What you might not appreciate is that conifers, which grow and thrive all year alongside other evergreens, have played some surprising roles in U.S. history. Take the eastern white pine. It decorated the first coins minted in the British colonies. Spruce lumberjacks in the early 20th century, meanwhile, helped enshrine some key labor rights, including an eight-hour workday and overtime pay. These tales and more are highlighted by Trent Preszler, an environmental economist at Cornell University,
On Nov. 15,1969, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War. Also on this date: In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation. In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountain now known as Pikes Peak in present-day Colorado. In 1864, late in the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh (teh-KUM'-seh) Sherman began their March to the Sea from Atlanta;
Douglas J. MacEachin expressed a sense of melancholy during a 1988 Senate hearing, stating that the Soviet Union's existence was deeply tied to the global political outlook. He highlighted a critical concern for analysts: "If the Soviet Union disappears, what will become of those who made their careers analyzing it?" Such major geopolitical shifts posed not only a challenge to their worldviews but also to their professional relevance, as he remarked, "There are not many homes for old wizards of Armageddon."
History demonstrates that relying on ideology and intuition over rigorous economic analysis leads to disastrous outcomes, as evidenced by the concerns surrounding Trump’s tariff policy.