“So the boreal forest doesn't have a lot of people. None of those far northern regions do. And they're huge. So they just fell off the map for money.” Rob Mullen · A Climate Change with Matt Matern

Well, that first problem I mentioned early on that this was an ecosystem that has been very much overlooked. I mean, even when climate change became a more pressing issue, you know, the publicity machine, the big NGOs, conservation NGOs in the world like World, they do fantastic work. I belong to half of them. There's no word of criticism. It's just a matter of the dynamics here. They focused on biological diversity and hotspots. And by definition, the definitional parameters they used, these are areas where there are a large number of endemic species have had a lot of habitat or habitat loss and they're at risk of extinction. And they like a small area. And that's exactly what the boreal forest is not. So when you were all the funding, this became a funding model for, you know, world, for all the big boys. And all the money for conservation went into these basically these hotspots, which are all stretched, of course, where you're going to have endemic species disappearing is where there are a lot of people destroying habitat. So the boreal forest doesn't have a lot of people. None of those far northern regions do. And they're huge. So they just fell off the map for money. And even when climate change became a big issue and the north was focused on because of the disproportionate effect of climate change on northern latitudes, the publicity machine went right to polar bears in the Arctic and totally skipped over the boreal forest. Polar bears are fantastic and they're at risk. I'm not putting down polar bears, but it was just unfortunate that we totally ignored this huge giant of an ecosystem staring us right in the face. So that's what I'm hoping. Now, the situation has improved since I started this project 24 years ago. But I'm hoping this book will continue that process of bringing it to the public's attention in a way that's digestible. That's why from the beginning, I wanted the exhibition and this book to be a combination of art and science. The art is kind of the eye candy that gets you to stop and look. The science, we made that decision when we were talking about this. I would write it because I have enough of a background in science to write intelligently about it, but I am not a PhD, so I won't typically get into the weeds and technicalities that will just make it incomprehensible to the average reader. I mean, I'm hoping anybody with an eighth grader could read this and probably get something out of it. Somebody in first grade can go through and look at the pictures and get something out of it. And if you're in college, you probably get something out of it. And it's even some academic stuff in there for people who've got a higher degree. So there's a, it's a broad, I hope a broad appeal and will bring this incredible ecosystem to a wider audience. That's for that, we need to sell a few books, but, you know, or get on some podcasts. So there you go. We're not proposing solutions here. We have a few small ones in the back. NRDC has sponsored some of our trips and we're working with them. I mean, we find out like 59% of this is a math 2 billion acre forest in Canada. 59% of the trees that are cut are turned into toilet paper and paper towels for the U.S. market. It's Kimberly Clark, I think, is working on a substitution, fiber for that, which would be a game changer. There's bamboo substitutes and such like that, which are, I guess, market-wise, not that important yet. But if we could shut that off, that would be enormous. I mean, it's one of the biggest, you know, the biggest drains on the forest as far as direct human impacts, aside from forest fires, which I, that's kind of an indirect. But I'm sorry, I interrupted you.