I found this diagram about increase of productivity in the Swedish Forestry sector. I am a bit unsure about property rights so I don't dare to put the picture itself in my posting, but please look at it.
http://www.skogforsk.se/upload/13777/Produktivitetskurva_large.jpg
It expresses the number of kubic meters of timber that is "produced" per work day.
I think there are many different reactions on such a picture, such as:
- What an amazing productivity increase! We humans are really smart and our wealth increases all the time. Old time forest work was really hard and people broke their backs, sawed themsleves in the leg or got frost bites. Now they can sit comfortably in a nice machine. The moderna technology uses all parts of the tree in an efficient way.
- Ha, compare this graph with the salaries of the forest workers - how much did they get and how much was just increased profits.
- This is the danger of technology in a nutshell. Of course we can and will hurt nature more when we increases our powers ten times. Instead of a small-scale mosaic forestry this kind of mechanisation leads to large scale devastation. This increase of productivity has also led to the depopulation of the country side.
- Why do we cut down trees? Couldn't we let nature just be and make paper out of oil, power out of nuclear?
- The Swedish forestry sector is healthier than ever, but for some reason my investment in Swedish forestry stocks are just plummeting. why is that?
What do you think?
We are the happy owners of about 40 hectares of forest and I am currently busy taking down next year's firewood - with 1960s techologies......
