Andy Rooney: Conserve Our Resources

Andy Rooney Comments On The Changing Environment And Admits He's Part Of The Problem

(CBS)  The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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I was reading the other day about what they called "an ice bridge" that is 25 miles long in the Antarctic. This ice bridge - I call it an "iceberg" - broke. It was holding up another iceberg the size of Connecticut. I used to live in Connecticut, so that got my attention. One picture shows a huge crack in the iceberg holding what amounts to one of our 50 states, and it's frozen in place.

Scientists say that if some of these big icebergs are lost it could mean that the whole ice shelf itself could break up and all that ice would have to go somewhere. I hope it doesn't come here. This is what global warming does though.

My grandfather once told me that we're ruining the earth by using up all the good things on it and sooner or later we're going to run out of them. He told me a lot of things I didn't believe and it turns out he was right about most of them.

The real question is: are we going run out of the things we need before we find substitutes for them? You know we're going to run out of oil and we're cutting trees down faster than we're growing them, too

It may be wrong to suggest impending doom, but if doom isn't
impending, it's out there somewhere. If we don't find replacements for all the good stuff on earth that we're using up too many of too fast, doom is what we're facing.

If running out of oil doesn't scare you, maybe an iceberg the size of Connecticut floating away from Antarctica and hitting the United States will get your attention.

A lot of people think we should just use everything we have because things will work out. Their attitude is, we can always pump more oil, chop down more trees, mine more coal.

A lot of people called conservationists want to save the forests and reduce our use of coal and oil before we run out of those.

I personally am a conservationist who uses a lot of oil and trees. I'm our problem.

[Anyuser102]

Sorry about that Andy.

[lilredsr1079]

Hi Andy,
If I may call you by your first name Sir, and I mean the Sir,( you are older than me and I call it respect)I wish to thank you for your insight on many topics that face OUR NATION..I think if anyone should receive the Nobel it is you Sir.
Steve

[Naturen]

Andy, and some of the commenters.

Andy your Grandfather was correct: "My grandfather once told me that...". The polar regions are one indices of Global Warming.

Planting trees is a ?good? start that most probably should have begun during The Industrial Revolution. The question now is: What can each and everyone of us do (?). Short answer: Be Pro-active (ask yourself what is your carbon dioxide count and how can I reduce my footprint).

Chris (Alaska)

[betterbusinessalliance]

This country including the MEDIA for once needs to wake-up and ask themselves why so much pleasure is derived from continuous dirt, and negative unproven allegations that have to continually be such a focus following the death of Michael Jackson. Why doesn?t THE MEDIA step-up to the plate and get real or is money and greed the driving force here at any cost. Why doesn?t CNN step up, why don?t you send a message, set the stage and make ?a change?.
MAKE A CHANGE
As a 52 year old female, CEO of the Better Business Alliance. I am touched by the death of Michael Jackson, his music is the best music of all time. You can combine all the top musicians in the world and still never match-up to this wonderful man.
Michael Jackson is not and never was in any capacity a molester. He never molested any child, pure ignorance.
Tell the world this; no court system in this country is going to allow for any child molester regardless of their fame to walk free. No court system, including regulatory authorities such as child services is going to allow for children to be under his care, every criminal prosecutor in this country would drool with venom to prosecute any child molester.
It is absurd to continue to remind AMERICA of something that was never proven because it NEVER HAPPENED.
AN innocent MAN-CHILD WHO NEVER HAD A CHILDHOOD, who had a father driven by control and greed at any cost including abuse. I too, would try to re-capture my childhood and try to live it or play it out. I would invite little girls over for Sleep over?s, slumber parties call it what you want, and yes I would let them sleep in my bed, I may even cuddle each one of them. Cuddle, not fondle. Then what? Oh yes I forgot I am worth millions. OPEN, REAL & VULNERABLE that?s who Michael Jackson really is - then one greedy family sets-up Michael Jackson by baiting their very own child for their own financial gain. What mother or father would settle for large sums of money at the expense of their child who was molested? What parent would allow for a child molester to walk and ignore the very damaging long term effects that a molested child would have to endure. Do you really think millions of dollars is going to wash away the long term despair, pain, depression, uncertainty, and other damaging affects that plaque every molested child.
Let me exercise my Freedom of Speech. Show me, broadcast it, tell the WORLD, where is this supposed molested child now, who has been his therapist, what kind of car is he driving, I mean tell the world just how much suffering has this child encountered. NONE, IT NEVER HAPPENED, TELL THE WORLD AND MAKE A CHANGE, LET THIS MAN GO IN PEACE AND LET THE WORLD HELP HIM REST PEACEFULLY. CLEAN IT UP. AND DO WHATS RIGHT. DO IT NOW. WE ARE THE WORLD AND YOU CAN MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE.

