In an invited paper delivered to the Institution of Structural Engineers on February 21 entitled ‘Engineering buildings for a small planet: Towards construction without depletion’, Michael Dickson stated ‘70% of our forests are already destroyed.
At the current rate of destruction they will have vanished by 2027′.
Mr Dickson is chairman of a successful firm of consulting engineers, a visiting professor at the University of Bath and chairman of the Construction Industry Council. Most structural engineers will have heard of Mr Dickson and regard him as a senior and authoritative member of the profession.
I have contributed a rebuttal of Mr Dickson’s statement to the discussion of the paper. This will be read out after Mr Dickson has given his paper and will then be published with other contributions to the discussion.
However, it occurs to me that members of the timber trade whose livelihood is damaged by ill-informed remarks might like to write to Mr Dickson at Buro Happold, Camden Mill, Lower Bristol Road, Bath BA2 3DQ.
Few structural engineers have any knowledge of timber supply and availability. I am sure that the journal of the Institution would welcome a paper from an expert tracing the supply of timber from seedling to timber merchant, covering environmental and certification issues, and availability of species and grades. This would reassure those engineers who are not using timber because they think to do so contributes to the destruction of forests.
