"Trees are the lungs of this planet, our allies in the fight against carbon overloading. They are also living giants, vast natural edifices which we can admire for their longevity, poise, scale and beauty. Who doesn't recoil at the terrifying fact that simply vast areas of forest are being removed from the planet every year?
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And yet we all manage somehow to divorce our concern and sensibilities for the world's forests from our insatiable appetite for timber - as a building product, as garden furniture and even as a fuel. Trees are vibrant living organisms; wood is just a commodity. We think of the two, conveniently, as unrelated, in the way we divorce the piglet or calf from the plate of meat we had for lunch. This kind of separated thinking is very human and very common.
But we have to force ourselves to change and start thinking in a more coherent and responsible way. That's what this CD is for: to promote FSC approved timber, to support the sustainable management of world forests and of course to send out a message of respect to trees everywhere."
Kevin McCloud, November 2004
Kevin McCloud is best known as a design and architectural commentator, especially through his series, the hugely successful and twice BAFTA-nominated Grand Designs on Channel 4 (now commissioned through to 2006). But he also works as a product and lighting designer for high street retailers and British manufacturing firms. In addition he has written several books all around the subjects of design, decoration and lighting. Television credits include Grand Designs, Grand Designs Indoors, Grand Designs Abroad, the RIBA Stirling Prize (all Channel 4) and Don't Look Down (BBC2).
