Handlung

E. F. Schumacher visits various sites in Australia; untouched forests, rivers, waterfalls and other natural wonders describing their beauty and vital contributions to the Austalian subcontinent and then visits sites of forest destruction and logging operations and asks the pertinent question: Isn't there another way to utilize nature's resources, without destroying them in the process?. He has already given many examples of better ways in his famous book: "Small Is Beautiful".

This film is a documentary of economist and ecologist E. F. Schumacher, author of the very influential book, "Small Is Beautiful". Schumacher was the Chief Advisor to the Coal Board of the Commonwealth of Great Britain for many years. During that time he became convinced that true economy was being railroaded by short-term interests. He saw the poor of the world being left out and the natural resources of the world being ransacked for the benefit of a very few. This film follows him through the forest regions of Australia, where he was visiting Barrie Oldfield and Richard Saint Barbe Baker, two great pioneers, in their own right, in the effort to build a more rational and sustainable relationship between man and nature.

The film portrays the vast difference between the potential of the forest and the wasteful and irreversible damage being done by poorly thought through forestry practices. His gift for describing the true nature of man's place in the world and the reasons that we are being so destructive are just awe inspiring. He was a true man of wisdom and this film captures him at his best.

The film visits wood processing plant, lumber mills and ongoing forest logging operations, as E. F. wanders amid the ruins of once great forests and comments on how unnecessary the methods are and how they are being driven by our fascination with the machines themselves, with out regard to the ultimate purpose of a forest and the fate of the planet. He points out the many unique varieties of trees found no where else in the world and the mundane uses some of these marvelous giants are being slaughtered for, as well as the unnatural conditions which are being imposed on these forest areas which had been producing vast resources for thousands of years. We can look at the state of Australia this year and see the results of the heedlessness with which this film was received!