“It was just one tree,” said Henry. “A whining excuse that echoes through Western history to justify thoughtless and shortsighted abuses of the natural world. It was just one dodo. It was just one passenger pigeon. It was just one buffalo. It was just one ivory-billed woodpecker. It is just one polar bear. It is just one humpback whale. Every species is always ‘just one’—until we get to the last one, and then it becomes The One.” He sighed. “I don’t mean to say that Acer saccharum is in danger of extinction. I do mean to say that the mindset you have shown is terrible. Do you understand?”
