themselves.
Once PV panels really take off then we will see them being stolen from the roofs of houses, just as we read of the theft of lead from old churches.
Our governments have no solution. All they ever say is, "We need more growth." And yet it is growth that is forcing people to steal. We cannot all be haves on a planet of finite size. Too many people chasing too few resources.
Personally, I don't see what is wrong with taking dead wood from forests. If ever there was proof that we are heading back to feudal times (with banking rather than baronial overlords) then it is this.
BBC - Fuel prices blamed for rise in theft of dead wood
4 comments:
Lots of land around us being cleared as people sell their timber, desperate for cash. We have seen people picking through for deadwood left behind all winter. It actually helps clean up the sites for regrowth and I haven't heard of a single absent landowner complaining about it. Let's hope it stays that way! Stevie @ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com
I assume you are in the US. Here, in the UK, things are rather different.
I mentioned "the barons" in my post. That refers to the Normans appropriating all land as theirs after 1066.
From then on what indigenous people wanted to do and what the ruling class wanted them to do, diverged.
You might be able to walk on certain demarcated parts of the UK countryside but touch it with your hands and Norman law descends upon you.
I say that but actually my ancestry is Norman-Irish.
Having lived in western Ireland for a few years, I got a rough tongue from the Celts when they found out there was a bit of Norman in me. Memories live longer than souls.
I thought it was okay to take wood providing it was dead!
Or is that only on commons?
I seem to remember scouts being told only to take it if it was dead and not still joined to the tree.
I think you will be hard put to find anywhere that isn't claimed by someone as their property.
Every forest (Norman - foret) is owned by someone or some corporation and every wood (Saxon - wald) will be claimed by a farmer, somewhere.
Still, scanning Freecycle, Freegle or your neighbourhood skips will turn up plenty of wood.
At least, until a critical mass of people are doing it and there is scarcity again.
Post a Comment