Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 37
1 no evidence, was there, that a larger area of forest might
2 have been wet if he had flown over it three months later.
3 I mean, that just was not touched on at all.
4
5 MR. MORRIS: Not really, but there was general evidence that,
6 you know, for example, large areas of Amazonian tropical
7 forest is seasonal and --
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: For all I know, that might mean that he flew
10 over it when the area was greater rather than lesser. That
11 is all I am asking.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Yes, that is true. I am not sure. Yes. Anyway,
14 it did seem to be a fairly unusual way of going about
15 things, if you were genuinely concerned on the subject.
16
17 Mr. Rampton has said that he is not really concerned with
18 seasonal forest, but if that is the position of the
19 McDonald's Corporation, that they are not concerned about
20 damage to seasonal tropical forest inside the Amazon area,
21 then that would say something about their credibility.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think he meant we were not concerned in
24 this case with it.
25
26 DEFENCE: Well --
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Not that his clients were not concerned.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: Well, if they are concerned about it, then it is
31 relevant to the case, because we are trying to define what
32 area --
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There are all sorts of interesting avenues of
35 dispute one could go down.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: There is nothing in the leaflet.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Fortunately I am restricted to this
40 leaflet.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: There is nothing in the leaflet that says we do
43 not include seasonal rainforest or tropical forest. I
44 don't understand where that came in except as a line to get
45 McDonald's off the hook in terms of destructiveness.
46
47 Now, I have got some.... I will have to sit down for a
48 minute.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, do. (Pause)
51
52 MR. MORRIS: In the plaintiffs' meanings, the last meaning, E,
53 under colonial invasion, not only are McDonald's and many
54 other corporations contributing to a major ecological
55 catastrophe, they are forcing the tribal peoples in the
56 rainforest off their ancestral territories, for a start,
57 that is two separate points.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I wondered if you were going to say
60 that. It is ecological and harming the tribal people?
