Deforestation For The Trees

from the New Yorker

So committed is [Colin] Beavan to his claim of zero impact that he can’t—or won’t—see the deforestation for the trees.

Elizabeth Kolbert criticizes the gimmicks of self-important authors. "No Impact Man" quixotically seeks to abstain from environmental damage. But to Kolbert his quest is myopic, and she deftly flips a shopworn metaphor into an ecological call-to-arms.

Not seeing "the forest for the trees" describes a way of not noticing how separate incidents are part of a pattern. The challenge of the environmentalist is to seize upon a harmful pattern and condemn it ASAP, before more damage is done. So although it is impossible to "see deforestation," that is the figurative task of the environmental movement.