Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 22


     
     1        erosion would be part of the defamatory allegations and --
     2        well, that is linked to the becoming "useless for
     3        agriculture", as well.  "The bare earth, baked by the
     4        tropical sun, becomes useless for agriculture."
     5
     6        Then the next line:  "It has been estimated that this
     7        destruction causes at least one species of animal, plant or
     8        insect to become extinct every few hours".  So that is
     9        another distinct allegation about damage by diversity which
    10        McDonald's have not pleaded.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, my reaction is that they have really
    13        because they have --
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  Wanton damage.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Wanton damage to the environment and these
    18        are but illustrations of the nature of the wanton damage to
    19        the environment.
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  The next paragraph....  I am going to come
    22        back to meaning a bit later.  We are just going through the
    23        defamatory non-pleaded sections.  The next paragraph talks
    24        about tropical forests and talks about the planet's crucial
    25        supply of oxygen being affected.  That comes under wanton
    26        damage, I suppose.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:   As far as the next paragraph is concerned, we do
    31        not consider the reference to pet food and fast food
    32        packaging materials relevant to McDonald's in terms of that
    33        being a reason for destruction of rainforests.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, that might be said is where McDonald's
    36        get wanton in their meaning, because you might damage
    37        rainforest for various reasons.  If you cut down an acre of
    38        rainforest and build a hospital for people there, it might
    39        be said that is not wanton damage.  If you cut it down to
    40        make fast food packaging, it might be said it is wanton.
    41        So I think that probably goes back to it being wanton, you
    42        see.  That is the way I see it at the moment.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:   Well --
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you damage something beautiful for a
    47        trivial reason, it can be more easily said that it is
    48        wanton damage.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, but, I mean, all I am saying is that 
    51        obviously McDonald's do not produce pet food and that is 
    52        part of a sentence about what many US corporations are 
    53        doing in Central America, and I am saying that the
    54        McDonald's role would be with the burgers, whereas other
    55        corporations must be responsible for using materials from
    56        Central America for pet food and fast food packaging
    57        materials.
    58
    59        Under "colonial invasion", they have not complained about
    60        this, but the effective result of this economic activity is

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