The 'benevolent logger' myth

Andrew Cox, Moorooduc

The Age (letter), 22/1/03

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Loggers and cattlemen are typically portrayed as the only decent, clear-headed types who can understand the bush. This perpetuates the great lie that those who seek to pillage our last few remaining wild areas for their own economic gain are somehow doing it for the good of all of us.

Naturally, those pushing this line posit that big fires are a modern phenomenon, resulting from the foolish efforts of a few muddle-headed greenies to preserve what little we haven't cut down, dug up or grazed into dust over the past 200 years.

The ultimate irony is that our vainglorious desire to fight and master the natural world is the surest path not only to its destruction, but ultimately our own.

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