Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 35


     
     1        are; there is nothing I can rely on.
     2
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  The over-riding point is this, as I see it at the
     4        moment, these figures are only of any relevance if the
     5        words in the pamphlet "it takes 800 square miles to provide
     6        McDonald's with their packaging annually", or whatever the
     7        words are, could conceivably in context be taken to mean
     8        that is the amount of sustainable forest that is needed to
     9        provide something like 13.6 squares mile of wood annually.
    10        It is only if it could mean that that it is of any
    11        significance whatsoever.
    12
    13        If we are right that it means that 800 square miles of
    14        trees (and it may be your Lordship will conclude rainforest
    15        trees) are cut down annually to provide McDonald's with
    16        their packaging, then this question of Mr. Thompson and the
    17        calculation which Mr. Mallinson has done has got nothing
    18        whatever to do with the case at all.  This particular gloss
    19         -- again I use the word Byzantine -- has only recently
    20        emerged.  It is nowhere to be found in any of the
    21        Defendants' pleadings or in their witness statements.  It
    22        is a late and somewhat ingenious after-thought to defend
    23        themselves against the words "800 square miles" or "it
    24        takes 800 square miles".  My Lord, if I decide that I am
    25        not afraid of that ingenuous after-thought, why, then it
    26        must be a matter for me whether I bother to call
    27        Mr. Thompson.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not doubt.  That it is entirely a matter
    30        for you who you call.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:  We did not manage to contact Mr. Hannon who was in
    33        the pleadings originally, but it may well be that had we
    34        contacted him, that was exactly how he worked out his
    35        figures.  I think that is probably what the leaflet may be
    36        based on.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, what he said was that it was necessary to
    39        cut down 315 square miles every year.  The actual figure
    40        worldwide on a rough estimate is something like 13.5.
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:  I do not think he said "cut down".
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I will show your Lordship the pleading.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think I have to go into that because
    47        we have not come to it yet.  I will have to wait and see
    48        what evidence the Defendants call in relation to this.
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  That is the point.  The original pleading which 
    51        was abandoned because the Defendants could not get 
    52        Mr. Hannon to provide any kind of evidence to support it 
    53        was:  "In 1972 Bruce Hannon, an engineer at the University
    54        of Illinois determined that 315 square miles of forest had
    55        to be cut down to keep McDonald's supplied with paper
    56        packaging for one year".
    57
    58   MS. STEEL:  Whether that was how Mr. Hannon originally worked
    59        out what he meant by 315 square miles is another matter.
    60        The point is that when he worked out his figures it may

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