Just like Chico Mendes, its about 'justice' and 'values'...
...putting our work into context and why we do it! We live at a time when scams are just too numerous and ever increasing. Corruption has spread its tentacles everywhere. It has affected every area of our lives... Do you think living by values and having integrity is a thing of the past?
'Intrinsic values' are associated with concern, and corresponding behaviour, about 'bigger-than-self'
problems. We now have 7 billion people on the Earth. There is an insatiable demand globally for ecological services. In future there will be even more people sharing fewer resources (food, water, wood, energy), so the sooner we make a start towards meeting our needs and live less wasteful lifestyles, the easier and more enjoyable the transition to responsible natural resource utilisation will be.
Justice not Charity-the material priorities of the poor!
Chico Mendes was a great Brazilian labour and community activist who environmentalists tend to remember as being motivated by his love of nature. In truth he had more basic concerns: helping miserably poor people eke out a better living in the forest. He was murdered by violent landlords - the local aristocracy - for his work, New York Times reporter, Andrew Revkin observed in his book, the Burning Season, that ,
His demands were for schools and jobs and health care, hardly a green agenda. This overlap with environmental preservation brought the union man to the attention of conservationists who shared his goal of preserving the rainforest, but for far different reasons.
Andrew Revkin
New York Times reporter
Lest We Forget
Ireland has the largest 'per capita' consumption of tropical wood in the EU
WOOD is one of the earth’s most versatile and probably most familiar natural raw material and the important role it plays in our daily lives often goes unnoticed. Each day hundreds of millions of people around the world derive their livelihoods working with wood. The quality of our lives has been greatly enhanced because of this wonderful resource.
ITS MYRIAD OF USES is staggering.
WOOD, in its easy to recognise natural state provides us with furniture, building components, musical instruments, sporting equipment, household utensils, etc. In its altered (processed) form its role is not so obvious, yet it is there, under the guise of paper, fabric, glue, alcohol, rubber, food medicine, etc.
AWARENESS + EDUCATION + ADVOCACY + POLICY = SUSTAINABILITY
Ringfort Workshop, Rathcobican, Rhode, Offaly, Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)86 8049389 | E-mail: info@tomroche.ie