Hello, lets save those trees
AN ALLIANCE of environmental groups have stepped up its campaign to get Pacific Telesis (parent company of the Pacific Bell Directory) to stop printing its phone books with paper made from ancient rainforests, by taking the issue before the company's shareholders.
Rainforests Action Network (RAN) along with two other shareholders, have jointly filed a resolution recently asking the company to switch from ancient rainforests to a more ecologically sound alternative.
"We are asking stockholders to vote for saving the last great North American rainforests. In today's de-regulated telephone markets, a vote for the environment is a vote for the company's bottomline," said Atossa Soltani of the Claycquot Rainforest Coalition. The coalition points to the fact that in 1995, more than 35,000 Pacific Bell customers have called or written to the company requesting it to stop felling trees from old -growth rainforests.
"We're telling shareholders that environmentally aware public in California will soon have a choice, and a controversy such as this could cost Pacific Bell its market share," said Soltani. Several cities including San Francisco, Marin, Berkeley and Santa Cruz have passed similar resolutions.
Pacific Bell purchases about 29,000 tonne of paper annually from MacMillan Bloedel - the biggest clearcutter of British Columbia's ancient rainforests and the main culprit logging the Clayoquot tracts. Although the recommendations of a recent scientific panel have meant a temporary repi ieve for Clavocluot, environmentalists seek permanent protection for the pristine region. Meanwhile, clearcutting continues unabated throughout British Columbia's 8.10 million ha of unprotected forests, where every 66 seconds, 0.405 ha (an acre) is clearcut. "US corporations which buy clearcut rainforest products are driving the destruction in British Columbia, and Could Well find themselves the subject of this controversy." said Kelly Quirke Of RAN.