China will host the 2008 Olympics, which are an expression of human nature, which is all about competition and status. The Olympics, in my humble opinion, are little more than a pissing match writ large. The Chinese will of course use this event to show the world how cool they are. One way they plan to impress visitors is to build things out of luxurious tropical hardwoods, like the rich, dark red Merbau tree, which grows in the jungles of Indonesia and Malaysia.
China will host the 2008 Olympics, which are an expression of human nature, which is all about competition and status. The Olympics, in my humble opinion, are little more than a pissing match writ large. The Chinese will of course use this event to show the world how cool they are. One way they plan to impress visitors is to build things out of luxurious tropical hardwoods, like the rich, dark red Merbau tree, which grows in the jungles of Indonesia and Malaysia.
From the Jarkarta Post:
Experts forecast that China’s drive to develop its infrastructure to host the Olympics will consume tens of millions of cubic meters of primary forestry products, including solid wood flooring.
How does China plan to obtain this much wood in the next two years? Well, by setting up a $1 billion dollar timber-processing factory in Papua province, that’s how. The enviro wackos, always complaining, claim that:
… China’s growing timber industry consumes almost all of the estimated 300,000 cubic meters of merbau smuggled out of Papua every month.
I can see how you can smuggle a few kilos of cocaine, but how can you smuggle 300,000 cubic meters of logs? Somebody is blowing smoke and I don’t think it is coming from the environmentalists. The power brokers are saying all the right things:
Forestry Ministry spokesperson Masyhud said that the ministry would ensure that the company would only be supplied with logs harvested from timber plantations, and would also require the company to establish its own timber plantations.
“Should the planned investment be approved by both sides, we will require them to apply sustainable forestry management measures as we are confident that such a large investment will mean a long-term presence.”
Two questions for you, Masyhud: Where are you going to put these timber plantations, and how many trees are you going to get out of them by 2008?
And for all of you high-ranking Chinese officials reading this post, I have some advice … bamboo. What is the point in emulating the opulent, unthinking, uncaring actions of wealthy Americans? Aren’t you the ones who saved the giant Panda from extinction? You have a unique opportunity to one-up us capitalist pigs by using bamboo for your flooring at the Olympics instead of tropical hardwoods. Considering that you are the major producer of bamboo flooring, this would be a marketing coup if ever I saw one. And if you do follow my advice, be sure to tell visitors exactly why you are using it: to save the planet’s biodiversity.
