I finished John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce this past week. It’s an interesting non-fiction book that tells the story of a magical golden tree that grew in Haida Gwaii, that is until a slightly crazed man chopped it down in protest. The book itself is solid, it’s written in the style of Touching the Void or Jon Krakhauer’s Into the Wild.
Once Grant Hadwin chopped down the tree, he disappeared. His story, intermixed with the story of how logging evolved in Canada and how it all fits with the current situation with the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest, makes for a read that feels unsettled, especially when you start thinking about the trees that are logged every day and how our natural resources are being depleted at an astonishing speed.
The story itself didn’t stay with me as long as thinking about the trees did, or has. It made me think of the things I use everyday (paper towels, computer paper, newspaper, books, notebooks, paper bags) and how they all have to come from somewhere and then go somewhere when I’m finished with them. How will the Earth survive the billions and billions of people like me who simply don’t think about what they use every day and how it affects the very world we live in?
I started looking at every single paper towel I used to wipe my hands dry after using the bathroom at work and decided I’d let them air dry. I decided I was going to try to make my work paperless as much as humanly possible and use both sides of each page I printed. I decided that I would use everything I bought and think carefully about where I shop (Kensington Market this weekend, at the health food store). In the end, I really am going to try to be more committed about leaving a smaller footstep. Let’s see if I actually get there.