{"id":79815,"date":"2019-11-02T11:42:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T17:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=79815"},"modified":"2019-11-18T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T07:11:40","slug":"trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/trees.html","title":{"rendered":"“Trees”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
A portion of the canopy walkway that we enjoyed in the Peruvian Amazon this past summer\/winter
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrees,\u201d by Joyce Kilmer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that I shall never see<\/span><\/div>\n
A poem lovely as a tree.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest<\/span><\/div>\n
Against the earth\u2019s sweet flowing breast;<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A tree that looks at God all day,<\/span><\/div>\n
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A tree that may in Summer wear<\/span><\/div>\n
A nest of robins in her hair;<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;<\/span><\/div>\n
Who intimately lives with rain.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Poems are made by fools like me,<\/span><\/div>\n
But only God can make a tree.<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As concern for climate change grows, it seems that there may be at least some ways of dealing with it that wouldn\u2019t involve vast government takeovers of the economy and private life. \u00a0Here, for example, is something that I could very easily support and that shouldn\u2019t be controversial:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New \u201cMind-Blowing\u201d Study, Planting Trees Reduces Carbon Better Than Carbon Taxes\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, even assuming that the scientific argument behind it is correct, I wonder whether this proposed solution will gain much support. \u00a0After all, it would furnish very little opportunity for increasing government control of the economy, multiplying\u00a0regulations, empowering bureaucrats, and aggrandizing the administrative state.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Planting trees is within the capacity of private citizens:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Mexican Villagers Have Been Working to Plant 5 Millions Trees To Ease the Climate Crisis\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYouTube Star Known For Kindness Celebrates 20 Million Subscribers by Funding the Planting of Millions of Trees\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the way, National Arbor Day<\/a> falls next on Friday, 24 April 2020.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, some of Earth\u2019s major forested areas are currently under severe threat. \u00a0The vast and dense rain forest of the Amazon River basin, for example, our planet\u2019s largest intact forest, is being destroyed at a rapid rate \u2014 and regional governments bear substantial responsibility for that:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon fires: What\u2019s the latest in Brazil?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happily (or unhappily) we may shortly know much more about \u201cthe latest\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHollywood Drones Are Being Repurposed to Study the Amazon Rainforest Like Never Before\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, my beloved native California \u2014 once known as the \u201cGolden State\u201d but now, more and more, governed like failed third-world banana republic \u2014 is allowing its forests to burn:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Can\u2019t Keep the Lights On:\u00a0Decades of misgovernance and misplaced priorities have left the state fighting fire with . . . blackouts.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVictor Davis Hanson: Democrats have turned California into a problem-plagued burning nightmare\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, though, there are once again people in the private sector who are trying to help out as they can:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew McConaughey Serves Barbecue to Firefighters in Los Angeles \u2018With Thanks\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the American Catholic poet Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), with whose famous 1913 piece \u201cTrees\u201d I opened this blog entry, will help to illustrate yet again the evils that governments too often visit upon this world: \u00a0Deployed to France with the\u00a069th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard\u00a0(the famous \u201cFighting 69th\u201d) in 1917, he was killed by a sniper\u2019s bullet at the\u00a0Second Battle of the Marne\u00a0in 1918. \u00a0Kilmer was 31 years old. \u00a0He left behind a wife, herself a poet, and five children.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cTrees,\u201d by Joyce Kilmer I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth\u2019s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6771,1902,4640,6768,521,6774,6777,6765,674],"class_list":["post-79815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arbor-day","tag-climate-change","tag-fire","tag-forest","tag-global-warming","tag-joyce-kilmer","tag-kilmer","tag-tree","tag-trees"],"yoast_head":"\n"Trees"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    "Trees," by Joyce Kilmer I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. 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