Watching the Winter Olympics on Sky is giving me jip. And it’s not because those Russian skaters got gold after a dodgy double salco. It’s because Nikon is sponsoring the Games, which means frequent showings of their advert labeling the timber trade as remorseless destroyers of the rainforests.
If you haven’t seen the ad, or our previous stories on it, it features ‘future moments’ that will be worthy of a snap with your Nikon. One such is entitled ‘the last rainforest’ and shows stacks of sawn timber. This would have been misleading enough if the latter had been tropical hardwood, but the fact that it was Baltic or Russian softwood demonstrated that the bone-heads behind the ad had even less of a clue – or conscience – about what they were doing.
I imagine most of us shared the disgust of the Timber Trade Federation (TTJ February 16) that the Independent Television Commission rejected its complaint about the advert. But despite this rebuff, we obviously must keep speaking out against this sort of disinformation, from whatever source. This week timber engineer Dr John Bellamy flags up another opportunity. He invites TTJ readers to put counter arguments to Buro Happold chairman Michael Dickson who said in a speech to the Institute of Structural Engineers that all the world’s forests will vanish by 2027 – not the sort of statement that will encourage people to rush out and specify wood.
As well as stating the timber industry case, of course, we must continue to tackle the few remaining rogue elements in the sector who gift its detractors their ammunition. Clearly the main thorn in the industry’s side is still illegal logging, the subject of a new report by the Royal Insititute of International Affairs.It may not be fair, but the bona fide trade must take a lead role and probably bear some of the cost in eradicating this problem. Then we really can tell Nikon where to stick its snaps.
