Hello:
Below is the Introduction from my review of the revised edition of
Elizabeth May's _At the Cutting Edge_ which has recently been made
available. The full review is available on our web site at:
http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/Cutting_Edge.html

The review is over 3,800 words and, as well as the Introduction printed
below, includes section headings "Discussion: various forestries" covering
industrial and deep ecology forestry; "May's environmental role and the
media"; "Selective memory and unfounded judgements for Nova Scotia
forestry"; and a "Conclusion."

Best and for the Earth,
David

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		Are Things Getting Better? A forestry criticism

			A critical review by David Orton


	_At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada's Forests_, revised edition, 
	by Elizabeth May, Key Porter Books, Toronto, 2005, 431 pages, paperback, 
	ISBN: 1-55263-645-3.

	"The goal of the new era of forest management should be to reduce the cut 
	substantially, while ensuring that employment is maintained and, ideally, 
	expanded, in a new sustainable forest industry." (May, p. 351)

	"In the last decade, a pronounced shift has occurred: dialogue and
discussion 
	have begun to take place." (May, p. 26)

	"In order to improve society, it is absolutely essential to call things
for what 
	they are: in order to fight injustice one must be able to recognize it and
then 
	name it....Poor leadership is worse than no leadership at all because it
lures 
	the people to defeat in a dead end, making the failure appear as victory - 
	stifling dreams, ideals, and creative possibilities." Diane Cole, 1983
 	

Introduction
	The original edition of this book, _At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in
Canada's Forests_, by Elizabeth May, came out in 1998 and the revised
edition, which has added another 130 pages, has come out in 2005. While
there are many good criticisms of existing forestry practices in this book,
and it is a book which forestry activists will want a copy of, the general
line is that the situation on the ground is getting better, not worse, and
that there is reason to hope. As we are told, "The climate for respectful
communication is growing." (p. 158) The revised text has more
detail-piled-on-detail, which makes it more tedious for activists who are
usually rooted in a particular province or territory, and who are looking
for the overall theoretical perspective of a forestry writer. 

	May has collaborated with mainstream environmental forest researchers
across the country to put forth a view of industrial forestry, province by
province and in the territories. She claims to be the midwife, rather than
the author of this book. (p. 355) There are some progressive observations,
which overall seem buried in the blow-by-blow text. For example, the
statements that the federal government "now acts primarily as a propaganda
arm of Canada's forest industry" (p. 20); or in B.C., "Industry is now in
firm control of our public forests." (p. 283); and "No automatic
association between First Nations ownership interests and more sustainable
forestry should be assumed." (p. 340) Yet the viewpoint generally put
forth, is how to make the existing forest industry in Canada more
accountable and viable, not whether or not there should be a forest
industry. The world as it exists is the only world for Elizabeth May. The
data used by May is quite selective towards her own views, as will be shown
by her treatment of the history of forest struggles in Nova Scotia. In the
revised edition, her own politics is even more backward than in the first
edition, with its post-Kyoto Protocol advocacy of carbon emissions trading
and of credits for Canada's forests as "carbon sinks." This carbon trading
advocacy, "Assigning dollar values to carbon is essential in the effort to
reduce greenhouse gases" (pp. 64-5), feeds into the anti-Earth government
and business perspective of privatizing the global commons in order to
commodify it. She also promotes forest certification via "market forces" as
the way to go. 

	May has been promoting her revised book across the country. It is a book
which deserves critical scrutiny because of its important subject matter -
forests and forestry - and because of the views being given as the path
forward for forestry activists and for the Canadian public.



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