ACTION
ALERT
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Help
Home Depot Live Up to Its Advertising
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
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Conservation
1/2/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Here is
the latest and greatest Action Alert from Rainforest Action
Network. You can send an email from their web site
at:
http://www.ran.org/info_center/aa/aa141.html
Or use
the sample letter and email address below.
Apparently a
decision
by Home Depot regarding their use of ancient forest timbers
is to
be issued shortly--so get off the emails!
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Help Home Depot live up to its advertising
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to
source
Date: December 1998
There
is a television commercial currently saturating the airwaves in
which
two actors posing as Home Depot employees rescue a family of
baby
ducks from a sewer drainpipe. This commercial is part of an
expensive
nationwide public relations campaign designed to convince
customers
that Home Depot is an environmental leader and a responsible
community
partner. Nothing could be further from the truth. Home
Depot's
continued buying and selling of old growth lumber and building
materials
is contributing to the destruction of the world's last great
ancient
forests.
Each
day, in over 700 stores across the US and Canada, Home Depot
sells
wood that has been derived from endangered forests in the
British
Columbia, the Amazon, and Southeast Asia. Home Depot sells
cedar
and hemlock from the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia,
one of
the largest intact temperate rainforests on Earth. Home Depot
also
offers for sale wood that has been ripped from the heart of the
Amazon
basin. Mahogany logging in the Amazon destroys or disrupts
whole
ecosystems, putting indigenous communities at risk, and
threatening
the rainforest's rich diversity of plants and animals.
Home
Depot sells doors made of this mahogany.
The
destruction doesn't stop there. Home Depot sells plywood and
paneling
made from lauan and ramin wood that has been taken from old
growth
forests in Southeast Asia. These forests are under such heavy
pressure
from logging that most experts estimate nearly all of the
remaining
old growth forests in Southeast Asia will be logged or
cleared
by the year 2010.
There
are certain barbaric practices that our society has outgrown. We
no
longer slaughter elephants for ivory, buy tuna that is not dolphin
free,
nor buy ashtrays made from gorilla paws. Now it is time to stop
the
destruction of the oldest living things on Earth - old growth
forests.
Old growth rainforests cover less than 2% of the earth's
surface,
yet they are home to nearly 50% of the planet's species. Old
growth
forests also store enormous amounts of carbon, approximately
433
billion tons (more than what will be released by fossil fuel
burning
over the next 69 years) and thus play a critical role in
maintaining
the world's climate. Finally, they are home to 500-million
forest-dependent
people, of which an estimated 200-million are
indigenous
and tribal people.
As a
powerful force in its industry, Home Depot can slow the pace of
rainforest
destruction by committing to stop selling products from old
growth
forests. Other industry leaders such as IBM, Hallmark, Kinko's,
Hewlett-Packard,
and others have already made this commitment, clearly
it is
time for Home Depot to do the same. Immediately.
What You Can Do!
Home
Depot announced that it will issue a statement around the new
year
that will outline its position regarding old growth wood sales.
Take
action! Write a letter today to Arthur Blank, Home Depot's
President
& CEO, and urge him to stop selling old growth wood.
His
address:
Arthur
Blank, President & CEO
Home
Depot, Inc.
2455
Paces Ferry Rd, N.W.
Atlanta,
GA 30339
phone
770.433.8211
fax
770.384.3040
email:sharon_holland@homedepot.com
Sample
Letter:
Mr.
Arthur Blank
CEO
Home
Depot, Inc.
2455
Paces Ferry Rd, N.W.
Atlanta,
GA 30339
Dear
Mr. Blank:
I am
writing to urge your company to stop selling wood from old growth
forests. It is simply unacceptable in this day and
age to buy and
sell
lumber that is made from our last remaining old growth trees. As
a
leader in its industry, Home Depot is in a unique position to slow
the
pace of rainforest destruction by ending the sale of old growth
wood in
all of your company's stores. Major industry leaders such as
Nike,
IBM, Hallmark, Kinko's and others have made the commitment to go
old
growth free - it's time for Home Depot to do the same.
I
understand that Home Depot is currently reviewing this matter, and
will
issue a policy statement with action points and a timeline in
near
future. Please make your decision a
strong one - continuing the
trade
in old growth wood will not be acceptable to the American public
in the
next century.
Please
tell me what you intend to do on this vital issue.
Sincerely,
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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document is for general distribution.
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accurate, timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for
verifying
all information rests with the reader.
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