The Boy Scouts of America already have a terrible reputation for their ridiculous discrimination against atheists and gays. Now, they are getting a reputation for bad environmental policies. From a Care2 petition:

A nation-wide review has found that some Boy Scouts of America administrators have significantly damaged tens of thousands of acres of forestland through clearcutting or other means of high-impact logging.

The Boy Scouts have a long-standing reputation of positively interacting with the environment and teaching members to connect with and respect nature. But an ongoing investigation has shown that some council leaders have betrayed their environmental values in the interest of increasing profits.

The investigation, conducted by five Hearst newspapers, found that at least 26 councils have logged across 34,000 acres or more. Some of the destroyed areas are delicate ecosystems inhabited by protected species like salmon, timber wolves, bald eagles and spotted owls.

According to the report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boy Scouts were engaging in other bad practices which contribute to soil erosion as well.

As much as I'm concerned about the endangered species, I'm more concerned about logging posing another problem: it promotes Global Warming. Instead of logging, the Boy Scouts should be raising money through more recycling, not by getting rid of tree.

The Boy Scouts always have marketed themselves on promoting good citizenship, something their heterosexist and anti atheist discrimination severely undercuts. Now, they are further eroding their credibility on the citizenship front by teaching boys to promote dangerous changes in the climate of our planet.

Please Sign Care2's Petition to Stop the Logging