File this under “Why We’re Doomed”:

Woman charged with burning ‘The Senator’ says she did it ‘to use illegal drugs’

A woman on Tuesday was charged with setting a fire that burned The Senator, one of the world’s oldest cypress trees — and she told authorities she did it because she was wanted light to see the drugs she was doing, investigators said.

Two witnesses identified Sara Barnes, 26, as the person who set the fire, authorities said.

Barnes took photos of the flames with her cellphone and told one of the witnesses that she started it, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said.

“She did not call the Fire Department or 911 to report the fire,” said Sterling Ivey, an agriculture-department spokesman.

The tree, which had twigs and branches piled at the base, burned quickly.

“It’s a great fuel source,” Ivey said. “Unfortunately.”

Investigators searched Barnes’ apartment near Winter Park Tuesday and confiscated her cellphone and laptop computer. Authorities found methamphetamine, a glass pipe and other drug paraphernalia, they said.

[…]

The Senator, which stood at Big Tree Park north of Longwood, burned a little after 5:30 a.m. Jan. 16. Known as “The Big Tree,” it was thought to have been more than 3,500 years old. With a height of 118 feet and a diameter of nearly 18 feet, the tree was a tourist attraction long before Walt Disney World.

A tip to Crimeline Jan. 17 led to Barnes’ arrest. She is being held in the Seminole County Jail.

Another person was with Barnes when the interior of the tree was set on fire, Ivey said. That person has not been publicly identified or charged.

Seminole County will spend nearly $30,000 to install fencing at Big Tree Park near the site where The Senator stood, county commissioners decided today. The fence is designed to prevent someone from stealing the remains of the tree or damaging Lady Liberty, another cypress tree that is an estimated 2,000 years old.

So, we burn 3500 year old trees just to get a little light to see the speed we’re taking.

I keep saying that we’re going to burn all the forests just to feed our addictions - but I had in mind the addiction to cheap energy (now being served by burning coal.)

But I guess we’re going to burn the forests for other addictions too.