Debra Gould
Los Gatos, CA

[darknessesedge]

watch out andy, the latest lib fad is blaming the overweight types for using to much of the worlds resources.

[jimthebirt]

Thanks Andy! Keep up the Good Work.

Your piece on conservation was right on target.

Unfortunately there appears to be a whole lot of Individuals in Denial about Global warming, Population Explosion, and Limited Resources. Sadly enough their ignorance, greed and a skewed sense of entitlement may mean the demise of those of us that can see the handwriting on the wall.

And in the comments here, what's this huge defense of Oregon. I mean it's VERY commendable, the reforestation, but what about the rest of the world. Or are they perhaps too close to the forest to see the trees (those that are being destroyed all across South America, Indonesia, so on, so on.

One has to wonder why so many individuals are so defensive and adamant that no serious sustainability problems exist in the face of profound evidence from all the world's greatest minds that Life as we know it is reaching a critical fork in the road.

My hunch is that most people fear both change and loss. Losing their lifestyle. Their huge homes, huge cars, their massive consumption of everything from paper to plastics, to even water and the air we breathe. These realities are simply too much to swallow for many individuals. Look the other way. Or don't look at all seems to be their solution. And some even lie and proclaim that the facts don't support what the scientists are warning us of.

Ah well, sadly, time will tell.

[creeper00]

When I fill my tank with foreign oil (not often these days) I console myself with the thought that every drop of theirs we use is one drop less of ours.

Some day it will come down to the true basics--oil and water. The more of our oil we have left then, the better.

[noloyalisti]

This is the right wingnut philosophy in action. Global climate change either doesn't exist because I don't want it to or its the liberals fault.

These wingnuts don't care because it brings us closer to the Armageddon so they can meet their fake made up God (or something). I am more than happy to help rapture you all as soon as possible so we can save our planet.

[nazdackster]

Wrong on all counts Andy. Antarctic sea ice is up 43% since 1980. http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/comment.php?comment.news.109.3

How exactly does global warming cause that? The ice bridge you refer to is about one pixel on a large photo of Antarctica. Ice shelves form because there is too much ice on land and it drifts out over the sea until there is so much it can't withstand the tensile stress of tides. Then it cracks and breaks, drifts away and melts. Is there something unusual about this to you?

Now why don't you correct your story and talk about the huge increase in sea ice and land ice, and the decreasing antarctic temperature trend? This will show that you do have some semblance of objectivity. Unless the facts don't matter to you.

[latully]

I usually agree with Andy's opinion. However, Andy will have to convince me that global warming is causing the slight reduction in the south polar ice shelf when neither the air nor the sea water virtually never gets about 32 degrees fahrenheit? Has global warming changed the melting point of fresh water?

[Lejfermin]

I guess I am like Oregon and less like Brazil, or the Philippines, or Myanmar. Well, just this week, I planted two trees in my yard. I have to admit, however, that I had to cut down an ash tree that sprouted by the side of my house. But I'll take comfort and pride in the idea that that's a net of 1 tree for reforestation.

[treeman1944]

One of the highlights of my Sunday evenings is your commentary. Most of the time, I feel you are right on target. You sometimes tweak people that need tweaking!

Last night, however, you made comments regarding trees that were off target and erroneous. You used rhetoric commonly repeated in the media and put out by various environmental groups.

Here in Oregon (the no. 1 timber producer in the US), we are growing far more timber than is being harvested from our non-reserved timberlands.

Private lands harvest 85% of their annual growth, lose 4% to mortality, and add 11% of that growth to our standing timber volume
Federal lands harvest only 6% of their annual growth, lose 32% to mortality, and add 62% of that annual growth to our standing timber volume

Over harvesting? HARDLY - especially when one considers that the federal government holds about 60% of Oregon?s timberland.

Regarding Oregon?s federal forestlands ? why does federal policy loose 32% of its annual growth to mortality? Why do we condone all that annual growth to be left to catastrophically feed insects and fuel fires? Why do we then, as a matter of federal policy, turn right around and outsource so many of our jobs, taxes, and mills to other countries? (We currently import over a third of our softwood needs to other countries ? mostly the northern, boreal, old-growth forests of Canada.)

Further, we can not keep adding 62% our annual growth to our forests. It is simply not biologically possible to keep increasing the standing timer volume without creating an over-crowded, terribly stressed forest ? one increasingly susceptible to drought, fire, disease, and insects.

The eastern 2/3?s of Oregon is largely federally-owned. With the shut-down of federal forests under Clinton, we find our forestry infrastructure has disappeared. Even if the federal forests did begin practicing sound, modern forestry, there are no mills left. Timber workers have either left or gone on to other endeavors.

