Quinky’s Reviews > The Overstory > Status Update

The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.

Exponential growth inside a finite system leads to collapse. But people don’t see it. So the authority of people is bankrupt.

Remember? People aren’t the apex species they think they are. Other creatures — bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful — call the shots, make the air, and eat sunlight. Without them, nothing.

“If you want to maximize the net present value of a forest for its current owners and deliver the most wood in the shortest time, then yes: cut the old growth and plant straight-rowed replacement plantations, which you’ll be able to harvest a few more times. But if you want variety and health, if you want stabilizers and services we can’t even measure, then be patient and let the forest give slowly.”

“I never knew how strong a drug other people are.”
“The strongest. Or at least the most widely abused.”
“How long does it take to... detox?”
He considers. “Nobody’s ever clean.”

Should Trees Have Standing: “... it is no answer to say that streams and forests cannot have standing because streams and forests cannot speak. Corporations cannot speak, either; nor can states, estates, infants, incompetents, municipalities, or universities. Layers speak for them.”

It’s a funny thing about capitalism: money you lose by slowing down is always more important than money you’ve already made.

It’s a funny thing about capitalism: money you lose by slowing down is always more important than money you’ve already made.

There are a hundred thousand species of love, separately invented each more ingenious than the last, and every one of them keeps making things.

“...the greatest flaw of the species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth. Single biggest influence on what a body will or won’t believe is what nearby bodies broadcast over the public band.”