Revkin admits that at the age of 14, he wrote a "warning sign" that read something like: “Whoever chops down this tree will suffer a horrible death.”

2010:  Passions and Detachment in Journalism - NYTimes.com

[Revkin] My passion for environmental protection began around the age of 14, when I hiked into the small patch of woods and fields that remained untouched in the expanding suburban grid of streets and lawns around our home and discovered a bulldozer parked in a fresh-cut clearing near my favorite spruce tree. I placed a hand-lettered warning sign on the seat that read something like: “Whoever chops down this tree will suffer a horrible death.”