Memoirs of a cedar : a history of deforestation, a future of conservation
If the cedars of Lebanon could take they would tell a story of human greed and ignorance going all the way back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. With Gilgamesh's well-documented exploitation of the cedar forests began the age of the conspicuous consumption of Lebanon's natural resources -- which proved so popular that the destruction never stopped but in fact worsened as one civilization was defeated and another took its place.