Isn?t there an ethical problem here that we ought to be talking about? Aren?t we under-harvesting?



A bit of history of US forests.

Prior to 1492 (Columbus), the North and South American Indians had very large, sophisticated civilizations ? maybe 100 million people! Most were not hunter/gatherers. Many had extensive farming communities. Rather than domesticate wildlife as did people in the rest of the world (bison, elk, alligators, moose, etc. have nasty dispositions!), they modified the environment to better suit their needs; i.e., they frequently burned the landscape (and get rid of trees!) to improve and provide better habitat for the game they hunted. Their tool of choice was fire.

(A popular nighttime activity of the Dutch in New Amsterdam ? today?s New York City ? was to go up-river and watch the Indian burning in the forests; kind of like watching fireworks.)

However, their burning and farming practices ended when introduced European diseases wiped out upwards of 95% of the Indian peoples. Their lands quickly became the forests and so-called wilderness we find in American history texts and American lore and myth.

Later, the burgeoning Euro-American population removed some of that newly created forest to make way for farms, roads, and cities. When oil was discovered, machinery was invented, and farmland became far more productive (pesticides, fertilizers, improved crop varieties), some of that land was no longer needed for agriculture; it was abandoned and reverted back to forests.

For the past hundred years, our amount of forestland has been fairly constant. Further, modern forestry practices are making that forestland far more productive. No, we are NOT running out of trees!

[bldg931]

Thanks to the previous posts pointing out that we are not harvesting more trees than we are growing. New growth has exceeded removal in North America since the 1950's, but CBS has refused to allow any story with a positive spin on timber harvest. The enviros have done everything they can to stop the use of the most ecologically correct building material on the planet. Rooney is just one more acolyte banging their drum. Conservation is supposed to be about "wise use"; what Rooney and his fellow Maltusian-Druids believe in is "no use", i.e., preservation. I can't believe that Rooney actually gets paid for these rants.....

[drbucher]

Mr. Rooney should read about the climate change issue before talking about it. In regard to his comments about the Antarctic ice sheets, he should read Chapter 8 of With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, by Fred Pearce (2007, Beacon Press, Boston) -- or something comparable. This chapter explains that the release of floating ice shelves releases inland ice sheets to flow seaward, where they will melt and raise sea levels. Mr. Rooney should be mortified by the ignorance evinced by his comments on this topic.

[drbucher]

Mr. Rooney should read about the climate change issue before talking about it. In regard to his comments about the Antarctic ice sheets, he should read Chapter 8 of With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, by Fred Pearce (2007, Beacon Press, Boston) -- or something comparable. This chapter explains that the release of floating ice shelves releases inland ice sheets to flow seaward, where they will melt and raise sea levels. Mr. Rooney should be mortified by the ignorance evinced by his comments on this topic.

[omnibus66]

The US and Canada are the only countries in the western hemisphere with positive reforestation. All of Central and South America are losing timber. All of Africa, about half of Europe, and most of Asia are in deforestation. On a worldwide scale, Andy Rooney is correct.

As to the oil and coal, it will eventually run out if we keep using it, but we really should find other sources of energy. Oh, I know that neither one of you Bushies out there believe that global warming is real, but that's OK. Just keep driving your Hum-Vees. It makes it easier for the rest of us to identify you.

[CompFieldTech]

I want to thank Andy for not doing another rant on other people but actually address a real issue. Solutions we all can debate/agree/disagree. But at least this time it's not a rant about watches other people wear or some other rant.

[pnsikora]

Good News Andy! Oregon's forests grow 2.3 times more volume than is harvested annually!

Here are the stats:

State & Private annual growth = 4.42 billion board feet
State & Private annual harvest= 3.3 billion board feet
State & Private annual mortality= 0.17 billion board feet
State & Private annual net growth (above harvest and mortality) = 0.95 billion board feet

Federal lands annual growth = 3.96 billion board feet
Federal lands annual harvest= 0.3 billion board feet
Federal lands annual mortality= 0.76 billion board feet (death from fire, insects, disease)
Federal lands annual net growth (above harvest and mortality) = 2.9 billion board feet

[Clearcut11]

Andy Rooney needs to read up on forestry facts before making the comment that more trees are cut than are planted. In the USA , we have more forested acres in 2009 than we did 100 years ago. The timber industry plants 2 trees for every tree harvested. Trees are America's predominate renewable resource. Andy Rooney should support responsible forest management, not spread false information via 60 Minutes. Shame on you Andy!

[oregontom]

OK all you so called conservationists.....name me three items we use in our daily lives that are renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable (food and water do not count.).......how about wool, cotton and wood. So tell me again why are we not using our timber resources, replanting, and leaving new timber for our children? And Andy says using timber is not a good thing----he really blew it on this one.