there's 48 trees for you there
and 48 trees for me
just imagine all the things that could
be built with Amazonian trees
48 trees for each human
just growing there for free
resilient species like Greenheart
hard ones like Mahogany
just imagine what could be built
if we cut down all those trees
elaborate log cabins
and marvels of carpentry
woodland palaces to rival the elves
of Tolkien's wildest dreams
there's just so much potential
that exists in 48 trees
totem poles would be back in style
and obelisks of wood
doors and trim of Brazilnut
picket fences of Cumaru
why not built from Ipe
when you want to build to last
we'd better get while the gettin's good
because supplies are going fast
there's only 48 for you
and just 48 for me
if we don't get at them quickly
what then will there be
no marvel's we've imagined
no palaces for elves
we'd have to leave those dreams we've dreamt
upon our memory shelves
leave them just for fictions
for poems and for cartoons
but where's the value in all of that
versus wood paneling for rooms
wood sculptures of whatever
robotic arms can carve
wooden halls for massive feasts
to make sure no one starves
wooden shelters for everyone
for the young and for the old
with plenty hardwood firewood
to drive away the cold
just think of the grand tree houses
and playgrounds to be built
with hardwood that would be there
for the next generation still
it would be a wooden Renaissance
if we each had 48 trees
masterpieces that would leave you breathless
'cause there'd be no air left to breathe
(okay I know that you're about to say
"but what about the sea
what about phytoplankton
making oxygen for me"
yeah,
sure, I get that there's
all kinds of
little miracles
at work in the ecology
but if I start to go on and on about
the value of simple algae
someone'll want to strain it all out
I gladly make a joke here to
dance around my massive fear
of ocean acidification due
to CO2 in the atmosphere
could a spike threaten phytoplankton
and thus all of us that breathe
the horror of an ocean algae die-off
is worse than you want to believe)
