values question

I just read this line:

See, I’m not the kind to tie myself to a tree and defy a lumberjack to chop me down from a limb.

Let's imagine just such a scenario. A radical environmentalist of the tree-hugging variety (don't get me wrong: I don't harbor enmity toward environmentalists as a whole, but I have little patience for extremists of any stripe) chains himself to the limb of a tree scheduled to be cut down. He's done this in the knowledge that the loggers need their livelihood, and that people somewhere need some sort of housing. He's chosen the tree over a certain subset of people.

Question: from that environmentalist's point of view, what would be the problem with the logger cutting the limb down and allowing the man to plummet toward possible injury or death? If the environmentalist is self-consistent, shouldn't he see the logger as a kindred spirit, i.e., as someone who is also willing to devalue a certain subset of humanity (a subset with only one member: the tree-hugger)?

If this isn't the environmentalist's point of view, what is his point of view? I can only imagine something hypocritical: he's playing on the idea that the logger will value human life more than he [i.e., the logger] values the tree; at the same time, the tree-hugger embraces the tree in such a way that he demonstrates his own preference for the tree over people.

The way I see it, self-consistency demands that the environmentalist harbor no resentment toward the logger at all. He and the logger each value the tree, though in different ways, but both are prepared to devalue each other. Right before the saw bites into that limb, the logger and tree-hugger should exchange a stoic look, each acknowledging the other's solemn commitment to his respective duty. They should then give each other a barely perceptible nod of mutual assent, and that's when the cutting begins. The tree-hugger has forfeited his right to cry, "I'm going to fall! Where is your compassion for people?" Because the logger can ask in return: "Where's yours?"


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