Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 07

     
     1        people depend on water flowing from these forests, which
              soak up rain and release it gradually.  The disaster in
     2        Ethiopia and Sudan is at least partly due to uncontrolled
              deforestation.  In Amazonia - where there are now about
     3        100,000 beef ranches - torrential rains sweep down through
              the treeless valleys, eroding the land and washing away
     4        the soil. The bare earth, baked by the tropical sun,
              becomes useless for agriculture.  It has been estimated
     5        that this destruction causes at least one species of
              animal, plant or insect to become extinct every few
     6        hours."
 
     7        McDonald's would join with me -- there will be evidence
              about this to some considerable extent later in the case
     8         -- in regretting that anything that is said in that box
              should be the case.  It does not, however, have anything
     9        whatever to do with McDonald's.
 
    10        Then the bold heading by the blob:  "Why is it wrong for
              McDonald's to destroy rainforests?"  The answer I give to
         your Lordship:  "It is not wrong from McDonald's to
              destroy rainforests because they do not and never have".
    12
              It continues:  "Around the Equator there is a lush green
    13        belt of incredibly beautiful tropical forest, untouched by
              human development for one hundred million years,
    14        supporting about half of all Earth's life-forms, including
              some 30,000 plant species, and producing a major part of
    15        the planet's crucial supply of oxygen."
 
    16        Heading "Pet Food & Litter".   Blob: "McDonald's and
              Burger King are two of the many US corporations using
    17        lethal poisons to destroy vast areas of Central American
              rainforest to create grazing pastures for cattle to be
    18        sent back to the States as burgers and pet food, and to
              provide fast-food packaging materials. (Don't be fooled by
    19        McDonald's saying they use recycled paper: only a tiny per
              cent of it is.  The truth is it takes 800 square miles of
    20        forest" - one might insert the word "rain" there  - "just
              to keep them supplied with paper for one year.  Tons of
         this end up littering the cities of  'developed'
              countries). "
    22
              My Lord, McDonald's have never owned any land anywhere in
    23        the world, leaving aside restaurants, offices, let alone
              in any central American rain forests.  They have never cut
    24        down, destroyed or poisoned a single rainforest tree.
              They have never imported any cattle or beef to the States
    25        for burgers or pet food, nor any trees from those areas to
              provide fast food packaging material. 
    26 
              Heading:  "Colonial invasion".  Blob:  "Not only are 
    27        McDonald's and many other corporations contributing to a
              major ecological  catastrophe", again a falsehood so far
    28        as McDonald's are concerned, "they are forcing the tribal
              peoples in the rainforests off their ancestral
    29        territories" - again completely false - "where they have
              lived peacefully, without damaging their environment, for
    30        thousands of years.  This is a typical example of the
              arrogance and viciousness of multinational companies", and